Birds of Passage

by Henrietta Clive

  We are now within two hundred miles of the Cape and it is not quite certain if we shall land. We are preparing letters. The girls are preparing theirs for Grandmama. You will excuse them if they are not just like Madame Anna because I let them write them without letting letters be made for them, which I hope you approve. I hope to hear news from the Cape or something to tell you. Therefore I will not waste my paper with the vacancy of sea news. I am almost ashamed to send you such a sheet of nothing.

  June 1st, Henrietta to her brother, George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  My Dearest Brother – It is all settled that we go into the Cape if the wind and weather will permit as the reasons are the leaks which may increase and we have only eight weeks water which they say is the least we ought to have. It is a very rough day and I cannot write.

  June 2nd, Henrietta to her brother, George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  The Good Hope, after refusing to go in to the Cape, and detaining us in consultations without, has determined to go in as we are within seventy miles with a great swell but a gentle favourable breeze, which this vile ship will make us lose. I hope to be there either tomorrow or to land on Monday morning.

  Just after I had finished the above, a report was spread of land being seen. We put out our eyes all day and evening without being quite convinced. Before daybreak Captain Sampson came and told us it was quite visible. I never saw anything so beautiful. It was quite clear and the outline perfect. In a short time the sun was just beyond Table Mountain in the most majestic manner I ever saw in my life and I was even more pleased from our having been detained the 2nd time by the Ship Good Hope. We lost time and the wind changed. Since yesterday morning we have been tacking aft and are all in hopes of being at anchor sometime before night. Imagine how we have watched since yesterday morning. Tomorrow I hope to say that we are on dry land once more … The night was perfect but this morning we are just where we were yesterday at the same time in distance but in a better situation. I hope to land tomorrow morning.

  June 4th, Henrietta to her brother, George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  We lost sight of the ships in the morning, but we saw them again in the evening. We tacked twice for fear of breakers. We had a beautiful moonlight night to enter False Bay.

  The Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

  ‘A country beautiful and very wild.’

  June 7th, Henrietta to Lady Douglas

  My dear Lady Douglas – I must just say a word that you who are so good on my behalf may know that I am in the land of the living and in Africa. We have had a voyage without the smallest storm or even a gale of wind, which I am told, is quite a marvellous thing and the weather so fine that if I did not hate a ship it really might be called pleasant. The greatest inconveniences were calms and on the line when we were really worried as there were small leaks (which does not sound well) in several parts of the ship. It was thought right to come here, particularly as we might meet with some French vessels from the Isle de France. It was proper to enquire about them that my history might not be improved by being taken prisoner and my valour, I confess, would not have been great upon such occasion. I have thought with some little horror of a retreat into the hold when I heard of a strange sail being in sight.

  I have been in Africa ten days. It seems like a dream. We came in on the finest of days I ever saw. Sir Hugh Christian* sent his boys and once again I landed on a sand bank. Think of my extreme delight and ecstasy in finding many of the most beautiful plants which are poor creatures in England in our hot houses and which are now, perhaps blooming behind the bench in the green house at Bothwell, all under my feet. My girls and myself were like fools. In short I am sure that nothing is like Africa.

  There are not any inns, therefore we live with some very good people in a large house and I ramble about all day hunting for plants. There happens to be a most learned botanist from Bengal who is such a boor that it is more than I can bear. He will collect for me and I think I shall be able to send plants in from all parts of the world. Would you believe that there is not a soul that collects or will collect such plants, roots or seeds. They seem to think of more substantial ways of getting money. This disappointed me as I had a great mind to send you something from the land of the Hottentots.

  We had an order last night to be at Simmons Bay, twenty miles from hence as soon as possible. Lord Clive is gone. I am in the midst of plants and black slaves, but I would not omit telling you something about myself and my infants. They suffered very little from the sea. I was a wretch for five weeks and am a little afraid I shall have it to begin again. I set out tomorrow morning at daybreak and shall travel this country covered with the most beautiful flowers and heath, not such a thing as an oak or a beech to be seen, all with flowers and yet they say there are more, as it is winter. In six weeks I hope to be in Madras. I cannot help thinking a great deal of England and Scotland. Perhaps my brother may be there now.

