Michel's blog has photos of the protest march on St Helena yesterday (16th April). It has been triggered by the imposition of a new 20% tariff on all imports. This is on top of already very high freight charges, increases in electricity and water charges, and a new regressive tax system.
The St Helena Independent is always a useful source of information on such matters, and the editorial by Mike Olson, published the day before the protest march, did not disappoint:
The demonstration tomorrow will be interesting. During my 15 years on the Island, I have never before seen so many angry people. People from all walks of life are strongly reacting against the imposed ‘tax reforms’ electricity and water increases and increases in anything else the Government can come up with to take your money.
St Helena has got three full-time farmers, about eight full time fishing boats and 10 Directors in Government. Who will pay for all the new Directors? It is absolutely ridiculous that we have 100’s of people counting and writing reports about what a handful people are doing.
.. is it really fair that people on lower incomes should pay for a few high paid bureaucrats through huge increases in duty on your children’s baby milk and nappies. The unfortunate fact is that we have dozens of people from overseas making tax benefits of between £50,000 and £100,000 per year together and they never actually use their own money. They pay their living from the generous tax-free allowances. Their handsome tax-cuts YOU have to pay for. The system is despicable and is not fit for any place in the world with any social ambitions. taking the people into account.
The full editorial is well worth reading by anyone who cares about the island and its people.
A couple of letters published in the same edition of The Independent cannot help but make you wonder just what is going on.
Who Is Getting All The Subsidies?
Last week a letter was published from Cllr Buckley setting out grant expenditure for 2010/11. In order to prevent further speculation, we the undersigned wish to make it clear that none of the £6,000 apparently granted for coffee production was granted to us.
Yours faithfully
Mr Bill Bolton
Mr Stephen Biggs
Mr Brian Beard
Rosemary
With regards to the letter from Councillor Rodney Buckley on the amount of money that was ploughed into the farming industry in the past financial year- £204,682 to be exact! Well as one of the farmers on the Island I got nothing from this money!
But I am wondering who did?
Sincerely
Farmer – Western side!
Reading information like this it is difficult to feel much optimism about the future of the island, and it certainly does not inspire much confidence in the ability of the St Helena Government to manage the massive airport project.
General Hon. Robert Meade (1772 - 1852).
He was the second son of a wealthy Northern Irish family: his father John Meade became the 1st Earl of Clanwilliam and his mother Theodosia Magill was an heiress from County Down.
He was badly wounded and lost an eye in the battle of Rosetta ( 1807) in which the British were defeated by the Turks.
He later served as Lieutenant-Governor of the Settlement of the Cape of Good Hope, 1912-1916.
On his return from the Cape in September 1816 he and his wife, as was common in those days, stopped off on St Helena. (1)
Whilst on the island the General visited Longwood with Hudson Lowe, presumably in the hope of catching a glimpse of the famous captive, and was spotted by Napoleon, always alert to the appearance of an unfamiliar senior officer. Dr O'Meara, who apparently had served under Meade in Egypt, spoke very highly of him to Napoleon. O'Meara gave a detailed account of the incident and its aftermath:
"That governor," said he [Napoleon], "was seen stopping him frequently and pointing in different directions. I suppose that he has been filling bis head with bugie about me, and has told him that I hate the sight of every Englishman, as some of his canaille have said to the officers of the 53d. I shall order a letter to be written to tell him that I will see him."
