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20 Aug 57 John Port Louis Mother ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Line barracks,
Port Louis, Mauritius
August 20th 1857
My dear Mother
I hear that there will be a chance of sending letters by the Azof steamer which, I believe, leaves this place about Sunday next for Aden. You ask me to give a description of this place and its inhabitants and everything about it. Now I really do not think that, after a fortnight’s residence in the island, of which almost the whole time has been passed in barracks, I am able to give a fair description of the place – but I will try & give you an idea or two.
On first entering the town from the harbour & marching up to barracks, we were not very favourably impressed with the appearance of the place. All the shops and houses attached are scarcely more than sheds; at least I am sure that most summer-houses in gardens at home have a more commanding appearance and are built in a more substantial manner. Then there is no display of goods. The ladies must lead a dreadful life of it here, for I do not see any opening for them to take to their favourite pastime of shopping. The streets are all at right angles to one another, shewing that there was a fixed plan laid down in which form the town should be built, but whether Napoleon’s notion of building houses of an uniform appearance had never been thought of before, or how it was, I cannot say. Certain it is that they have compensated for building their houses in straight lines by borrowing all styles of architecture, chiefly, if I might venture an opinion, from the Irish bogtrotters.
The shopkeepers are, without exception, the most independent class I have ever come across. They are scarcely civil to you when you go into their shops & seem to think that they are doing you a great favor in selling you anything. Everything is frightfully expensive, costing more than double the price that it does in England and of course, the best goods are not to be had.
Unfortunately, we were told that we should require no plain clothes here, being led to believe that we should always appear in uniform, but we scarcely ever shew in ‘tog’ & as plain clothes are not to be had, we are of course in a melancholy state. Mr Cayley insisted on providing me with a shooting coat, which might perhaps fit Arthur, but here it is & it is no use whatever to me.
The only place we can get anything in the Comestible line is at the Bazaar, which opens at gunfire 5½ a.m. and the time to see it in full splendour is about 6½. It is the place where all the bread, meat, vegetables, poultry, fish etc. are to be got &, I believe, the only place where they are to be had. It certainly is a curious sight to see representatives of almost every nation collected there, all intent on the one, to mankind, most important business – eating.
You see the rough skippers of merchant vessels, with their stewards, laying in stock for the voyage; the Malabar Indians – the men with not much in the way of clothes to boast of; the women with their peculiar dress (not half so peculiar as crinolines, and far more graceful) thrown about them after the fashion of the Greeks or Romans (I am not quite certain which it is most like, having forgotten the best part of my antiquities, but it always reminds me of the costumes of the Jewish women in all the pictures on sacred subjects. Nor must we forget that the Jewish women were, or were supposed to have been black). Armlets and anklets, I presume of silver, are worn; also rings on the toes and nose rings fixed in the sides (cartilages, I believe they are called) of the nose just as you very much more civilized ladies in Europe wear them in your ears. These black ladies chiefly delight in yellow and red robes. They have very good figures but are shockingly dirty and hideously ugly. I suppose that their standard of beauty must be different from ours or else their book of beauty must certainly remain unfilled.
There is a piece of open level ground here called the Champ de Mars. It is about 500 yards long by 350 wide. This is the race course and I believe the promenade of the inhabitants of the island. We had races here during the first week after we arrived and the course was very numerously attended by people of all sorts (I forgot, there was one sort that did not attend very numerously – I mean, the right sort). There were a few English, a few French, a great number of Creoles and a strong muster of Malabars, for whom whirligigs, greasy poles etc. were provided; and at a distance, but for the brilliancy of the red & yellow before mentioned, a person might imagine himself at a larger fair in England.
On one side, a number of stands were built in two tiers, and in these the high and mighty of the land were established. On the other side was a small enclosure opposite the winning post in which the horses were saddled, and riders weighed etc. Here we were invited to take up our stations as we came too late to get a stand built for ourselves, and on all sides round this were carriages full of all sorts of people – black, white, & grey, or rather Creoles, draped in the grandest style. Ill natured people here say that the Mauritians save all the year round in order to have a grand dress and a horse and carriage on the race days, and then all the rest of the year they will go as ragged as can be conceived. There may be truth in this but they certainly have not returned to the pristine state of raggedness as yet. Perhaps they wear out their finery and do not dispose of it as aforesaid.
The races were very poor & the horses looked a wretched lot. In fact, I have not seen half a dozen good horses in the island and the price asked for anything on four legs is enormous. Nothing to be had under £70 or £80 and even then of a very wretched stamp.
The streets here are rather rough, sometimes Macadamised, sometimes paved with blocks of stone in the French fashion & the foot pavement is not at all good, very few of the footpaths being flagged, but I believe they are talking of improvement so I suppose in twenty years time they will begin to pave the paths. In some of the smaller streets leading from the business part of the town to Champ de Mars, there are some very nice houses & I fancy the better part of the shopkeepers & the employees in the Customs etc. and some of the lesser merchants live in them. They have only one story above the ground floor and there are great numbers of houses again that have no upstairs (so to speak) but are all ground floor. All houses that have any pretentions at all have a verandah & in this, the inmates sit during the evening. How they employ themselves otherwise than by chatting I have not been able to make out. No cushioned chairs are the sign of indolence here. On the contrary, they would be particularly uncomfortable, all the easy chairs and sofas here are backed and seated with cane.
