Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
fish, insects, trees and flowers of the island, and, best of all, over seventy beautifully written, almost
Gibbonian, pages (anonymous, alas) are devoted to the island's history. Wars, earthquakes, hurricanes,
religious debates, civil disturbances, reforms, eclipses of the sun, presents of plate to retiring governors,
epidemics of whooping cough—nothing has been forgotten. Turning back to the period of which I was in
pursuit, I was arrested by the following incident: 'About 8 o'clock p.m. on October 5, 1797, a large ship
approached the town of Gouyave, showing no lights, whereupon the detachment of the 2nd West Indian
Regiment stationed there … fired a gun at her from the battery, which was returned from the ship by two
or three broadsides at the battery and the town. Believing the French were landing at Gouyave, the in-
habitants of the neighbourhood began to fly to St. Georges. The next morning H.M.S.
Favourite
(Captain
Lord Camelford) anchored at St. George's, and it was ascertained that this bombardment of a peaceful
town had been done at the order of Lord Camelford, who, without thinking of the suspicion his stealthy
movements must have excited on the shore, considered himself insulted by the gun fired from the battery
in the first instance, and had retaliated in the disgraceful manner described.' 'Believing the French were
landing …'—this was the period I was after.
When Victor Hugues, the emissary of the Convention, had fought and overcome the French Royalists
and their British allies, and had erected the guillotine in Guadeloupe, he formed a plan to recapture from
the English the islands of Martinique, St. Lucia and Grenada. Owing to tension between the English and
French colonists, Grenada was the likeliest starting-point, and it was there that he dispatched his envoys
to stir up revolt. A coloured planter called Julien Fédon was chosen as leader of the insurrection.
' … At midnight on March 2, 1795, the storm broke; a body of insurgents under Fédon surrounded
the town of Grenville and a horrible massacre of the British subjects ensued. Neither age nor sex proved
a bar to the ferocity of the rebels, and by morning the town was a reeking shambles, from which the
butchers retreated to the mountains, laden with spoil.' The rebels entrenched themselves on Fédon's es-
tate on Morne Quaqua, near the Grand Etang.
The Lieutenant-Governor, 'instead of being at headquarters at such a time, was spending some days
with a party of gentlemen at his estate, Paraclete,' in the eastern foot-hills near Grenville. The party of
fifty-one hastily embarked in a sloop and, sailing round the island, landed at Gouyave, which they did
not realize was also in a state of rebellion. They were all promptly captured and marched as prisoners
to Fédon's camp and 'subjected to every indignity that malice could suggest, and were further informed
by Fédon that, if an attack were made on his camp, they would be slaughtered without mercy.' Rein-
forcements were rushed to the island, and siege was laid to Morne Quaqua. But the camp, owing to the
incessant rain, the scarcity, to begin with, of troops, the fever, and the suicide, in a fit of delirium, of the
English commander, was still untaken a month later. But more troops arrived and 'the assault was char-
acterized by intrepid bravery on both sides. The difficulty had been underestimated of storming the crest
of an almost inaccessible mountain protected by a strong
abattis
of felled trees in the face of a galling fire
and on ground so slippery from continual tropical rains that even a foothold was difficult to obtain.'
Inside the stockade, meanwhile, a terrible tragedy was taking place, a description of which I dis-
covered in a narrative by Dr. John Hay, who almost suffered the fate of his companions: 'A voice was
heard saying, “The prisoners are to be shot.” The guard … appeared very much agitated, and trembling
with impatience, and some seemed to have their guns cocked. A few prisoners called out, “Mercy!” No
reply was made. Others, who were not in stocks, were on their knees praying. Not a word was exchanged
among us…. The door was opened; two men appeared with hammers to take the prisoners out of the
stocks. Those who were not in confinement were ordered to go out…. Fédon began the bloody massacre
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