MY RESIDENCE AT THE CAPE.
An interval of upwards of Seven Months.
MY CONFINEMENT AT THE OLD CASTLE, &C.
From the 19th to the 28th of January.—When the Captain returned from his visit to the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, his countenance sufficiently informed me that he had nothing agreeable to communicate. He was no longer the same man; his behaviour was cold and embarrassed, and his reserve was soon imitated by all the other persons on board. Several naval officers belonging to different ships in the harbour came to visit their friends on board the Griffin. I could easily perceive that they felt a certain degree of curiosity to see me, though they avoided as much as possible entering into conversation with me. They spoke to each other aside; and, by their looks, seemed to consider me as an outlaw. From these circumstances, and certain expressions dropped by the persons about me, I could perceive that, in spite of the distance, the security of the great captive was the subject of as much alarm and distrust here as at St. Helena; and I had every reason to expect that the dark cloud which enveloped Longwood would be extended over me at the Cape. Accordingly, as soon as I was put on shore at noon, I was met by the officer appointed to guard me. Captain Wright, who took me ashore in his boat, for the sake of old acquaintance, and I hope also from sincere sympathy, declined leaving me until I should be safely lodged in the abode that was destined for me. We therefore walked together to what is called the Old Castle or Fort. After crossing several drawbridges, and passing many sentinels, we arrived in the inner courtyard or parade, and thence proceeded by various stair-cases and galleries to the lodging assigned to us. The doors were locked. It was necessary to search for the keys; and, meanwhile, we were requested to wait in a room which was occupied by several officers of the garrison. By chance, an officer of the staff entered. He seemed to be greatly surprised to find that we were thus left in free communication with the persons about us; and, assuming a polite pretence, he conducted us to his own apartment to partake of some refreshment. After a few hours had elapsed, a messenger was sent to inform us that our apartments were ready. They consisted of three rooms, which we were enabled to discover in proportion as the cloud of dust with which they were filled gradually dispersed; for they had but that moment been swept. The first room was entirely empty; the middle one contained a large table, an arm-chair, with broken legs, and four other wretched chairs; the third contained two bedsteads, two bolsters, one mattress and three blankets: this was the whole of the valuable furniture. It was well that we had taken the precaution of bringing our beds with us from St. Helena. I was at a loss to comprehend how two days could have been occupied in such preparations. This circumstance did not afford me a very high notion of the regularity, precision, or promptitude of the new authority under which I was now placed.
The officer who had charge of us installed himself in the first room. A sentinel was immediately stationed on the outside, and I was informed that I must not communicate with any one. I now found myself literally a prisoner. I had complained of Balcombe’s Cottage; but here I was infinitely worse off. This, thought I, is the first effect of Sir Hudson Lowe’s kind recommendations.
Dinner was served. It was ordered by our officer, and was abundant. The staff-officer, who had used the precautionary politeness of conducting us to his apartment in the morning, thinking himself already on a footing of intimacy, or perhaps, being specially charged to watch over us, came familiarly to invite me to dinner. He and his comrade appeared to exert themselves to do the honours of the table in the most agreeable way. They seemed anxious to shew me every attention; but I did not feel myself at ease, and, alleging as an excuse the fatigue I had encountered during the day, I withdrew, leaving them tête à tête over the bottle; and they sat until late at night, according to established custom.
On the following day, I received a visit from one of the captains of our station at St. Helena. Knowing the state of my son’s health, he brought a medical gentleman along with him. This was a mark of attention on his part, but the introduction occasioned, for some moments, a curious misunderstanding. I mistook the Captain’s medical friend for his son or nephew. The grave Doctor, who was presented to me, was a boy of eighteen, with the form, the manners, and the voice of a woman. But Mr. Barry (such was his name) was described to be an absolute phenomenon. I was informed that he had obtained his diploma at the age of thirteen, after the most rigid examination; that he had performed extraordinary cures at the Cape, and had saved the life of one of the Governor’s daughters, after she had been given up, which rendered him a sort of favourite in the family. I profited by this latter circumstance to obtain some information which might serve as a guide for my conduct with respect to the new Governor, to whom I that day addressed a letter, explaining my situation, and formally requesting to be sent to England, and restored to full and complete liberty. My letter was as follows:—-
“My Lord,—Having been for several days under your authority, I take the liberty of addressing myself to your Excellency, in order to ascertain what are your intentions respecting me. Owing to a circumstance, of a nature wholly personal to myself, I was removed from Longwood, at St. Helena, on the 25th of November last, by Sir Hudson Lowe, the Governor of that island.
