Return to Maldivia: Happy Ending or Anti-Climax?

Upper Jamestown Valley: Once the site of the Maldivia Gardens

Few of my blogs have attracted as much interest as those on Maldivia. With great anticipation and no little emotion I returned in January this year,

The upper Jamestown Valley: looking west

trying to imagine what those Maldivians who landed on St Helena in 1735 must have made of this place: a fertile valley in the shadow of rather threatening, barren rock, down which cattle were apparently once driven to be slaughtered.

I also went to work in the archives, trying to unlock the mystery of the Maldivians who according to legend created the beautiful gardens named after them. Failing to find any trace of them in registers of births or deaths, and on the verge of giving up, I found in Letters to England 1727-1737 the letter of 31st April 1735 from which the original printed extract compiled by Governor Janisch had come. The letter recorded the arrival of the Drake from Bengal under the command of Captain Pelly, then reported the arrival of the seven Maldivians,

Extract from letter to England, 31st April 1735

but contained a couple of lines which Janisch had omitted.

Captn Pelly at the distance of 150 Leagues from Land took up a Boat with Ten Blacks in her belonging to of the Maldivee Islands called who were drove out to sea & near perishing having no more Provisions or Water left when he see them than about Ten pounds of Rice & Three Gallons of Water three of the Ten died on board the other Seven Vizt. 5 men one boy & one Woman he hath left here & wee shall keep them at Work for their Living till we hear from Honours how they Shall be sent back to their own Country ..

The subsequent letter of 5th July 1735 complained of a lack of labour on the island:

.. wee have not had any Slaves from the West Coast & you have but forty one Working Blacks of Your own and the few we get of the Inhabitants at the low rate of 9d a day are not sufficient .. we have Weakened Ouselves by frequent Draughts of Blacks Sent to Bencoolen in & since the time of Govr. Johnson ..

Then, and surprisingly in view of this, it concluded:

Wee desire your Honours will give us directions how we shall Send those Blacks to their own Country whom Capt. Pelly miraculously Saved at Sea they belong to the Maldive Islands & are Seven in Number.

In view of the great shortage of labout on the island I assumed that that was the last that would be heard of the matter, and then I came across the letter of 16th April 1736.

The Blacks Capt. Pelly left here desire to return to their native Country & Capt. Crompton carried them to Bencolen wee treated them well & they seem highly pleased with their kind Usage which we hope will be of service to such of our Countrymen who trade among them.

So the Honourable East India Company for once acted in keeping with its name, and the Maldivians were presumably returned to the Maldive Islands. What a story they must have been able to tell when they eventually got there.

In reflecting on this saga I have to say in my defence that as far as I know nobody else has ever suggested that the Maldivians were returned to their own country. One of the leading inhabitants on St Helena who is very knowledgeable about the history of the island told me that his understanding was they had not lived very long after their arrival on St Helena. It also strikes me that we have no documentary evidence that they actually created what came to be known as the Maldivia Gardens (usually spelt in the archives as Maldavia incidentally), but we must assume that the name is proof enough. Quite how much impact seven people would have made in no more than a year is difficult to judge, but I would doubt if you could create a garden in such a short space of time. Anyway the name remains, and those seven have left a permanent imprint on the island.

I am left with strange and very mixed feelings about this whole business. Had Governor Janisch printed the whole extract it is unlikely that I would have ever made some good friends on the Maldive Islands, but neither would I have appeared on television spouting what I can now only describe as utter nonsense! Apologies are definitely in order.

Maldivia House and the Rather Confusing Bennetts of St Helena

Maldivia 1 st. 3 bay x 2 house with verandahs, Early timber gable infill under deeply C.19 projecting eaves, North, back additions and 2 st. cottage. Tall windows sashed. Front doorcase and verandahs later. All in extensive garden. - St Helena Govt. Report
This beautiful house is situated in what was once Maldivia Gardens, from which it takes its name. Blundens and Villa le Breton also lie within the boundaries of the original gardens.

An earlier house stood on this site, originally named Concord, but changed in 1735, presumably when the Maldivians arrived.

The present house was built in the early nineteenth century, and during the occupation of Napoleon was the home of Major Hodson, nicknamed "Hercules" by Napoleon, and son in law of Sir William Doveton.

On the arrival of Napoleon members of the Council of St Helena adjourned from Jamestown to Maldivia House to consider the implications of the takeover of the island from the East India Company by the British Crown.

Napoleon himself visited the house in November 1815. Major Hodson was present at the funeral and the exhumation of Napoleon. He died in Bath in 1858.

