The Occupants of Staffa lodge, somewhere near Westhill
Calicut as they said in history books, was on the way to
everywhere. Many Westerners came and went, some stayed, some loved their stays
while others detested the damp little town with hardly any social life and later
drifted on to the hustle and bustle of Bombay, Delhi or Calcutta. In the
process, many a white man made their fortune at and from Malabar, with the list
is too long to tabulate. But the story of Lachlan Macquarie, a proverbial
soldier of fortune, stands well above most. His travails around the world and
the various written accounts of them make interesting reading, but the founder
of Australia did spend a couple of years at Calicut. This article while briefly
touching on his overall story, will hover around the years spent in Calicut for
they provide a good understanding of colonial life in Calicut during the late
18th century.
Lachlan the Scotsman had his eyes on money early on in his
youth and I guess life in Mull or Staffa
Starting with the Royal Highland Emigrants or the 84th
regiment, he served at Nova Scotia, New York. Moving on as Lieutenant to the 71st
at Charleston, he transferred to Jamaica for a while and then decided to travel
to India. Retired at half pay in Scotland and living with his mother, he used his
uncle’s (M Maclaine) contacts with Col Marsh to rejoin the military, as famine
hit Scotland. Life in those days was not easy, to get a position as senior
lieutenant in the newly formed 77th regiment, and to get full pay, he had to
find and select 15 recruits (it was to prove quite tough for he had to walk
hundreds of miles to find the blokes, but he did eventually, rounding up 21 of
them for a price of 3 guineas each. Sadly four were eventually rejected as
unsuitable and Marsh was furious as he was led to believe that the Scotsman was
arriving with a 100 recruits). The pompous fella he was, Lachlan also employed
a servant who had to satisfy the advertised needs of ‘dresses hair remarkably
well, waits table, and plays very well upon the Fiddle’ and went on to command
the 5th company in the 77th.
In 1787 tensions in India between Britain and France were
high (matters concerning Holland) and the East India Company decided to raise
four regiments to defend its interests there. However, by the time the
regiments had been raised, the threat of war had passed and the EIC refused to
pay for them. The Prime minister got involved and the matter was finally
resolved with a declaratory bill. That was in 1788 and Lachlan was a member of Colonel
James Marsh’s new unit, the 77th (Hindoostan) Regiment of Foot, arriving in
India in August 1788, remaining there until 1807. And so, the 26 year old
indebted man (enlisted as Lt Lauchlan M’Quarrie) sailed for Bombay with 10
guineas in his pocket, shouting ‘Ich Dien’ (I serve), the 77th
motto, at the top of his voice, member of the 77th regiment nick
named pot hooks.
So many chaps from these regiments are known to us through
the musty pages of Malabar history, names like Campbell, Dunlop, Gordon,
Hartley, Lawrence, Marshall, Paterson, Sartorius, Stuart, Griffith, Moncrieff, Walker and so on…But as you
may not have seen Macquarie among them, we shall soon bring him to light.
Lachlan was a bit worried that he was not going to Madras or Calcutta where
better opportunities were at hand, but Bombay was where his regiment were
headed, and thus began a 19-year stay in India.
The regiment cooled its heel in Fort Bombay for 2 years, and
Lachlan was ensconced at Colaba rooming with a Dr Anderson (whom we will hear
more of, soon), a place where the English ate too much, drank too much,
fornicated with gusto, catching clap, creating ‘blue skins’ and employed too many
servants to do too little work. The bored young man desperately wanted to get
promoted and work his way into high society, and try he did writing to the top
brass in Calcutta and Bombay. By a stroke of luck, he got his promotion as a
result of this pestering correspondence. Now his desire was to get into the
heat of a good battle and make money off the event as booty or prize money.
Down south, the British were being troubled by Tipu who had
threatened to invade Travancore and the third Anglo Mysore war which would drag
on for close to three years, was soon to commence. And when Tipu attacked
Travancore in Dec 1789, and continued to press for spoils in 1790, the 77th
which was itching for action, got exactly what the doctor ordered. The 77th
comprising 673 soldiers were finally deputed to Malabar in November and were in
position at Tellicherry by Dec 5th 1790. Cannanore had fallen by the 16th
and the next step was to march towards Mysore. It was an arduous task, going up
through the guards with the equipment in the rain, something the British had
not planned for. After five long months of struggle, and intense rains, the 125
miles proved to be a million miles and Abercromby abandoned the plan to attack
Seringapatanam. Many died and became
violently sick, Macquarie included. He had fever, bowel complaints and what
they called liver (presumably syphilis). They got back to Malabar in June and
had an extended R and R until November, after which a new plan to take
Seringapatnam was hatched. Teaming up with the Madras troops of Cornwallis,
they reached Mysore in Feb 1792. After a quick battle, Tipu surrendered and
soon the British exercised control over Malabar which as a result of the
defeat, was ceded to the EIC by Tipu.
