The History of the First West India RegimentEllis, A. B. (Alfred Burdon)
History
The History of the First West India Regiment
Ellis, A. B. (Alfred Burdon)
Great Britain. Army. West India regiment, 1st
No. 1 Company had been sent to Honduras in reply to an urgent appeal for
a reinforcement from the Honduras Government, that colony being
threatened with the horrors of an Indian war. In 1847 a war broke out
between the Yucatecans and the Indians, and caused much anxiety to the
British colony, whose strict neutrality satisfied neither of the
contending parties. The Yucatecans, being driven out of the southern
portion of Yucatan, took refuge in our territory, and raids and
reprisals were frequent between them and the Santa Cruz Indians. In 1848
the town of Bacalar, situated on the shores of a lake, about twenty
miles from the northern frontier of British Honduras, was captured by
the Indians, and the fugitives, streaming into the colony, spread alarm
amongst the colonists. It was at this time that reinforcements were
applied for, and No. 1 Company, under Major Luke Smyth O'Connor,
despatched from Jamaica.
On arriving at Belize the company was at once moved up to the Hondo, and
towards the end of May a portion of it proceeded on escort duty with a
British commissioner to Bacalar to endeavour to arrange a peace. That
town had been the scene of the most frightful atrocities, and the
streets were found strewn with the dead bodies of men, women, and
children. Negotiations failing, the escort returned to the Hondo.
Collisions now became frequent between the Yucatecans and the Indians,
and our northern border became a rallying point for both sides. The
small British force was continually harassed by alarms and forced
marches taken to prevent violation of British territory, until towards
the close of 1848, it being rumoured that the Indians intended to cross
the Hondo and sack Belize, it was withdrawn from the north for the
protection of that town. Additional reinforcements were now asked for,
and on March 29th, 1849, No. 4 Company, under Captain Meehan, embarked
at Jamaica for Honduras.
In January, 1849, No. 1 Company had again advanced to the Hondo, and
were within a few miles of Chac Creek on that river, when the sanguinary
struggle between the Yucatecans and Indians took place. Hearing the
sound of firing the troops marched to the spot, and finding the Indians
employed in roasting the dead bodies of the defeated Yucatecans, were
only with the utmost difficulty restrained from attacking them. But the
most strict orders had been given for the preservation of British
neutrality, and nothing could be done. Indeed, the Indians were
themselves well aware of the advantages which they derived from our
neutrality, and were exceedingly careful not to come into contact with
the British; even going so far as on one occasion to shoot a chief and
flog six men, who had been accused of committing an outrage across the
Hondo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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