“A few days afterwards, in consequence of several conversations with the Governor, though without his coming to any decision on my case, I wrote to inform him that, from that moment I should withdraw from my voluntary subjection to him, and place myself entirely under the jurisdiction of the laws. I demanded that he would enforce the laws with respect to me; observing that, if guilty, I ought to be tried, and if not guilty, I ought to be restored to freedom. I added that the critical state of my son’s health, and also my own, imperatively demanded medical remedies of every kind, and I entreated that he would send us to England. Sir Hudson Lowe then seemed to hesitate. I have reason to believe that, at first, he entertained some idea of sending me to Europe. But he next determined to detain me at St. Helena, separated from Longwood, until the return of answers from England. He then several times offered to allow me to return to Longwood; and finally, he sent me to the Cape, under your Excellency’s orders, for the purpose, as it appears to me, by the literal interpretation of his instructions, of putting an end to his embarrassments, and perhaps expecting from another the same results respecting me; but without himself risking any personal responsibility. Such, my Lord, is the brief statement of facts which I conceive it necessary to submit to you, in order that you may form a correct idea of my real situation. I hope you will consider as perfectly natural, inoffensive and regular, the request which I have now the honour to address to you, and which is, that I may be sent to England as speedily as possible, and be restored to full and complete liberty, as far as my natural rights may consist with your political duties.
“I have the honour,” &c.
“P. S.—I beg that your Excellency will be pleased to inform me whether I may be allowed to write to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent and his Ministers. If that permission be granted, I shall do myself the honour of addressing to your Excellency two letters, with the request that you will forward them to England without delay. I shall also be obliged if you will let me know when there is an opportunity of communicating with St. Helena, as I have to address some papers to Sir Hudson Lowe.”
Two days afterwards, I received the Governor’s answer. It was very brief. Without entering into any particulars, he merely declared that he considered me as a prisoner on the report of Sir Hudson Lowe, and condemned me to remain at the Cape, until instructions arrived from England. I could make no resistance; I was compelled to submit. This I intimated to Lord Charles Somerset, in a second letter, in which I enclosed two others; the first addressed to Lord Castlereagh, requesting his Lordship to lay the second before the Prince Regent. My letter to Lord Charles Somerset was as follows:—
“My Lord,—I have received the answer which your Excellency addressed to me, and from which I learn that I am to be detained a prisoner here until Sir Hudson Lowe shall receive answers from England respecting me. Doubtless your Excellency has, in your wisdom, accurately weighed the force of the reasons which induce you to adopt a measure of so serious a nature, as that of depriving me of my liberty, without any previous judicial forms, and even without my being made acquainted with the cause of my detention. All I can do is to submit to authority, and to rely on those laws which will protect me if I be entitled to protection.
“I shall not undertake any ulterior argument for my defence, being persuaded that you, my Lord, in the justice of your heart, when you determined on adopting so delicate a course, must have attentively considered the whole of my case. However, I perceive from your answer, that your decision rests on circumstances stated respecting me by Sir Hudson Lowe. But have these circumstances been satisfactorily proved in your Excellency’s eyes? Have you heard both sides of the question; or do you think yourself screened from all personal responsibility, by acting on the authority of Sir Hudson Lowe’s instructions, and without any regard to my remonstrances? How happens it that Sir Hudson Lowe could not venture, without risk, to detain me at St. Helena, while he finds it more easy and less inconvenient to do so at the Cape?
“If your Excellency should wish to render yourself acquainted with my affair, and to ascertain my sentiments, I am ready to submit to your perusal all my correspondence with the Governor of St. Helena, and to lay before you my letters to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent and his Ministers. I make this offer with the wish that it may be accepted. If to subject myself voluntarily, on my arrival in England, to any measures, however arbitrary, which might be deemed equivalent to my political quarantine here, would induce you to alter your determination, I am ready to accede willingly to that condition: such is my ardent desire to return to Europe, owing to the state of my son’s health and my own; and also on account of the melancholy solitude in which I find myself placed, separated as I am from my family, which is most dear to me, and from the revered object for whose sake I made the sad sacrifice of leaving my country.
“Finally, my Lord, if there remain no chance of my liberation, at least permit my son to depart. Let him not fall a victim to circumstances to which his age must render him wholly a stranger. I willingly consent to see him separated from me, in the hope of securing to him a happier lot than that which seems to be reserved for me. I will remain here alone, to struggle with my infirmities and sorrows, to which I shall resign myself with the greater indifference, when I reflect that my child is released from the sentence of lingering death which is executing on me, though I have been tried by no tribunal, and condemned by no judge.