The ants are wonderfully mischievous here, playing ‘old Harry’ with the woodworks. They work their way through the heart of the woods, turning all the inside into a fine powder & leaving the outside to all appearance perfectly sound. Something of this sort happened to one of our fellows the other day. He sat down on one of his barrack chairs, which has been in use for a long time. One of the legs snapped, and down he came. On examination, it turned out that the Borer had been at work and that the whole inside of the leg was turned to fine dust.
But the largest part of Port Louis is the black town, although I do not know why it should be called so, seeing that the inhabitants of the remainder of the town are just as black as those who inhabit this particular quarter. There is one great peculiarity here which I have not noticed. That is the number of Chinese who keep shops here. Almost all the grocers’ shops are kept by them. They are very industrious, hard working people and make a good deal of money. I cannot find out whether they go back again or not, but they do not bring their families here and no Chinese women come here at all. They are quite the Jews of this place, and in shewing their names over their shop doors, they always put the prefix Mr. For instance, there is a grocer in the Main Street who calls himself Mr Something.
Port Louis lies in a sort of amphitheatre of mountains and unfortunately they enclose it on the side from which the wind blows. That is to say that the trade winds blow here almost the whole year round & Port Louis is on the lee side of the island – the wind coming right across the island before it comes to us.
We have a detachment at Mahebourg on the other side of the island & they say that it is very much cooler there than it is here. Of course, being sheltered from the wind, we feel the full heat of the sun. The harbour is very deep & I was quite astonished at the number of vessels lying in it. I believe the planters are at this moment so flush with money that they do not know what to do with it.
Having a first rate market for their sugar in Australia, they have entirely given up coffee growing which, at one time, was their principal product.
We have a long low line of buildings in the middle of the barracks for the use of the officers and on two sides, the men’s barracks form the enclosure. The other two sides are or were originally enclosed by walls but what with prison wash houses, cook houses, armourers’ workshop, schoolrooms etc. not much of the barrack wall is to be seen. However they are not building anything high to windward to shut out the air and so they may do what they like, otherwise we should have to interfere, for in these hot places, air is everything. I will close my scribble about the island for the present. Description is not my forte. There is nothing that I am less inclined for. I have a liking for small gossip in my letters and as I never can read them over, you must just take them for what they are, and they are just this – that knowing that you like to hear from me whenever there is an opportunity. I devote my spare time (to use a semi-sporting phrase) to letting my heart give tongue, without its Mentor, the head, being called into council.
Peter arrived here on Sunday last in the Tynemouth. There is a signal post on the hill close by the barracks & by mysterious black balls & flags that they hoist on particular ropes, I knew that a ship rigged steamer was in sight. I took a boat out at once, had to wait at some distance from the steamer until the health officer admitted her to pratique * & then boarded the vessel & took him (Peter) ashore. We walked about the town during the afternoon and I shewed him all I could & he, Aylmer of 33rd and Hunter of 81st, both passengers from on board, dined at mess that night. He slept in my room & the next morning we went to the Bazaar & had a walk about the place, breakfasted in my room, then I had to go to a Court marshal, which kept me till one o’clock and he went to see his Captain etc. Dined at mess after knocking about during the afternoon & went to the Theatre to hear our band play & see a conjurer perform his tricks – a bad edition of Houdini. Next morning Bazaar again, breakfast in my room, about town all morning & then went to Customs House to pass the Stout & Rifle, for which had to pay £1.4.6 duty. After that, sent them up to Barracks & then went on board.
The Captain came off soon and insisted on our going down to dinner. In the mean time she got her anchor up and steamed out so that, when we left her, she was five miles out to sea & we had a very stiffish pull back into harbour. Peter seems in good spirits and appeared to enjoy his stay here. I hope and trust that he will take to work. I think he seems determined to make his way now. I did not pretend to give him any advice. He is no fool and I do not suppose I can tell him much that he does not know himself. Besides, he rather thinks that he knows his own affairs best and would resent interference in them. But I talked to him quietly, as if it were all arranged that if he is to make a permanent stay in India, and when he sees that any body understands his intentions that way, he cannot help falling into that course himself. The passengers were all very fond of him on board because he created amusement by writing verses about them & finding amusement on a dreary voyage for his fellow passengers is a man’s best passport to their good graces. Captain Wake came and breakfasted with me one morning. Nothing like being on good terms with the Captain in a ship like that. It may make the voyage much pleasanter to Peter.
We were at a ball given by one of the Masonic lodges here, last Thursday evening. As they require our band, they are obliged to ask us, and tonight we are to go to the Cricket Club ball. I am very lame, having strained some tendon in my heel & cannot put it to the ground. But as we do not dance on our heels, I have been saving myself all day in order that my foot may not hurt me much & mean to dance tonight. It is a case of full uniform. My unfortunate servant has got a bad attack of rheumatism. He says he had the same when he went to Malta. The doctor has got him in bed with blisters on both knees. Pleasant that! is it not?
