Expedition to Central Africa—Private E. Swenny—Journey to Beni-Olid—Hospitality of the natives at Sokna—Black Mountains—Privations and exertions—Private John Maguire—Gatrone—Sufferings of the slaves in their march across the desert—Evidences of the number that perish—Trials of the expedition; halts at Kouka—Party with the department of Practical Art—Sanitary survey of Woolwich—Detachment for survey of Van Diemen’s Land—Additional commissions to the corps—Company at Alderney—Corporal James S. Taylor at New York—Company recalled from the Cape—Company to the Mauritius—Party to Melbourne—Inconvenience of its popularity—Epidemic at Bermuda—Detachment for the Mint at Sydney—Greatcoats.

Corporal James F. Church and private Edward Swenny, energetic and intelligent men, were appointed on the 19th February to join the expedition to Central Africa under Dr. Barth. The former was a carpenter, and the latter a surveyor and draughtsman acquainted with the management of philosophical instruments, and had, previously to his enlistment, travelled in Belgium, France, Algiers, and Milan. From political considerations they quitted in the character of civilians, but were armed each with a Colt’s revolver, a rifle, a double-barrel fowling-piece, a bowie knife, and an axe.

On the 20th February they embarked at Southampton, under Dr. Vogel, a young German astronomer attached to the expedition, and after a short stay on shore at Malta, proceeded to Tripoli, where they tarried for some months, devoting their leisure to learning the Arabic dialect, and familiarizing themselves with the mode of riding on camel-back. Corporal Church also mastered the use of the sextant, mountain barometer, azimuth compass, &c., so as to make ready observations with them.

From a dangerous illness private Swenny could not go on with the expedition, and was sent to England with high testimonials for zeal and ability from Dr. Vogel and Colonel Herman, the Tripoline consul. The ill chance which deprived the enterprise of his valuable services was much regretted by Lord Clarendon, who granted the invalid in addition to his salary a gratuity of 15l. His place was supplied by private John Maguire, a fine soldier and skilful mechanic, who was selected from among thirty-six volunteers of the company of the corps at Malta.

The caravan under Dr. Vogel was a large one of thirty-seven camels, carrying upwards of four tons of baggage and presents for the sultan of Bornou and other chiefs. The organization of the force, with the packing and distribution of the baggage, was chiefly confided to corporal Church, who in consequence of the temporary indisposition of Dr. Vogel set out in charge of the expedition on the 19th June, in company with Mr. F. Warrington, a gentleman well known in Tripoli, to Beni-olid, where he arrived on the 26th. There Dr. Vogel joined on the 2nd July, and a day or two afterwards the caravan was again in motion.motion.

At Sokna, midway between Tripoli and Moorzuk, a number of the natives approached them with greeting, and conducted them to an ample residence already prepared for their accommodation. A supply of provisions, consisting of melons, green figs, dates, two sheep, two large dishes of bazeen, and three dishes of some other compound, owning a name more curious than intelligible, was placed at their disposal. In the evening a similar presentation was made to them, and the like extravagant proofs of generosity were continued to the travellers for four days more. Presents were made in return to compensate for this hospitality; but the natives would only accept a few specimens of English cutlery in the shape of knives and razors. On quitting Sokna the governor and the people accompanied the caravan a short distance on the road, and took their leave of the adventurers with unequivocal demonstrations of sympathy and good will.

Next day the expedition entered the pass of Gible Asswaa, or Black Mountains, a region of dreariness and desolation. In every direction masses of basalt seemed to have been upheaved by some convulsion of nature, whilst in some places the rock had all the semblance of iron suddenly cooled after leaving the furnace. Much of the road was of the worst character for travelling, for it was not only hard and broken, but ridged with knife-like edges, which gashed the camels’ feet and lamed them. This sterile region extended for more than fifty miles without even a shrub or an insect to invite observation. To add to their trials, the travellers were four days and a-half without water save that carried by the camels, which from being constantly acted upon by the sun was always more than tepid and lost much of its relish. In these mountains the heat was excessive. When exposed to the full blaze of the sun the mercury in the thermometer rushed up speedily to 150°; and afterwards, when corporal Church withdrew the instrument from the sand in which he had buried it about six inches deep, the indication was 130°. After passing the Black Mountains, the corporal counted in one day nine skeletons of camels which had fallen in the waste from exhaustion.