  Adieu, my dear Lady Douglas.

  Pray let me hear from you …

  Ever yours, affectionately,

  H. A. C.

  June 17th, Henrietta to her brother, George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  My dearest brother – We have been here since the 7th and it is quite fairyland. I rejoice much that we are here, but it is too pleasant to last. We are ordered to go tomorrow. Lord Macartney has been very civil to us and talked much of you to me, which did not displease me. We are to have a convoy or rather if the truth is known, which is now a secret, that we are to go with a small fleet going to take the Isle de France. It seems the greater part of the people wishes to have the English in possession of the Island and this secret expedition is to go with us.

  There has been much mutiny about. From Admiral Sir Hugh Christian we learned that the Princess Charlotte’s crew had mutinied just after we parted company. In the fleet of three ships each had on board one of Parker’s delegates,† who had been pardoned after the Mutiny of the Nore. In each vessel the delegates tried to persuade their shipmates to mutiny. In the Dover Castle, the plot was soon made known and Peter Allen had been immediately examined by the officers and Lord Clive and found guilty. He was kept in chains on the poop until the fleet arrived at the Cape and then made over to the King’s ships. He had been flogged more than once before we left the port. The Prince William was equally fortunate in discovering its delinquent, but the Princess Charlotte, had a regular outbreak. One day when the officer and passengers were at dinner, the mutiny broke out. Happily they were able in some measure to subdue it, but were obliged to be much on their guard, and gave out false observations that the sailors might not find out they were going into the Cape. The plan of the mutineers was to take possession of the ship, murder the captain and some of the officers, and take the ship into the Mauritius and sell her to the French. It was discovered, but the Captain did not pretend to know it and brought the ship into Cape Town. Three are tried today. Since the Good Hope came in with us there was a mutiny on board and the Captain put up the signal. The boats from the Admiralty came just as the dragoon in the ship were going to fire on the sailors. In the Walpole, there was something, too. In short, I am persuaded there are ill disposed people spread in all the ships.

  This place is beautiful with all sorts of the most beautiful flowers growing wild though it is winter. I believe in summer it would be too charming. We find everybody civil and I am going with a great quantity of plants … Lord Clive desires many things to you, as each of your nieces, who are fat and sleek. All our household desire many respects to you. I think I shall hear from you when I get to Madras for really when I think of it, it is terrible to me not to know something of you and my boys.

  God bless you my dearest Brother.

  May you be as well and as happy as I wish you to be.

  Ever your most sincerely and affectionately

  H. A. C.

  June 23rd, False Bay, Henrietta to George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  My dearest brother – as we have been detained here si
nce Monday by contrary winds I write a few words while our effects are taken on board. Admiral Christian has lent us his home where we have been since Tuesday. The wind is fair and the signal made; therefore we expect to sail in the course of the day. This colony is very flourishing. The number of whites are 20,000 and of all others 40,000.

  We have found delightful plants and have scrambled till I can scarcely move, but we are all well and I believe quite as comfortable in a thatched house with two rooms and a barrack as we shall be at Madras. Four days ago the Britannia came in here, having suffered much from weather. The ship had lost her foremast by lightning and one of her quarter galleys … We were fortunate in being in harbour on that day, 16th June. The storm extended to a great distance and we should have been exposed to its greatest force.

  Sir Hugh Christian gives us a convoy to man the Line. We are going along with four King’s ships whose object is to destroy everything French on that coast. This you are not to mention till you hear it otherwise, it being a private communication from the Admiral to Lord Clive and as a marked favour to him. He sends the Brave, a 40 gun ship, considerably to the North East of Madagascar with us.