And now I must really begin to talk about the important news received in your last letters & so Mary is really going to be married at last. * How very odd that it should just happen as I had left England & how odd it seems to get a letter saying that Mary is going to be married on a day which is already three weeks ago. I should so have liked to have been there, but duty & honor – guarding a lot of Creoles to prevent their being killed by a lot of Malabars – such is duty & honor. If I had to stand ten years of this game I should cut & run. I like an active life & not this lazy do nothing & yet dancing attendance, style of life. Probably, by the time that I get home, Mary will be a staid, respectable matron, with half a dozen children looking out for Uncle John.
I always have hated that name, ever since I saw it in the large print, two syllable story books of a six year old. He is always supposed to be a good natured, fat, (in that item, the cap fits) old bachelor with pockets full of apples, nuts and sweetmeats (probably sticky), and his portmanteau full of toys for all the nephews & nieces.
But I must write to Mary and to my ‘brother in law’ as he has written to me. You must have had plenty to do and I am looking anxiously for the next mail, as by that I shall hear all about the wedding & what you all did and how every thing went off. I put this off till the end of my letter for it came so unexpectedly on me that I can scarce appreciate even now & I am taking as long a spell as I can to think a little about it before I write at all on the subject.
Peter was with me when the mail came in & he was as much astounded by the news as I was. I opened Mr Riley’s letter first, being in a strange hand & when I read that in three weeks he was going to marry my sister, I thought the whole thing was a hoax, and put the letter by. But when I read your letter, I then began to understand more about it, but do not feel as if I could grasp it yet. It appears to me quite a dream but I suppose I shall get accustomed to it by degrees altho’, being absent from home and not hearing it spoken about, it will appear strange to me when it will be quite household words with you.
My Company are getting to be my family. I like to make myself acquainted with the disposition of each man and then I try & get them employment which brings with it extra pay & thus make them happy if I can. It is getting up near parade time for we have parade at all hours here so I must get on to lighter subjects & return to this when I am not so likely to be disturbed.
To give you an idea of the way we regularly pass our time is impossible, because it varies every day according to the arrangements & conveniences of the Colonel, but I usually get up about 6 o’clock, have a cup of coffee and go out for a walk & my servant goes off to market with his basket on his arm, just like little red Riding Hood, except that his clothes are white – so is his name, by the way. I come back about half past eight & manufacture my salad for breakfast & have fish, bread, and a bit of fruit – either a pineapple which costs about 6d or some bananas; then there is reading, writing & strolling about until the afternoon parade. That is about half past three, but that does not apply to officers commanding companies who have to attend at the orderly room at 11 o’clock and are employed for more than an hour attending on the Col. with their prisoners etc.
August 24th
The Cleopatra, with four companies of the 23rd on board, put in here yesterday for coal. It is the headquarter division and Williamson is with them. I was dining out last night with Mr Sandwith (Dr Merrion’s friend) & had a very pleasant evening, and today I met Williamson. He dined with us today & I believe means to sleep here tonight.
I may as well mention about this time that we have great trouble with our ink here. It dries up & wants water put to it & then turns greasy as you may probably notice the peculiar style of writing that is exhibited in different parts of this letter.
Williamson begs to offer his congratulations on Mary’s marriage & says that he always thought William was to be her man but I assured him that was quite a mistake.
We are all very early birds here. It is now only half past ten & I am so tired, after getting up at 6 and walking up to the top of the ‘Pouce’ mountain before breakfast.
25th
The Cleopatra, with the 23rd on board leave this morning and take a mail up to Point de Galle * so I must close this letter in a hurry and put off writing to Mary till next mail. I have a thousand and one wants but I shall reserve them all for my next letter. One thing I want particularly here is some sort of trap. I think the best sort to get is something known among men as a Whitechapel cart, which is like a tax cart, * only that the back lets down and then it makes a dog cart. I will write however by next mail & say all that I have to say on the subject of wants.
With best love to my Father and all at home & hoping you are all well
Believe me ever,
Your affectionate Son
J Wimburn Laurie
4th K. O. Regt
* pratique – permission granted to a ship to have dealings with a port, given after quarantine or on showing a clean bill of health
* Mary is really going to be married at last – George Cowell, a doctor, had been her first love, but he was considered unsuitable by her Father and Grandparents. She was 25 years old when she married John Riley on 23rd July, 1857, but he sadly died five years later, aged only 42. She next married William Hamilton Roe, but was again widowed when he died 26 years later. She was then free to marry George Cowell, which she did, but he also predeceased her
* Pointe de Galle – Galle is a port on the South Western tip of what is now Sri Lanka. Although apparently in the wrong direction, there was probably a connection here to a Westward service, overland, via Suez and Marseilles.
* tax cart – a spring cart formerly subject to a small tax in England