The expedition now traversed a far-spreading plain, and being short of water, pushed on night and day by long marches for the well called Omhul-obid, or the Mother of Slaves. Before gaining it, they were wearied with sixty-six hours’ exertion in the saddle out of eighty, and the camel which Church had ridden from Tripoli, fell dead at Erfad from fatigue.

In a few days afterwards—5th August, 1853—the expedition reached Moorzuk, where private Maguire joined it on the 31st of the same month. This soldier, cool and confident, journeyed from Tripoli with three or four Arabs who were unable to speak a word of English. He was equally unable to exchange with them a word of Arabic. Gesture and grimace, therefore, were the means employed by him to communicate his orders and to express his feelings of satisfaction or discontent; but notwithstanding this impediment, he gallantly drove on, and in thirty-four days accomplished the journey under a fierce sun, without casualty and with credit.

On the 16th October the adventurers left Moorzuk, and had a toilsome journey as far as Gatrone, where they arrived on the 24th of the same month. Seven days Dr. Vogel and his sappers remained at this place to await the arrival of the rest of the lagging camels and stores. In that time they were joined by a caravan of merchants with about fourteen Arabs from Egypt, going to Bornou to purchase slaves.

While at Gatrone a batch of more than 700 slaves, nearly all women and children, passed through the place. The grown-up men in the drove did not seem to exceed twenty in number. All were in a miserably withered state, and many were panting and dying from fatigue and want. Already they had been driven across a desert between 600 and 700 miles, and had yet to go to Tripoli, nearly 700 miles more. Every step of the journey was to be tramped, and most of them had burdens to bear on their heads, of from fifteen to twenty pounds or more in weight, according to their strength. The slave-masters were very cruel to the wretched creatures, for, if they showed signs of lassitude or fell exhausted on the sand, the whip was applied with unmeasured severity to their naked bodies; and if the horrid scourging failed to move them on, they were abandoned to their fate, perhaps three days from the next well, to perish from raging thirst.

The expedition reached Teghery on the 3rd November, and resting for a few days, after collecting dates for the use of the camels, moved on the 7th into the Great Desert. In the first three days no less than 250 skeletons of slaves were passed, and fragments of bones were scattered about in such vast numbers on the route, that one could traverse the wilderness unguided, without much chance of missing the track. At the wells of Meshroo, about two days’ journey from Teghery, the ground had the appearance of an excavated cemetery, or the site of a well-contested battle; and to be free from these sickening relics of mortality, the doctor and his sappers pitched their tents for the night at a distance.

The travelling was carried on at the rate of twelve or thirteen hours a-day, without halting, which was equal to a journey of from twenty-five to thirty miles. This was reckoned to be very fair work, as camels usually only go over two miles and a half of ground in an hour. The average heat of the sun ranged from 125° to 130°, and beamed upon the wayfarers with so oppressive an intensity that their substance and their strength were wasted in excessive perspiration. In the evening they halted, spread canvas, and lay down for the night. The two sappers posted themselves in turn as sentries over the caravan, to protect it from injury or surprise. During the night, owing to the state of the atmosphere falling from its fiery day heat to a temperature sometimes as low as 45°, the men suffered from a feeling of extreme cold.

In this way the expedition journeyed for sixteen days without seeing a single native. For ten marches of the period they looked in vain for the slightest trace of herbage, but at a Waddy called Ekaba, a not very luxuriant oasis, they found a little coarse grass that afforded an acceptable change to the camels after feeding for ten days upon dry dates. On the 27th November the expedition was at Ashanumra, in the country of the tribes of Tibboo.