  The Captain of the Indiaman just arrived from Ceylon brings unpleasant intelligence regarding Madras. General Harris, delirious from a fever, is incapable of holding the government. A want of money exists, not from real scarcity but on account of the state of Europe, which staggers the money holders in Madras, but as this came from the Captain of a ship, Lord Clive says he hopes to find it exaggerated.

  You will hear how far the spirit of insubordination has shown itself on the coast. Admiral Rainier‡ had sent eighteen men to be tried for mutiny, and three artillerymen, long in a disorderly state, have been blown from the mouths of cannon. All this information I have taken from Lord Clive’s knowledge so it is true.

  God bless you.

  H. A. C.

  On June 25th 1798 the travellers boarded a seaworthy Dover Castle, joined a convoy – the Stately, the Brave, the Garland and the Starbrig – and departed the Cape of Good Hope. For several days until July 5th the ships battled gales. On the Dover Castle the main yard broke and a small one was put in its place. Henrietta’s brother’s birthday was celebrated and all the ship’s company had grog. A shark was caught: five minutes after its head was cut off it bit a piece off a sailor’s finger. The Garland chased an American frigate, boarded her and ordered her to keep in sight, but she escaped in the night. From her crew they learned that a ship had left Mauritius with a regiment on board. They saw some boobies.§ Tiresome calms set in followed by ‘squally thunder, lightning and rain’. On August 16th a strange sail hove into sight and they prepared for action. It turned out to be the Victorious 74 guns. Three officers came on board to press twenty of the crew for the King’s service, but seeing Lord Clive, the Governor of Madras, on board refrained from doing so. On August 18th four strange sails appeared to be chasing the Dover Castle, but by the 19th they had lost sight of them. On August 21st at a little past 5 o’clock in the morning, land about Madras was visible. A strange sail was observed about the same time. At noon there was calm, but at 2 o’clock it was possible to make the anchorage.

  * Admiral of the Cape Station

  † Mutineers, whose eight articles included the right to dismiss the ship’s officers

  ‡ East India Station Command from 1793–1804

  § Booby gannet, a large tropical sea bird with eyes near the base of the bill

  Fort St George, Madras, India

  ‘Distracted with expectation and disappointment and joy.’

  And finally they were anchored in the roads off Madras. Charly verbally sketched the highlights: ‘Some lascars scrambled into the ship through the port-holes. Dobashes dressed in fine muslin dresses brought fruit on board; other blacks were nearly naked. We ladies were to go on shore first and therefore embarked in a Masoollah boat; the boat-men sung the whole way through the surf, which was really nothing. The sea came in a little at the sides of the boat. It wet me a little, but I did not mind it at all.’

  August 21st, Henrietta to her brother, George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

  My dearest brother – About 5 o’clock in the afternoon, boats came directly to take us on shore and I confess I was not much delighted with their appearance, or with the thoughts of the formidable surf; but we were lucky to a great degree. There had not been known a day so calm for a long time and we did not suffer in the least. I left the ship a little before Lord Clive that I might see him come in and go through all the necessary ceremonies. I landed with the girls and went, in a palanquin to the East room on the top of the Admiralty house, to see him go to the council room and from thence to a veranda in the square, to hear the commission read, which was done within a square of sepoys, who fired three simultaneous volleys afterwards.

  The concourse of people was immense and the strange variety of dress very amusing. The girls couldn’t be persuaded that the people dressed in long muslin dresses were not women, though some had long grey beards. General Harris, who has had the command of everything until Lord Clive’s arrival, came with Lord Clive to General Sydenham’s veranda where we were sitting.

  Afterwards Henrietta and the girls went with General Harris to the Garden House where the Clives were to live. Everything pleased Henrietta. Charly pronounced ‘both house and garden, beautiful. We took a delightful walk before and after supper, and were very tired.’ Everybody’s baggage had arrived except for Henrietta’s, Charly’s and Harry’s which did not appear until the next day around 10 o’clock along with Friskey, the terrier.