Back in Bombay, Lachlan was nursed back
to health by three doctors, one of them being his friend Dr Anderson, who took
care of his liver problem, by getting Lachlan’s wick dipped in a bowl of mercury
for a period of time and after getting him to drink dilute nitric acid (those
were the syphilis treatments in those days)!. Though he obtained only £308
as prize money, he utilized his additional responsibility as regimental
paymaster to use the company coffers for personal profits. Not only did he
clear his debts, but also did he (and his family whom he would always help in
times of need) gain eminently from this enterprise. We also hear of a later
treatment for the liver which perhaps involved a mercury wash of his
waterworks. Surgeon Colin Anderson and his understudy Helenus Scott pioneered
many such methods of treating the lower level issues of the 77th.
In Nov 1792, life was to change when he met a 20 year old
pretty heiress Jane Jarvis whose father, a
judge had made his fortunes at Jamaica.
The meeting took place at John Forbes’s home. Forbes and his bank were also to
play a role in his future life. Lachlan went after Jane, but her brother in Law,
James Morley would not agree, sensing an opportunist in the Scotsman. Another
turn of luck got him a promotion to Malabar at the right moment and Lachlan
proposed to Jane again. The brother in Law agreed, provided Lachlan signed a
prenuptial agreement forfeiting any of Jane’s wealth and the suitor committed £1000
of his savings to Jane’s trust fund. Lachlan, very much in love, agreed. Two
years of wedded bliss and partying turned out to be financially disastrous for
him, for he had monthly expenses of Rs 800 when his salary was Rs 500. When he
tried to draw money from Jane’s account to order a chariot and some silver, he
was threatened with legal proceedings by his brother in law. Just in order to
avoid bankruptcy, he had to retire and live low, away from Bombay.
Where else do you think, was he headed? Calicut of course.
And so he sailed to Calicut with his wife Jane, in Dec 1794. Here we can take
up the tale in first person, by referring to the meticulous journals kept by
Lachlan Macquarie.
In those days at Calicut, officers and their spouses rode
horses and at times the spouse rode in a palanquin carried by native servants.
So the first thing Lachlan did was to buy Jane a Turkai breed horse at Calicut
for Rs 300. The house or bungalow at the cantonment (Westhill) was more a
cottage, with perhaps two bedrooms and a hall. It was thatched with cajan
(cadjun – coconut palm) leaves. Considering that a seasonal thatching required
about 15,000 cajun leaves, the house does seem somewhat big. They had outhouses
for the servants and a large lawn. The house was purchased from Dr Kerr for Rs
400 and Lachlan spent another Rs 700 modifying and repairing it, to suit the
new memsaheb’s tastes. They called it the Staffa lodge after Lachlan’s home
town in Scotland. Life there was typical tropical colonial style, drinking,
dancing, partying and riding to Calicut town often for dinners. They had three things to think about the
bungalow, the cantonment and finally the nearest hill station. Both Lachlan and
Jane seemed to enjoy it. Looking at contemporary accounts, how would one
document that life?
Naufragus gives us a taste of life in the Calicut of 1790’s-
The English at Calicut reside in
Another description by Richardson goes thus - The country surrounding Calicut is
exceedingly beautiful; from the plain near the sea, which is fertile and well
wooded, the ascent to the uplands is easy and gentle, and admits of good roads
over hill and dale. Behind this the same degrees of acclivity and descent are preserved
in undulating ridges, which here and there interrupt the monotony of the plain,
till at length the hills begin to rise higher and higher in successive beds,
and the horizon of the east is at last intercepted by the towering range of the
Ghauts, 'on whose broken summits the clouds themselves repose.