In due time the expedition reached Kouka where it remained for a while, as Dr. Barth had gone on to Timbuctoo. The return of the chief being uncertain Dr. Vogel explored the country in the vicinity of the lake, taking with him corporal Maguire. Corporal Church was left to carry on the meteorologicalmeteorological observations. Contrary to expectation, Dr. Barth, who had been reported dead, returned to Kouka, and soon after, corporal Church accompanied him home. Whatever services may since have been conducted by Dr. Vogel—of which no account has been communicated to the corps, it is proper, nevertheless, to record to the credit of the corporal the very kind terms in which, under date the 4th December, 1855, the doctor wrote of him to the Consul-General at Tripoli:—

“I beg to recommend to your special notice my faithful companion John Maguire, royal sappers and miners, who has, notwithstanding a serious indisposition under which he suffered in the beginning of our journey, used every exertion to promote the object of the expedition, and behaved in the most praiseworthy manner.” For his services corporal Church received a gift of 15l. from the foreign minister and a silver watch from the Royal Geographical Society.

The small party under Captain Owen, R.E., at Marlborough House, was increased in February to five rank and file. On the completion of the referential arrangement of the correspondence and documents connected with the Great Exhibition, they were attached in May to the department of practical science and art, under the superintendence of Mr. Henry Cole. Since the transfer they have been engaged in services of a very miscellaneous character, embracing the distribution to national and public schools of examples and models for teaching elementary knowledge, form, and colour, mounting and tinting examples and prints, preparing models, &c., and officiating as clerks and draughtsmen in the offices at Marlborough House. Corporal Mack, in addition to his ordinary duties, produced two or three plans of an interesting character. In arranging some dietary tables Dr. Lyon Playfair engaged the assistance of the corporal. The ingredients used as food, extending to twenty-three substances, having been subjected by the professor to analysis, required to be classified into a simple and consistent arrangement. This the corporal effected by means of an ingenious diagram in colours. Dr. Playfair was well pleased with the illustration, and when at a meeting of the Royal Society, to which the corporal had the honour of being invited, the professor announced his intention of publishing it for the use of schools, the promise was received with applause. True to his intention, Professor Playfair afterwards produced the plan in colours on a very large scale, and gave it a distribution as wide as the United Kingdom. On the 8th June, 1853, the diagram was exhibited at the Mansion-house, and attracted much attention. A reduced plan of the illustration was also made for the Dean of Hereford, which forms the frontispiece to the sixth edition of his work on ‘Secular Education.’ Corporal Mack constructed another elementary diagram, commencing with the diet of an agricultural labourer and ascending to that of a convict. Singular to add, by this scale it appears that good diet is increased in the same ratio as crime; and the industrious husbandman fares worse than the felon!

Corporal Gardner, with an assistant sapper, had charge of the decorative furniture of cabinetry, silk tapestry, and drawings, exhibited at Gore House. He received the various specimens, assisted to arrange them, and was intrusted with the responsible duty of securing their safety. On his removal to the royal mint, to receive instructions in the process of coining, he was succeeded by second-corporal John Pendered, who retained the charge of the cabinetry until the close of the exhibition in September, 1853. He also had the care of Gore House estate and the adjoining grounds, purchased by the Royal Commissioners. Second-corporal Frederick Key, the foreman of carpenters at Marlborough and Gore Houses, superintended the construction of the fitments for the exhibition of cabinetry, and the necessary repairs to the interior of Gore House. The working pay of the party, in addition to their regimental allowances, was 2s. each a-day, but corporal Pendered was allowed 3s. a-day, in consideration of the extra charge confided to him in the care of Gore House estate.

On the 15th February was commenced the sanitary survey of Woolwich for the Local Board of Health by corporal James Macdonald, having under him a small variable party of sappers and civil assistants. The survey comprised that part of Woolwich lying south of the river Thames, and was finished in October, the work having been delayed for a few months by the withdrawal of the party for the military survey of Chobham. Corporal Macdonald was provided with outline tracings from the 5-feet initial plan of the metropolitan survey, enlarged to ten feet to a mile. These he carefully corrected, and filled in the details, embodying such other minutiæ as were necessary to assist the local authorities in effecting improvements in the drainage, &c. The whole work, so creditable to corporal Macdonald, mapped on about twenty full sheets, was done at the expense of the Woolwich Board of Health for 450l.