Later in the nineteenth century Maldivia was the home of Lady Ross (nee Eliza Bennett), widow of the former Governor of St Helena, Sir Patrick Ross. Lady Ross died at Maldivia in 1890.

Some time thereafter it was bought by Eliza LLoyd (nee Eliza Mary Bennett), no relation to the aforesaid Eliza Bennett.

Eliza Mary Bennett was born in St Helena in 1857, the daughter of a clergyman on the island, the Rev George Bennett. This Bennett family returned to the UK in 1881 and at the age of 28 Eliza married 65 year old Thomas Edward LLoyd. She was widowed in 1909, and sometime thereafter purchased Maldivia House, and used to spend the English winters there until the second world war.

She died in 1947 and left the house to the Government of St Helena, in whose hands it has remained. In accordance with her wishes it is now used to house the chief medical officer on the island.

My thanks to James Phillips Evans for supplying information about the Bennett connection.

Maldivia Gardens

My original blog about Maldivia, St Helena, has over the years attracted a lot of interest in the Maldive Islands, but I have never before been able to provide a photograph of the location of the gardens. John Grimshaw has kindly sent this photo of the place in the upper Jamestown Valley where he thinks the Maldivian Gardens were situated: he thinks it is the area around the tree enclosed detached house. If anyone can confirm or counter this please let us know. [ Regrettably this is a photo of Palm Lodge not Maldivia Gardens! See comment below. Palm Lodge was in the nineteenth century the home of the St Helena born Governor Hudson Ralph Janisch who was not allowed to reside in Plantation House ]

In January my wife and I managed to get back to the Maldives and on our last evening were very pleased to meet up with our friend Naz. She had arranged a memorable evening for us: a private launch to Bandos island to be greeted by the proprietor;



a fine meal on Bandos with Naz and a number of her family; an exciting after dark return in the launch to Hulhule island; an interview for a local television station.

The television interview made me realise once more how little we know about those Maldivians picked up by Captain Polly in 1735. There must be some information about them hidden in the archives at Jamestown, but archives will not show us how they thought or felt about their fate. Their initial relief at being saved from death (three of their party had died before they were picked up) must surely have given way to a great sadness when they realised that they would never see home nor loved ones again. What one knows about the treatment of slaves and free blacks on St Helena does not provide much confidence in their lot, but then again perhaps the lives of ordinary people in the Maldives would have been equally hard at that time. These seem to me to be issues for the novelist rather than the historian: an authentic treatment of the experiences of the St Helena Maldivians demands the talents of a creative writer steeped in the culture of the eighteenth century Maldives, ready and able to visit St Helena and to research its very different social life and culture. Naz could do the job, but she is very busy!

Amidst these ruminations I have also come across a further couple of references to Maldivia Gardens from Janisch's records which I will now reproduce:

Feb. 25, 1745.—Gov. complains that some Melons sown in the Maldivee Garden and Mr. Dixon had appropriated them. I could enumerate many instances of his little insults and slights shewn to me which are not worth notice, but one I cannot omit because it is an act of injustice as well as an affront. A superannuated Negro Gardener belonging to the Company had sown some Melon seeds in the Maldivee Gardens where they produced in much greater perfection than any I have seen upon this Island. The Melons Mr. Dixon has taken on him to dispose of at his pleasure as his own without even ever mentioning them to me except that he was pleased in his generosity twice to send me one. At the first I could not help laughing and at the second to countenance the farce gave his servant one of Comps. blacks a piece of money. Those Melons of right belonged to the Table.

One of the issues that has been raised in the past is whether the Maldivians were slaves or free blacks. If the gardener mentioned in this passage was a Maldivian then the fact that he belonged to the Company indicates he was not free.


Sept. 22, 1794.—The Maldivia Gardens to be let—the best watered and fenced in of any on the Island,—to be subject to quit rent 5/ per an. and ground rent equivalent to the value of the Yam, Fruit and vegetables supplied from time immemorial therefrom for the Lt.-Governor.

By this date even the child who had arrived on St Helena in 1735 would if alive have been past working age. Whether he or any of the other Maldivians had any descendants is a question I have often been asked but am unable to answer.

Maldivia - a Final Comment?

We were pleased to entertain most of Manchester's small Maldivian community to an "English tea" (Norwegian style) just before the start of Ramadan.


Then we showed our visitors our slides of St Helena, and tried to imagine how the Maldivians who arrived on St. Helena in 1735 must have felt when they first saw the dark rock that was to be their home for the rest of their lives.




So different from the islands they had been used to.