“I have the honour to address to your Excellency a letter to Lord Castlereagh, enclosing one for his Royal Highness the Prince Regent. These letters were written before I received the information which you had the goodness to communicate to me on this subject. I know not to which of the Ministers I ought to have addressed myself; but I consider it unnecessary to write the letter over again, as the state of my eyes renders writing a very painful task, and I find that I have observed the necessary forms.”
LETTER TO LORD CASTLEREAGH, INCLOSING THAT
ADDRESSED TO THE PRINCE REGENT.
“My Lord,—As I know not to which of your colleagues I ought to appeal, I address myself to you, as the person of whom I have acquired the greatest knowledge through public events. If the details relating to St. Helena have been communicated to your Lordship, they must, doubtless, have inspired you with great prejudice against me; and yet, had they been properly explained, my conduct must have appeared to you worthy of esteem, and, perhaps, even have excited your interest.
“At Longwood I considered myself within a sacred boundary, of which it was my duty to defend the approaches. I would willingly have died on the breach: I resisted. But now, when I find myself removed from the revered circle, and again mingling with the common mass, I assume another attitude: I implore.
“I therefore beg and entreat, my Lord, and I speak in the supposition that I am addressing the Minister to whom this appeal ought to be directed, I entreat that you will allow me to proceed to England, since the alarming state of my son’s health and my own renders skilful and prompt medical treatment necessary.
“What reason can there be for refusing my request? It cannot be personal hatred! I am too obscure to attain such an honour. It cannot be the vague dislike arising from difference of opinion! You are so much accustomed to difference of this kind in England, and it is cherished with so little rancour, that it would be ridiculous to suppose such a circumstance could operate to my prejudice. Can it be the fear that I should write or speak of the affairs of St. Helena? But would not your refusal to grant my request, in some measure, authorize the bitterness which it will be so easy to vent elsewhere? Besides, if your object were to restrain me from publishing, my residence in England would surely render this object the more secure and easy; for there you have not only general laws, but also particular laws, against such offences. When the individual is near you, you have, as positive guarantees, his prudence, his judgment, and, above all, his wish of remaining in the country.
“Thus, my Lord, I see no motive for refusing my request; but I see many reasons for granting it. You would, by this means, have the fairest opportunity of arriving at the truth, by procuring contradictory and opposite statements. In discharging the noble functions of a juror, can you satisfy your conscience by viewing only one side of the question? I can shew you the other; and I will do so, without prejudice or passion. You will find that I am inspired only by sentiment.
“I must now call your Lordship’s attention to my papers which are detained at St. Helena. I have several times explained their nature; but I will once more describe them. They are a collection of manuscripts, in the form of a Journal, in which, for the space of eighteen months, I inscribed all that I learned, saw, or heard respecting him who, in my eyes is, and will ever continue to be, the greatest of men. This Journal, which was incomplete, incorrect, unarranged and, from its nature, requiring continual correction, was a secret, which was revealed only by the circumstances that took place previously to my departure from St. Helena. Its existence known to none, except perhaps the august individual who was the object of it; and even he is, at this moment, ignorant of its contents. It was not destined to be published during my life; and I took pleasure in endeavouring to render it a complete and valuable historical monument. My Lord, I beg that you will order the whole of those papers to be forwarded to you. This you may do without inconvenience. I solemnly protest that they contain nothing that can, either directly or indirectly, be necessary or useful to the local authority of St. Helena, in furtherance of the great object with which that authority is intrusted. The inspection of my papers at St. Helena can be productive of no advantage; but, on the contrary, may occasion serious inconvenience by aggravating, through the personal allusions contained in them, the ill-humour and irritation that already prevail in too great a degree.
“If, on my arrival in England, your Lordship, from your political situation, should think proper to order the examination of these papers, which are of so sacred and private a nature, I shall cheerfully submit to your judgment, because the examination will take place under my own cognizance, and I shall have the security of those inviolable and sacred forms, which I am sure your Lordship will direct to be observed. I trust you will not refuse this second favour, which I urgently solicit.
“My Lord, I have the honour to forward to you a letter for the Prince Regent, which I beg you will do me the favour to lay before His Royal Highness. My profound respect for his august person alone prevents me from sending it unsealed; and I authorize your Lordship to open it, if custom admits of your doing so,—I have the honour,” &c.