Under the authority of a royal warrant dated 24th February, a detachment of one sergeant, two corporals, and twelve privates was raised for the survey of Van Diemen’s Land, which brought the establishment of the corps to a force of 2,200 officers and men. In anticipation of this sanction, the party had been organized and sent to Hobart Town in 1852.

On the 1st April two Quartermasters were added to the corps by the Master-General—Lord Raglan. One was attached to the royal engineer establishment at Chatham, and the other to the companies employed on the ordnance survey. Major Walpole originated the former, Lieutenant-Colonel Hall the latter, and Sir John Burgoyne, the inspector-general of fortifications, ably supported the suggestions by his recommendation. These commissions were bestowed to reward merit, and to place the corps on an equal footing of advantage with the royal artillery, which regiment, taking its published force at the time as a datum, gave one commission from the ranks for every 700 men.

The eleventh company was removed from Alderney to Woolwich on the 2nd June, owing to the diminished strength of the corps there and at Chatham, rendering the withdrawal expedient. For twelve months it had been stationed on the island, and during that period its services were confined principally to the construction of the Longy lines and to scarping the rock in front of them, with the view of making the place less accessible to invasion. The masons always had full employment, but the greater part of the company, failing work at their own trades, took service in the quarries, and furnished the stones for the fortifications. Private Simon Williams was noticed as the best and most successful cutter and builder. On the removal of the company, a small party was left for special duties as foremen and clerks.

An incident occurred in July which from its novelty is deserving of record. Private William Calder committed forgery and theft, and deserted from the corps. His movements being traced and his assumed name discovered, second-corporal James S. Taylor, fully acquainted with his delinquencies, was sent to the United States, provided with a warrant from the Foreign Secretary, to demand, under the Convention, the apprehension and extradition of the culprit. He had embarked at a Scottish port on board the ‘Dirigo,’ and as she was sailing up to New York, corporal Taylor, who had arrived in a steamer before her, boarded the trader, captured the thief, and found in his possession all the property he had stolen from his comrades and the Ordnance. The case was taken before Judge Edmonds—notable for his eccentric decisions—and, contrary to the clearest evidence, he discharged the offender, and insinuated, from some extraordinary reasoning he employed, that the corporal himself had committed the forgery. Protesting against the inference, with soldier-like forbearance and respect, he induced the judge to make a promise to cancel his unjust remarks, but his Honour, regardless of his word, afterwards published them without modification. The unmerited accusation, however, did not discourage the corporal from following up his duty; and he made two other attempts to secure the person of the deserter, by asking a remand until direct evidence could be adduced from England, but the partisan judge, proof against proof, ordered the unconditional dismissal of the thief, and thus afforded an asylum to a fugitive, whose character is a reflection on the verdict that shielded him from justice. The exemplary conduct of second-corporal Taylor, eulogized by Sir John Burgoyne and Lord Raglan, gained for him promotion to the rank of corporal. ‘The Albion,’ a New York Paper, of 3rd September, 1853, gave a spirited leader in vindication of the “soldierly honour” of the corporal; and added, that he “gave his testimony with an air and tone manly, direct, and irreproachable.” On the other hand, the forensic turpitude of Judge Edmonds was strongly condemned, for treating the prisoner as the victim of government persecution instead of a renegade charged with heinous and multiplied crime. The prompt measures taken in the case were intended not merely to punish the offender but to deter others of the corps intrusted with responsibility, money, and property, from the commission of similar offences; and though it failed to secure the delinquent, it opened up for future guidance a sure line of proceeding, which it is hoped there may never be occasion to resort to.

Soon after the close of the Kaffir war the ninth company was withdrawn from the Cape, and landed at Woolwich the 19th September. During its service in the colony, its casualties in action were ten men killed and eleven wounded.

On the representation of Lieutenant-Colonel Waters, commanding royal engineer at the Mauritius, a company was detached from head-quarters in May, which disembarked there on the 25th September. On landing, the fine appearance of the men, their size and soldierlike bearing, attracted the attention of the staff officers and officers of the garrison. In the afternoon they were entertained with a substantial repast, furnished by the spontaneous generosity of the company of royal artillery there. On the following day they were inspected by Major-General Sutherland, who complimented Colonel Waters by observing, “that they were the finest company of soldiers he had for a long time seen.” A testimony like this from the Major-General, who is known not to be satisfied with even mediocrity, was certainly flattering.