In preparation for the visit I had looked again at the books purchased on St. Helena. From these I gleaned two things I had forgotten. Firstly, I was not the originator of the term "slaves" to describe the Maldivians who were taken to St. Helena in 1735. I am very glad about that. The book (reproduced below) indicates that slaves were brought to St Helena from West Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Madagascar, and "elsewhere as opportunity offered, as in 1735 when a group of natives of the Maldives Islands were found drifting in a boat in the Indian Ocean .. (1)



Whether this book is right or wrong about the actual status of the Maldivians is another matter. Either way it is hardly an episode of which an Englishman can be proud.

Secondly, and I should have remembered this, Maldivia Gardens was near to the current hospital. The area we stayed in, although known as Maldivia, is further up the Jamestown valley. It is shown on the map below as the residence of Major Hodson. His house still exists and, as mentioned in my original Maldivia blog, was visited once by Napoleon when he was staying at the Briars. (2)


Despite walking and driving past many times, we never took a single photo of the area, and so we were unable to show our Maldivian guests what Maldivia Gardens looks like today. The source shown above indicates that the gardens still exist, and are tended in a series of patches which include places like Molly's Flat. (3)

Perhaps a kind Frenchman would post some pictures on his blog - which incidentally is the best place I know to find photographs of the stunning scenery of St. Helena as well as the historical sites!

Postscript

See latest post on Maldivia, 12 April 2013 which provides important new information on the Madivians taken to St Helena.

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1. St Helena - 500 Years of History 1502-2002 Quincentenary , Designed and published by Anchor Marine and associates, 2002, p.7 The book also has an apt comment about the approach to the island: one's first impression is of a grim and inhospitable volcanic island, belying the lush interior and friendly warmth of the people .

2. The map is one produced by Lieutenant R.P. Read, and published in London in 1815. It may be found in St. Helena Then and Now directed by Michel Dancoisne-Martineau, published by the Education Department St Helena, 2007. (ISBN 978-0620-39149-8)

3. St Helena 500 years of History

The Maldives Comes to Manchester

A great night in the Punjab Restaurant in Manchester's Curry Mile. Our first visit to this particular restaurant, and we liked it very much.




A lot of talk. A lot of laughter. A lot of photographs.



Virtually the whole of the local Maldivian community was there.




It was a privilege for us to meet such an interesting and friendly group of people, and I think we learned far more about the Maldives than we did on our three visits there as tourists. I also learned a little about the movement of the currents in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic!

Whether they learned anything about St. Helena from me is I think a moot point!

Our particular thanks to the amazing Aisha for having organised the event.

Maldivia - an Update

I have now gone over my original sources for the comment I made about the origins of the term Maldivia. I am afraid I have to admit an error. I think that the mention of the word "slaves" in the context of Maldivians was almost certainly my mistake. I suspect that the Maldivians were classified as "free blacks". My apologies for this, and for any upset it may have caused. I have added a comment to the original blog.

The source of my comments was Janisch's book on the St Helena records

now available online. I wish I had given the reference in my original blog. These records are well worth perusing for anyone who wishes to learn more about St Helena's history. The introduction is very apt:

Probably there are no Records of other British settlements more interesting or saddening than those which are to be found in these pages. Amongst the many incidents of the early days of the Island's history, herein recapitulated, several will be found to be highly ludicrous and entertaining, while some are revolting in the extreme.

The bits on Maldivia I found there are as follows:

[1735]
March 17.—Capt. Polly of the Drake at the distance of 150 leagues from land took up a Boat with ten Blacks of the Maldive Islands who were drove out to Sea and near perishing—three died on board, 5 Men, 1 woman and 1 boy landed here.
[Note.—The Maldivia Gardens, then a Government Plantation, derived their name from the employment of these men therein.]

22nd March 1742 —Major Thomas Lambert arrived and proclaimed Governor.
6th April—The property called " The Maldives" turned into a Hospital.

Maldivia St Helena Revisited.

Another email, this time from Aishath Naaz, a clinical psychologist from the Maldives and a member of the Maldives 1st Human Rights Commission, who is currently living in Manchester where she is studying for a PhD.

Your Blog Reflections on a Journey to St. Helena, I think has caught the attention of every Maldivian who has access to internet. The article written by you on, Thursday, February 14, 2008 Maldivia, St. Helena has caught our attention and it has touched many in a very special way.