The dwelling-houses of
the English families at Calicut, are mostly to the northward of the town, and
stand at some distance from each other, having gardens and grounds attached to
them. Some indeed are several miles in the country, and stand on elevated
situations from whence the finest views are commanded, and where the purest air
is breathed. The house of the Collector at which we dined on Sunday, was of
this description, and the friend with whom I was staying, had lately
constructed a bungalow, on a still more elevated site, from which a scene was
displayed, that whether for extent or beauty could scarcely be surpassed
perhaps in any part of India. The houses themselves had nothing peculiar in
their construction, but resemble those common to European residences in India,
being contrived for comfort rather than for show; and being considered perfect
in the degree in which they ensured shade, and a cool and free circulation of
air.
No article written about the life in a Bungalow surpasses
the one found in the Saturday review dt 28th June 1902, and I will
proceed to give you a sample to get a feel for life in one.
At all times and
seasons the Indian bungalow is a very Zoological Gardens. The human occupant
scarcely counts; is but one among many. The number of his uninvited guests is
legion. They look upon the building of houses for the shelter of animals as the
excuse for man's existence. The flies seem to increase a thousandfold. In India
these insects, like the poor, are always with us; they, however, favour us
during the rains more than at any other season. The Indian fly is far more
depraved than his English brother. If one of the latter settle on your nose and
you drive him off, he seeks another playground. Not so the Indian. You are
writing and he selects your right hand as his resting place, you blow him off
and resume your writing. By the time you have written half a word he is again
comfortably settled on the identical spot on your hand. You drive him off, he
again settles. After three or four repetitions of this operation you seize the
fly-flapper and murder him. The fly-flapper is an indispensable piece of furniture
in India. It is a short stick with a flat piece of leather attached to one end.
The fly is slain with the leather flap. The fly plagues the Anglo-Indian during
the whole of the day, the mosquito torments him throughout the night. With the
setting of the sun the mosquito, refreshed by sweat sleep in an old hat or
other secluded spot, relieves the wearied fly and takes up the flagging attack
with renewed vigour. The mosquito adopts the following plan of campaign. He,
not being able to live in the draught caused by the punka, hovers about just
outside its sphere of influence, emitting the most unholy sound. As the
punka-coolie grows sleepier and the motion of the punka diminishes the mosquito
is able to approach nearer his victim. When at last soft slumber overtakes the
coolie the patient insect reaps his reward and settles down to his meal. The
gnawing of the rats, the chirruping of hundreds of crickets to which the rain
appears to act as a stimulant, and the unceasing croaking of the frogs in and
around the bungalow, combine to curtail the sleep of the unfortunate
Anglo-Indian.
You return from the
club at 8 P.m. to find that in spite of the chiks in front of the doors, the
floor of the bungalow is strewn with wings which the termites have shed; while
a couple of toads are making merry with the soft succulent bodies of the
insects. On the wall the lizards are devouring white ants by the hundred. The
lizard is a great institution in the bungalow. He is as much a part and parcel
of the house as the dog is. Every bungalow in India contains its pair of
lizards. Daring the day they live behind pictures or in other sheltered places.
At dusk when the lamp is lighted they leave their cover and come out and hunt.
Their hunting-ground is the zone of light on the wall round the lamp………
There is one insect—a
little, flat, brown, shining, creature—which emits the worst odour in the
world. If one of these touches your food the whole is tainted and rendered
inedible. You dare not kill these pests, for if one be squashed the whole room
becomes filled with its disgusting smell and is uninhabitable for the next
half-hour. So these abominable insects fly about with impunity while the poor
Anglo-Indian must perforce look helplessly on and inwardly sigh "Spero
meliora "(means - I hope for better things)
So that must have given you a little taste of what Lachlan
and Jane lived through. Though we have no trace of that cottage or bungalow
left, we are provided literary detail of its existence from Lachlan’s journals.
They rode often to Calicut town, to eat with the civilian British gentry there.One
of their first indulgences was the purchase of two slave boys from Cochin. He
records
Sat Jan 24 - Saturday.
Lieut. Gray returned from Cochin, and brought me two very fine, well–looking healthy
Black Boys; both seemingly of the same age, and I should suppose from their
size and appearance that they must be between six and seven year old. — The
stoutest of them Mrs. Macquarie has called Hector after my Brother: and the
smallest I have called George after her Brother. Lieut. Gray has executed his Commission much to our satisfaction, for
which I conceive myself much obliged to him. — The Two Slave Boys cost One
Hundred and Seventy Rupees. We had the Boys immediately well washed, their Hair
cut and combed, and well clothed.