  General Harris breakfasted with the Clives. The Nawab sent a present of oranges to Henrietta and of figs to Charly and Harry. The girls took a walk after dinner near the seaside, and met a sand snake that was killed, brought home, and preserved in vinegar.

  On August 23rd Lord Clive and Charly visited the Nawab, who put a string of flowers round his [Lord Clive’s] neck, and perfume on his pocket handkerchief and told him that Lord Mornington had made him sick, but that he, Lord Clive, was his doctor. The Nawab enquired after Henrietta and said that as soon as his health permitted, he would call upon her. As they were in the verandah a cassowary paid them a visit, which pleased Charly.

  August 24th, Henrietta to Lady Clive

  My dear Lady Clive – the country and the appearance of the people are so different from anything we have ever seen, that it is amusing. We got up at 5 o’clock in the morning to take a walk. The house is very pleasant, but there is little room. I cannot say we admire the fruits. I am told it is a bad time of the year. It may be so; but certainly there is not anything so good as a peach, or a strawberry. I wrote to you a few days ago by a ship that was to sail from Tranquebar* …

  August 24th, Henrietta to Lady Douglas

  My dear Lady Douglas – I sat in form last Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to receive the ladies and gentlemen, which were pretty numerous. I am terribly inclined to believe the fair sexes in this country are not too agreeable. Many women have come out to Madras to marry. If I dared, I would tell what my Ladies and Gentlemen are like. It will be difficult and I hope my evil genius is not now looking over me and going to publish my observations on them. I really think I never saw so many females that had quite forgot what beauty might be. I have no idea of so many peoples assembled without one that would be thought tolerable in London. I sat perched upon a chair at the end of a large room during three hours for three successive nights – when they all came and curtsied – till every bone ached. I have given two assemblies that, if you could have seen, would have made you laugh. I looked, I hope, sufficiently civil. As for society it seems quite out of the question even amongst themselves and really except three or four that I have met with don’t much wish to be admitted to enjoy it. There are just a few with good manners and sensible, but for the greatest part are as much otherwise as any body can invent. As you see, I am none too happy with the level of entertainment in Madras, equating Madras society with that of
Ludlow in Shropshire.

  In a day or two I shall start to return my visits, which will be a troublesome ceremony from their houses being so dispersed.

  There is a town or rather the capital near my gate that leads to the Nawab’s palace where the murmur and noise is beyond all belief. The city is rather irregularly built all composed of huts made of cocoanut leaves and the inhabitants are more irregular than their houses, which I understand, are not of the first fame and that it is a compound of all the worst of both sexes. The people have fêtes and all sorts of ceremonies. A marriage keeps us awake for a week. All their amusements are during the night.

  I live on a dead flat, which is not proper for one’s imagination. I have no thick covert and woods but a cocoanut tope with straggling trees and not even a ditch in my garden. I am building a room in the garden and a laboratory for all sorts of odd rocks and works and shall endeavour to fancy myself in England. I mean to learn Persian in the Moorish language. I must do something to make me understand and be understood. Besides I hope that, as I must do something, I shall grow prosperous and hold forth in all the eloquence of the East and in that style I may pour forth my soul at your feet when I return. I cannot help already thinking what I shall do when I go back again.

  Henrietta did not condone being idle, but believed in staying occupied. By August 25th the settling-in had taken place. Charly observed in her journal that the harps were ‘all quite safe, but Mamma’s, which was a little the worse’. Henrietta and the girls began to investigate their surroundings and drove out to see the Mount Road, one of their perimeters. Inside Fort St George they visited St Mary’s Church, a personal landmark for them as Lord Robert Clive and Margaret Maskelyn had married there in 1753. They began to acclimatise to the temperature which was, they all agreed, ‘extremely hot’. Henrietta occupied her days in receiving visits from the ladies of the settlement and the girls took rides in the morning with Captain Brown. Mr Petrie was obliged to leave his house on account of snakes: a cobra was found in his house and another pursuing the gardener about the garden. Anna Tonelli painted watercolour sketches of local scenes; one was of their Madras neighbourhood.