8th. -- A letter written by Count Montholon to General Meade, containing an invitation to come to Longwood, and stating that the emperor would be glad to see him. This was given to Captain Poppleton, who was also requested to inform Mrs.Meade, that Napoleon could scarcely request a lady to visit him; but that, if she came, he should be happy to see her likewise. Captain Poppleton delivered this letter open to Sir Hudson Lowe. His excellency handed the note to General Meade. On the road down to James Town, General Meade reigned back his horse, and spoke to Captain Poppleton nearly as follows, that he should have been very happy to have availed himself of the invitation, but that he understood restrictions existed, and that he must apply to the governor for permission, and in the next place, the vessel was under weigh, and he could not well detain her. This he begged of him to convey to Longwood. A written apology was afterwards sent by him to the count, expressing his thanks for the honour done to him, and excusing him self on the ground of the vessel's being under weigh. (2)
On September 10th Dr. O'Meara had an interview with Sir Hudson Lowe who asked if General Bonaparte had made any comment about General Meade turning down the invitation. On being told that Napoleon was convinced that Sir Hudson had prevented the General from accepting and that O'Meara had been asked to convey this opinion to Lowe, the latter flew into one of those rages familiar to readers of Gorrequer's diaries: "he is a d— — d lying rascal, a d— — d black-hearted villain. I wished General Meade to accept it, and told him to do so." He then walked about for a few minutes in an agitated manner, repeating "that none but a black- hearted villain would have entertained such an idea;" then mounted his horse, and rode away. He had not proceeded more than about a hundred paces, when he wheeled round, rode back to where I was standing, and said in a very angry manner, "Tell General Bonaparte that the assertion that I prevented General Meade from going to see him, è una bugia infame, e che è un bugiardone che l' ha dette. Tell him my exact words."
(3)
O'Meara commented, "It is almost unnecessary for me to say, that I did not deliver tbe message in the manner I was directed to convey it." (4)
I found this an interesting episode, indicative of the state of relations between Napoleon and Lowe only a few months after the latter had arrived on the island.
My thanks to a descendant of General Meade whose email inspired this post and kindly supplied the photo of the painting, and also yet again to Albert Benhamou for his assistance in verifying and expanding on the information I was sent.
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1. Robert's wife Anne Louise was the daughter of Sir John Dalling, Governor of Jamaica and later Commander in Chief at Madras. They had eight children: two sons, Robert and John, and six daughters, Adelaide, Catherine, Anne, Theodosia, Edine and Caroline. Robert died young in a riding accident. John's son and the General's grandson John Percy Meade, later inherited the Earsham Hall Estate in Norfolk from the Dalling family. The General himself had apparently rented the Norfolk estate, although he had also inherited property in Ireland from his mother.
2. O'Meara, Napoleon In Exile or A Voice from St Helena Vol 1 (London 1822) pp 72-74
3. O'Meara translated the Italian as "is an infamous lie, and the person who said it is a great liar." A pedant might have pointed out that expressing an opinion that might have been wrong does not make a man a liar!
4. O'Meara p. 75
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.
MONTHOLON, Charles Tristan, Comte de (1783-1853), despite the departure of his wife Albine, he remained with Napoleon until his death and was, the servants apart, the only resident of Longwood House to do so.
Nowadays he is the prime suspect for poisoning Napoleon among those who subscribe to that theory.
For Gorrequer he was simply "Veritas", suggesting that he was plausible but also that what he said should not perhaps always be taken at face value.
LOWE, Susan DeLancey, Lady (1781-1832). The widow of Colonel William Johnson who died in battle in 1811, she had two teenage daughters, Susanna and Charlotte, of whose beauty she was very proud. Her father was Colonel Stephen DeLancey, a New York Loyalist who had moved to England after the American Revolution. With that background it is hardly suprising that she disliked Napoleon and all he was deemed to stand for.
Susan Johnson had married Sir Hudson shortly before they came to St Helena. For Lowe, who was over 10 years older (he was the same age as Napoleon) it was the first experience of matrimony, although he had had a mistress in Genoa who bore him two children.
Unfortunately there do not seem to be any images available of Lady Lowe, so we shall have to make do with a verbal picture given by Sir Henry Russell: "a large, showy-looking woman of about forty, who has been handsome, with an air of fashion about her, but who is too highly rouged and too décolletée."
(1)
To Gorrequer she was "Sultana": a lady who considered herself at the apex of St Helena society, was never shy of voicing her opinions, and made life difficult for most of those who shared Plantation House with her, including Sir Hudson Lowe and most certainly Gideon Gorrequer. According to Russell again: " [she] had a great deal to say and very little reserve in saying it". (2)
Apparently whilst on St Helena she took to the bottle, which in the circumstances is perhaps understandable, and there were rumours also of a lover, Captain Den Taaf, although one gets the impression that not to be suspected of having a lover might almost have been considered an insult on the island at that time.