By May they have
settled down and he writes - On this day
I am happy to find I have finished all my repairs and improvements on my Houses
and Out–Houses, and also upon all my Estate at Staffa–Lodge, the name I have
given to the sweet spot we now reside on and inhabit. The amount of my repairs
and improvements, including Cajans and enclosures, since my arrival at this
Cantonment, upon the whole of my Estate, I find to be about Seven Hundred
Rupees; which with the original Price I gave Doctor Ker for the Property (vizt.
400 Rupees) has now I find cost me altogether Eleven Hundred Rupees: – but, I
have the satisfaction to find both Mrs. Macquarie and myself very comfortably
and commodiously lodged.
They grew fruits and vegetables in the garden, and expanded
their estate with more trees and crosswalks. It appears his plan was to spend
six more years there and they got regular parcels of goodies from Bombay
containing ham, ale, cheese, coffee etc. The only other Lady in the
neighborhood was one Mrs. Shaw, but she moved, to spend her pregnancy in
Bombay. Jane was but naturally the most popular woman in town, according to
Lachlan. The only other event to note was the arrival of Jane’s brother George,
which overjoyed the couple.
By July Lachlan got his summons to go to Cochin, for the
Dutch siege. Leaving servants to take care of Staffa, Lachlan and George (as a
volunteer) left Jane in a friend’s house in Calicut town while he marched off
to Cochin with the 77th. Jane is heartbroken, but Lachlan and George
participate merrily in the takeover of Cochin after the Dutch surrender. As
this is going on, Lachlan is ordered to go to Bombay to give evidence in a
court martial case. The battle over, he arranges for collection of his prize
money and organizes travel plans to Bombay with Jane who is still unwell, with
a severe cold and cough.
He writes - My dear Mrs.
M, George Jarvis and myself dined today with our friend Major Gore, at whose
House we had a very pleasant Party. During the forenoon we had sent out our
Servants and Baggage to our House at Staffa Lodge in Cantonments; and in the
Evening after drinking Tea at Major Gore's we ourselves removed thither,
accompanied by George Jarvis, and Slept there this Night. My dearest Jane went
out in her Palanquin, and her Brother and myself rode along with her on
Horseback – it being a most beautiful moonlight Night. We found everything
right at Staffa Lodge, and we both felt extreme joy at finding ourselves there
once more so comfortably settled.
Sunday Nov 15th 1795. Lachlan and Jane bid
goodbye to Calicut. At that time, Jane was not to know that she would never
come back to Calicut, for tragedy was soon to strike.
He writes - After
Breakfasting with Major Gore we proceeded, attended by him and all our friends,
to the House of Doctor Moir situated close to the Beach, and from which it was
agreed we should take our final departure as Doctor Moir himself was to be one
of our fellow Passengers. At the Doctor's House we found Capt. Seton waiting
for us ready to escort my dear Mrs. M. in his own Boat on board the Helen. — We
here took leave of all our good friends, and Mrs. M. embarked about half past
Ten O'Clock. I staid [sic] on shore till the Post came in to get some Letters I
expected from Madras, which having received and answered, I embarked on board
the Helen at half past 11,O'Clock, which weighed anchor and made sail
immediately on my getting on board. I found my dearest Jane in high spirits,
and most genteely and comfortably accommodated, Capt. Seton having allotted us
Half of his Round house with a Quarter Gallery which gave us ample room and
which we found very neatly furnished and conveniently arranged for our
reception. He had also allotted very good accommodation for our Brother George;
who accompanies us to Bombay principally with a view of getting a Passage the
easier from thence to Madras to rejoin his Regt., his leave of absence being
now nearly expired.
The story of Lachlan changes a lot after this embarkation.