We never knew that our people were captured and taken as slaves, and something moved me to tears reading about these 10 people ( From the Jamestown Records) who were then made to work on these plantations. Our history is buried in mystery, may be even the fates of these people but after 256 years we suddenly, through your blog came to know that these people from our country settled elsewhere and lived and died as slaves.Yet, they left behind the name"MALDIVIA' perhaps so that one day ......that is today we would come to know some of our people lived and died...in this spot.
I am very interested in finding even the smallest clue on what happened to these people,...any more details ...any possibility of finding any thing more about what happened to these people.
I would be very grateful if you can give your response.

Aishath has supplied a link to the Dhivehi Observer;
there is also a link to Aishath's blog, which deals with issues of real substance, and makes my efforts seem rather trivial and inconsequential.

I can understand why she and other Maldivians are so touched by this. Surprising perhaps that it has taken so long for them to find out about it. One more indication of the tremendous power of the internet. I just wish I had more information that I could pass on. If anyone can add anything to this story please let me or Aishath know.

Dueling on St. Helena - what happened at Chubbs Spring on March 20th 1809

Time to get back to the Judicial records. 1809 is proving more interesting than 1808.

Currently I am working on a murder charge - resulting from a duel at Chubbs Spring, in the upper Jamestown Valley on March 20th 1809.

In the duel Lieutenant Robert Wright killed Lieutenant Stephen Young. The affair was over the trivial matter of an exchange of duty. Lieutenant Wright claimed that he and Young were good friends.

Lieutenant Wright and the two seconds, Lieutenant Francis Seale and Lieutenant Onesiphorus Beale, were each charged with murder.

A witness, a plumber called Bowman/Boorman?, who observed the whole affair from the road above the Spring, went down to the banks of the run where Young lay dying, and in Court gave this account :

Mr Wright came near to the deceased Lieut Young, & said O Young I am sorry you did not know better, you knew what I was before. Mr Seale & Mr Beale during the time they were there raved about like Madmen & apparently much affected at what had happened

According to the same witness, Seale and Wright wanted to leave the body with him and go into The Talby? Not sure if I have transcribed that correctly. I have assumed it was a hostelry.

At the trial William Webber Doveton and Robert Leech were unable to act as Justices because they knew at least one defendant. The Coroner had to act for the Sheriff, because the latter was related to one of the defendants. The names of the Jury were drawn from a hat in which 33 slips of paper had been put, and a number of them were disqualified for affinity or other reasons.

Lieutenant John Barnes acted as the counsel for the defendants. He did a good job, with much quotation from law books. The defendants were acquitted. All three were still serving during the captivity, and by that time had been promoted to the rank of Captain. Robert Wright retired in 1818.

Deciphering the case is proving quite a challenge - by the time I have finished I may have to delve into Blackstone and maybe other legal books to help me unravel some of the illegible words! I will be asking Michel for double payment - in gold bars or Swiss Francs the way the world economy is going!

How prevalent was dueling on St. Helena?

According to the witness already mentioned, Lieutenant Wright said immediately after the shooting that dueling was made too trifling of in S. Helena.

In his evidence at the trial Wright indicated that as an army officer he had no choice but to respond to the challenge of the deceased; he would have lost the respect of his fellow officers:

particularly amongst Military Men would cast upon my conduct should I decline consenting to Lieut Youngs wish for a personal interview, I was unavoidably compelled to agree to it. Chubbs spring was the place we agreed

Lieutenant Beale gave the same view:

That I became a second in the affair, the principles of religion and moral obligation may impute blame to me for – but the customary laws of honor in these cases have so arbitrarily disposed of Men in my profession, that it is impossible for me to have refused acting as I did, my conscience satisfies me that I did all in my power to prevent extremities, & that fatal as the wound was, the particulars were without advantage on either side.

The past is indeed another country. Those who have studied the events at Longwood know that at one point relations became so tense that General Gourgaud challenged Count Montholon to a duel, which happily Napoleon managed to prevent. This affair is usually the subject of derision, particularly at Gourgaud's expense. It ought perhaps to be viewed through the eyes of an early nineteenth century officer and gentleman.

The end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth however was the golden age of the duel. - according to the following article, which has some useful general information on dueling, not just on pistols. The article suggests that an officer who refused a challenge would have no choice but to leave his regiment.
British Duelling Pistols

Below I have put details of some major contemporary duels, with some suprising combatants, most of whom were engaged in one way or another in the wars against Napoleon.

Famous Duels in Early Nineteenth Century

In 1898 William Pitt then Prime Minister, challenged an Irish MP, Tierney, to a duel after the latter had criticised Pitt's plans to increase the navy in the House of Commons. Henry Addington, the Speaker of the British Parliament, attended as a witness. Both men missed.

