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
The expedition, on arriving at Sherbro, established a camp at Tyama
Woroo in Bargroo, and all preparations for an advance being completed by
the 27th of November, the troops marched on that day, occupying
Mosangrah on the 30th. On the 3rd of December, Lowarnar, a town to the
eastward, was entered, and on the 5th a move was made on the stockaded
town of Gundomar, which was abandoned by the enemy on the approach of
the force. The dead body of one of the captives taken from British
Sherbro, recently strangled, was found in the stockade, and the town was
accordingly burned.
On the 6th the force advanced on Moyamba, which was also found to be
evacuated by the enemy, and was burned. On the 9th the troops left
Moyamba and marched to Yahwi-yamah, which was also destroyed, with the
outlying stockaded villages of Mocorreh, Bettimah and Mangaymihoon. On
the 10th Modena was destroyed, and the force marched through Mowato and
Geeavar to Sennehoo, arriving there on the 16th. To this latter town
several of the chiefs came in to treat, bringing 212 of the captives
with them, and on the 18th a treaty of peace was arranged, the Mendis
promising to pay a fine of 10,000 bushels of rice. The troops returned
to Sierra Leone on the 24th of December.
The country through which the detachment of the 1st West India Regiment
had marched was most difficult. It consisted of dense forest, through
which the only advance could be made along narrow paths, wide enough
only for the passage of men in single file, and obstructed by fallen
trees, swamps, and unbridged streams. Numerous swamps, black and full of
malaria, had to be crossed, and, though the noon-day sun was excessively
hot, the nights, owing to excessive damp, were very cold. Heavy showers
of rain fell almost daily, and from sunset till an hour after sunrise
the whole country was buried in an impenetrable fog.
The stockades were of the same character as those found at Mongray, but
were here in some instances further fortified by mud walls, fifteen feet
high, and about twelve feet thick at the base. Inside the walls were
ditches about six feet wide and eight feet deep. In some of the towns,
machicoulis galleries had been constructed over the gates, and the
entrances further protected by semicircular mud bastions.
In March, 1877, the 1st West India Regiment was relieved on the West
Coast of Africa by the 2nd West India Regiment, E and G Companies
embarking in H.M.S. _Simoom_, at Cape Coast Castle, on the 24th of
February, and the head-quarters, with A, B, C, and H Companies, at
Sierra Leone on the 3rd of March. On arriving at the West Indies the
regiment was thus distributed: Head-quarters, with A, D, E, and I
Companies, at Jamaica, C and F at Honduras, G and H at Barbados, and B
at Nassau.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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