A party of three men embarked under Captain A. P. G. Ross, R.E., for the colony of Victoria, landed at Melbourne on the 14th October. Selected as they were with reference to their qualifications as mechanics and general intelligence, they had been appointed to oversee the skill and labour employed in the construction of works for the defence of the harbour, and the rapidly-increasing towns in its vicinity. The defence of the bay by the contemplated fortifications was reported by the Captain to be impracticable, and the party awaited for a time the decision of the provisional government on the point. Meanwhile the sappers were efficiently employed in carrying out some subordinate details connected with the Melbourne Exhibition. It was also proposed by the Harbour commission that works should at once be commenced for the extension of the wharfage on the river Yarra, to give importance and vitality to the shipping and commercial aspects of the colony. Tenders were even called for to carry out the work, but, difficult to satisfy the antagonistic views of a capricious legislature, the suggestion was indefinitely postponedpostponed. Thereupon the Captain and his three sappers returned to England, arriving at Woolwich in the summer of 1855.^[118]

The yellow fever, so frequently the scourge of the Bermuda islands was prevalent at St. George’s from August to November, and carried off its victims in greater numbers than in the fatal epidemics of 1819 and 1843. It commenced among the convicts in the ‘Thames’ hulk, and spread with frightful rapidity, first to the military and civil establishments, and then to the residences of the native population. The first soldier who died was a sapper, and before the sickness had ceased, no less than twenty-five men of the corps, out of a detachment of forty-seven of all ranks, became its victims. Three women and one child of the party also died. Colonel Phillpotts, the commanding royal engineer, and Lieutenant Greatorex, R.E., were among the dead, as also the wife of Lieutenant Whitmore, R.E. All the men of the detachment except three were attacked with the fever, and many suffered relapses. To relieve them as much as possible from the influence of infection, they were early removed from their quarters to an encampment on the north side of the island, near the naval tanks, and finally to Prospect Hill and Port’s Island. “Those who were able,” reports Captain White, R.E., “showed themselves to great advantage by the cheerful way in which they attended to the sick. Their exertions were above all praise.” Several opinions have been ventured relative to the exciting cause of the epidemic, but the general belief was, that from some disturbance in the position of the hulk by the pressure of strong winds and agitated tides, the atmosphere became impregnated with mephitic gases emitted from the accumulation of impurities around her bottom. Ireland Island, where a half company of sappers was stationed, was not visited by the calamity.

A warrant dated 15th of August, sanctioned the formation of a detachment of one sergeant, one corporal, three second-corporals and eleven privates, for service in the mint at New South Wales, which increased the corps to a total of 2,218 of all ranks. To fit them for the duty, they were quartered for several months within the royal mint, near the Tower, where the departments of the establishment were thrown open for their instruction. From a desire to monopolize the craft of the mintage to themselves and their families, the moneyers viewed the employment of the sappers in this confidential work with jealousy and opposition, and just imparted to their military pupils as much knowledge of the art as they cared to divulge. The party, however, made up by attention and observation for what was withheld from them, and promptly acquired full information with respect to the working of the machinery, and the various processes used in coining. Two or three of the smiths were also initiated in the method of adjusting weights and scales, and in the construction of balances and patent locks and safes. Instruction in these mechanical expedients was given them by Mr. Hobbs, celebrated for his exploits in picking locks before considered invulnerable. The first instalment of the detachment, consisting of sergeant Archibald Gardner and nine rank and file, embarked at the London Docks on board the ‘Maid of Judah,’ on the 3rd of December, 1853, and landed at Sydney in March, 1854.

The grey greatcoat, which for nearly half a century had been worn by the corps without improvement, was in November of this year superseded by a blue cloth greatcoat of the same cut and fashion as its predecessor, except that the cuffs for all ranks were abolished, the capes diminished, and the sergeants’ collars were of scarlet, instead of blue cloth.