Aaron Burr, Vice president of the United States, killed Alexander Hamilton, former Secretary of the Treasury, in a duel in July 1804. Although indicted for murder Burr was never tried; he completed his term of office as Vice President.

September 1809, Lord Castlereagh Secretary for War, and later architect of the coalition which defeated Napoleon, fought duel with George Canning. Castlereagh lightly wounded his opponent in the left leg. Both resigned from the Cabinet; Spencer Perceval became next Prime Minister instead of Canning; Perceval was assassinated in 1812. Castlereagh committed suicide in 1822. Canning became Prime Minister briefly before his death in 1827.

Duke of Wellington, Prime Minister, aged 61 and the Earl of Winchelsea, met on Battersea Fields, March 21, 1829. Both fired wide. Wellington was mocked for this behaviour which was not considered appropriate for a Prime Minister.

Maldivia to Francis Plain, St Helena

Today we have decided to take a walk that has been recommended to us, to St Francis Plain.

St. Francis Plain is the site of St. Helena's only Secondary School, the Prince Andrew Community High School.(1)

It is also the site of the island's only sports field.



We climb up from Maldivia, to the track marked as the Barnes Road.







Past the turning to the Briars - and the scary animal like noise which turns out to be water choking as it comes out of a pipe.


Next a sign by the local land-owner warning us not to trespass: if we do, he will not be liable for any damages that might occur to us from falling rocks. Just what we want to hear!

We do not trespass, but look nervously at the rocks above us.



We climb on a narrow donkey track up the side of the mountain. Not a walk to be done in the dark or in bad weather. Looking back there are good views of Upper James Valley and the Briars.










We soon reach Francis Plain and are glad of a rest and some refreshments.

We are persuaded by a Saint we meet that we really should complete the circuit and take the road back to Jamestown via Half Tree Hollow and Jacobs Ladder.

On our way we start talking to some boys leaving school. They clamber up a hillside track to reach the road above, and we follow them.




On to Jacobs Ladder. I don't like the look of the almost vertical 699 step drop down to Jamestown, so I take the road!

Finally, a welcome and well deserved drink in Donny's down on the wharf.

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Notes

1. Education is free and compulsory for the years 5-15. There are three First Schools on the island, catering for ages 4+ to 7(also nursery education 5 mornings a week for children 3 to 4 years) and three Middle Schools which cater for ages 7+ to 11.
The costs of education are decreasing because of a declining population. The costs of health care are increasing very fast, partly because of an aging population, and partly because of increasing off-island referrals. More than 15% of the population is on income-support related benefits. 55% of the workforce is in the public sector.

Maldivia, St. Helena

Here is the very pleasant and peaceful place where we stayed.

It is in Maldivia, situated in the Upper Jamestown valley.  The area is named after slaves from the Maldives who worked in the gardens, then a Government Plantation, after they arrived on the island in 1735.

March 17.—Capt. Pelly of the Drake at the distance of 150 leagues from land took up a Boat with ten Blacks of the Maldive Islands who were drove out to Sea and near perishing—three died on board, 5 Men, 1 woman and 1 boy landed here.

(From the Jamestown Records)

It is about a mile from Jamestown to Maldivia, and a similar distance from Maldivia to the Briars, but a much harder climb.

What we had not realised was that we were very close to one of the few private houses that Napoleon ever visited on the island - Maldivia House, then the home of Major Charles Robert George Hodson ( 1779-1858). He was over 6 foot tall, and Napoleon nicknamed him "Hercules".

Napoleon's visit came on the evening of Sir George Cockburn's Ball, on November 20th 1815. Having spotted the house in the valley below when accompanying the Balcombes' carriage as it left the Briars for the ball, he descended and was welcomed in by Major Hodson. Apparently Napoleon characteristically "tweaked the nose" of Major Hodson's young son. Major Hodson lent Napoleon's party some horses for the return journey to the Briars. Napoleon in return invited him and his wife for dinner at Longwood on January 4th 1816. Hodson attended Napoleon's funeral, and also the exhumation in 1840. He died at Bath in 1858.

Below is a view of the upper Jamestown Valley from the track that Napoleon would have used.

Above is a view looking out to Jamestown and the sea from the modern road above the Upper Jamestown Valley.

Finally it should be noted that King Dinuzulu also spent some time at Maldivia during his period of exile in the 1890's. He seems to have enjoyed his period of exile more than Napoleon, and apparently his granddaughter still lives on the island. 

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=318113&area=/insight/insight__escape/

IMPORTANT: Please read the blog on 12 April 2013 for an update on Maldivia