Jane’s cough becomes worse, and treatment with mercury and warm milk (Lachlan
even buys a Surat cow for daily fresh milk) does not help at all. In between
all this he is now summoned (Feb 1796) to Ceylon to fight the Dutch. He shone in the mission and gets promoted to
major. But then he hears of a bad turn in his wife’s health from Bombay, he rushes
back, stopping enroute at Calicut where he sees new letters from Jane
announcing she is feeling better and perhaps pregnant. Lachlan is overjoyed and
eventually docks at Bombay in May 1796 only to find that Jane is seriously ill
with TB and that the pregnancy was just a delusion. Listening to advice that
sea air will do her good, he finds a passage to Portuguese Macau, where the
charade continues but within days she breathes her last. The distraught Lachlan
gets back to Bombay with the lead coffin only in Jan 1797 and buries her with a
long 475 word eulogy after which he slips into a period of deep depression and
goes about wearing a black armband.
The Staffa lodge was soon sold, all of Jane’s stuff disposed
of and Lachlan finds himself left with a legacy of £6,000. The two slave boys
Hector and George were put into Parish school at Bombay. Soon he found his way
back to Malabar joining in the British fight against the Pazhassi Raja of
Kottayam. That done, he moved on to fight Tipu in the final battle at
Seringapatanam and as expected obtained a share of the loot. On 18 September
1800 when he took office as president of the Sans Souci Club in Bombay he
finally abandoned the black arm-band he had worn since his wife's death
As all this happened the next three years passed by hazily, and
by 1800, we see the 40 year old career soldier back as secretary to Jonathan
Duncan, Governor of Bombay. Simultaneously Arthur Wellesley the future Duke of
Wellington lands in Bombay and passes over Lachlan Macquarie whom he does not
take a liking to. Lachlan is instead recommended to go to Egypt to fight the
French as Dy Adjutant General.
His future however had greater things in store, for he
spends all his life’s earnings, some £15,000 to hold on to his uncle’s land
within the family. The Egyptian campaign had been so profitable that raising
such a sum presented no difficulty; at the beginning of 1803 he estimated that
he was worth £20,000 in money and land, twice the amount of his wealth only two
years before. He was also desirous of becoming a Highland laird, an estate
owner. It is here that he meets and becomes fond of his cousin Elizabeth
Campbell whom he later marries.
He spends a few years in high society in London, gets into
trouble (he did participate in or even organize many a swindle during his life)
with the Duke of York and soon ordered back to India to fight the Holkars. In
1807, he happily bids goodbye to India for the last time, which he considered a
land of death, after Jane’s demise. After another two years he is appointed as
governor (curiously recommended by two people who posed trouble for him earlier
– the Duke of York and Arthur Wellesley!! Maybe they were acting in unison to
exile him?) of New South Wales where trouble was brewing. This was where he
made his name, finally, and today many consider him as the founder of modern
Australia. But that and the fortunes and misfortunes which followed this
Scotsman, is another story, for another day. In any case Bombay, Staffa,
Calicut and all those places in India may have always been in his dreams. It is
said that he used the Indian columned model to build the famous Rum hospital in
Australia.
Whatever happened to the two slave boys of Cochin? Hector
was kidnapped during the Tipu war in 1799 and never to be heard of again, but
George Jarvis, the Malayali slave boy (perhaps a Topass) was at his side always
and continued to serve him in Australia (first Malayali in Australia?) and
England. When Lachlan died, he willed a house and an annuity to George, but
George followed his master beyond this world, just a year later. Elizabeth,
Lachlan’s wife outlived him, and George Jarvis the Scottish educated servant
boy continued to serve her, marrying the chamber maid Mary Jelly. Their daughter
Elizabeth Jarvis died in 1835. Lachlan’s and Elizabeth’s son Lachlan Jr died in
1845, falling down the stairs of Craignish castle. Colin Anderson, his surgeon friend,
fathered many children, and one of them was curiously named Jane Jarvis
Anderson (?) as seen in his will. Anderson is mentioned in a suit for the
unpaid Cochin prize money and Forbes went on to create a company in Bombay.
Francis Gordon his friend in Calicut Town, the resident of Calicut, returned to
Britain, never recovering from a bad attack of sunstroke.
There are no English bungalows in Calicut anymore, in fact
not a single colonial building survives time, but a healthy respect for the
Ingriz administrators remain amongst the old timers of Malabar.
References
Lachlan Macquarie, A biography - John Ritchie
Governor Macquarie: His Life, Times and Revolutionary Vision
for Australia Derek Parker
The adventures of Naufragus, written by himself - M J. Horn
Girt: The Unauthorized History of Australia, Volume 1 -
David Hunt
Historical records of Australia – Vol 8
Photos - from the net - thanks to the uploaders