Lady Lowe of course never met Napoleon, although towards the end of Napoleon's life she had some limited social contacts with Mme Bertrand.
Anyway, on re-reading Gorrequer's diary I was struck by the following revealing entry, made after the death of Napoleon when there was a degree of amity between the residents of Longwood and those of Plantation House.
"Sultana boasted that Veritas [Montholon] had told her that our Neighbour [Napoleon] was once prepared and dressed on purpose to go out and meet her, when she went up in consequence of Veritas having promised her at the races to show her the grounds."
Lady Lowe blamed the orderly officer and then the Bertrands (particularly Madame Shrug as Gorrequer referred to her) for not telling Montholon that she had arrived and thus depriving her of the opportunity to meet their neighbour:
".. Veritas said that had he known she was there, he would have gone immediately to receive her and procure her a sight of Neighbour. That he added had she seen and conversed with him, she would easily have brought about everything and restored a good understanding between Mach and him. In fact her meeting Neighbour was all that was wanted .
The idea of Lady Lowe as a peacemaker is shall we say an interesting one. Perhaps Montholon really believed it, but he was not finished.
Veritas told her also that Neighbour had been looking at Cadetta [Lady Lowe's daughter] through the window, and admired her much, saying she was very pretty (all this was said before Cadetta). She believed she said that Madam Shrug prevented her meeting Neighbour for fear she might supplant her. She was jealous of her being introduced to him, and feared he would be making a present to herself and figli, which would be depriving Madame Shrug and her figli of them. It was in fact her apprehension that Sultana would put her (Mme Shrug) nose out of joint. Veritas had begged her permission to send her presents from Paris, bonnets etc., and pressed her to pay them a visit at Paris, and to consider him entirely at her commands for any commission she might desire to have executed there.
Then came Montholon's coup de grace:
That he said that he understood Mach was to go out as Governor General to India, and that he thought it very likely etc. This made Mach cock up his ears, and a suffusion of self complacency and consciousness of meriting it spread over his countenance, and he appeared quite delighted at the prospect. "
Quite how Montholon would have been privy to British Government thinking on colonial appointments is far from clear, but the gullible Sir Hudson, never to get another post of similar standing to that held on St Helena, was all too ready to believe him.
Gorrequer concluded with a comment about the inconsistencies of Lady Lowe:
Sultana was quite in rapture at Veritas' politeness, he was so pleasant, so amiable, so clever and gentlemanly, after all the abuse she had so frequently lavished on him!!(3)
Gorrequer's diary is full of such gems. Had he been prepared to tidy it up and publish it in his lifetime he would have made a fortune, at a cost probably of time and money spent in the Law Courts and of being outcast from polite society.
I often think what a pity it was that that distinguished scholar of the captivity, Arnold Chaplin was never able to get his hands on the diary. He knew about its existence and in A St Helena Who's Who quoted extracts from the judgement in the Court of Chancery which at that time prevented anyone from reading it. He concluded that it was doubtful that its contents would ever be revealed. (4) Little over a decade after his death the judgement of the Court was overturned by Act of Parliament.
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1. Arnold Chaplin, A St Helena Whos Who (London 1919) pp 95-7.
2. Ibid .
3. 26 May 1821, St Helena During Napoleon's Exile, Gorrequer's Diary, pp 240-241
4. Chaplin p. 78-9
On Michel's blog there is an update about progress with the construction of a rest area and toilets on the approach to Napoleon's tomb. The island is slowly but surely gearing itself up for the expected increase in tourists when the airport is built.
Michel's blog also has a picture taken at his much loved Briars, showing the garden in front of the Balcombes' pavilion with the heart shaped waterfall in full flow in the background.
Also there is a new blog on St Helena history, written by John Grimshaw, whose photographs of the island have previously featured on here. John's latest post is about the murder at Prosperous Bay Signal Station in 1904, including the report of the execution of the two convicted murderers behind the customs shed and their burial in quick lime coffins. I wonder if John can tell me when the last execution took place on St Helena?
How strange to have two St Helena bloggers both Johns and both living in Greater Manchester!
