[JAMES CHOYCE] A NARRATIVE OF SOME ADVENTURES VOYAGES AND TRAVELS IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD BY A BRITISH MARRINER WRITTEN BY HIMSELF 1825

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 4, Issue 2, 1 October 1971, Page 95

[JAMES CHOYCE] A NARRATIVE OF SOME ADVENTURES VOYAGES AND TRAVELS IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD BY A BRITISH MARRINER WRITTEN BY HIMSELF 1825

Dorothy Reid

These memoirs cover the years 1793 to 1823, during which time the writer endured more adventures than usually come to a dozen men in a similar period. The title page as transcribed above contains no mention of James Choyce as the author. However the signature ‘James Choyce’ is faintly visible in ink on the front endpaper and Mr C. R. H. Taylor, when Chief Librarian, established in 1937 that James Choyce appears in a muster book (P.R.O. Ad. 37/1189) where he is shown as having joined the Theseus off Lorient from a French prison, an event he describes in the narrative. I discuss this point later with other evidence of the authenticity of his reminiscences.

Choyce left home at the age of sixteen, in 1793, and apprenticed himself in the Southern Whale Fishery. Nominally an able-seaman on various whaling ships plying in Caribbean waters and along the west coast of South America where he saw and described such fabulous creatures as terrapins and flamingoes, he dwells, in the memoirs, mainly on his adventures on land as a rather unruly prisoner-of-war, first of the Spanish and then of the French. On his second voyage - in the Lydia - he and his shipmates were all taken prisoner by surprise by the Governor of Payta, Peru, upon the latter’s receiving news of the declaration of war between Spain and England, early in 1797.

For the next four years he was trundled around the Peruvian countryside from jail to jail with his comrades, most of whom he describes as continuously under the bad influence of ‘aquardiente’. This method of travel around Peru was strange and rather Frightening for the Englishmen: ‘After sunset that same Evening they mounted us on Mules and tied our Legs under their Bellies, and guarded by upwards of a Hundred Soldiers we set off on our Land expedition, But as we could not well understand each other, We was at a loss to know what they was going to do with us, For My own part I wishd myself safe out of their Hands, for the Moast of them being Indians and Blacks and wearing a thing like a Stripd Blanket with a hole in the Middle which they put their Heads through They appeard to me very quer Beings. . .’ At one stage

they were taken inland to Tarma and on to Cerro de Pasco, the area of the silver mines. The English sailors, however, were not set to work in the mines, but were billeted with various European shopkeepers, etc, for whom they worked for their keep. Choyce regularly planned and executed escapes, accompanied by various numbers of his fellowprisoners. As even in the jails the prisoners were allowed a great deal of freedom, the actual exit from the prison was not the most hazardous part of the escape; the trouble was in staying out of the hands of the police. Many of these escapes were from seaside jails and ended in long days spent in small crafts drifting along the coast without proper provisions until tired, starved, thirsty, and severely sunburnt, they came ashore in search of food and were recaptured. But one escape, which nearly succeeded, was planned and executed in Cerro de Pasco.

Choyce gives his vivid impressions of the life led in Peru by both Europeans and natives at the close of the eighteenth century, the attitudes they had to foreigners (especially the heathen English), and the conduct of his own countrymen. He also describes earthquakes, llamas, and other phenomena quite novel to him. These descriptions are colourful and detailed, and are clearly those of an observant man. The following excerpt is typical of many: ‘[At San Matheo] I saw for the first time People rideing on Viccunias or Guanacos these are a very tractable Animal with a long neck and hind quarters like a Camel but the Head and forequarters and all the Feet are like unto those of a Sheep - They have very long fine Wool for which they are much priz’d They are Natives of the Cordelara Mountains and Delight in Snow. They make a noise not unlike the Crowing of a Cock Their Backs are as High as a Donkey but their Heads are much hyher. They Carry a person very well and usually go on a Gallop. They seemed to be shy of us for on our approaching any of them they would stamp with their fore feet and speat at us because We was strangers But the Spaniards usd to tell us it was because We was no Christians.’

Before peace was declared between England and Spain, Choyce was granted a passport and was transported to Panama and across the isthmus to Porto Bello where he was again imprisoned. Later he and others were taken to Carthagena where they were ransomed by a British ship from Jamaica. He was immediately placed aboard an English frigate, where he found the treatment of sailors rather severe; he also resented being forced to fight against the Spanish since, when freeing him, they had warned him not to or he would forfeit his life if captured. Peace was at last declared between Spain and England; Choyce shortly after deserted the British navy near Vera Cruz, and after several adventures found his way to Europe on a Spanish ship, in April 1802. His one desire was to reach England again, but upon arriving there he found most of his relations dead, and decided to

return to sea. In August 1802 he joined the whaling ship Diana on a voyage to Trinidad, Brazil, the Island of Tristan de Cunha, and Cape Town. On reaching St Helena on the return voyage, December 1803, they received news of war between France and England. Shortly afterwards they were captured by a French privateer, Le Blond. Here, as he says, ‘was the Beginning of all My worst Troubles’. He and the other prisoners from his boat and from several others captured by the same French vessel were set ashore at St Jean de Luz, near Bordeaux. They were then marched under guard and on foot inland to Bayonne, Pau, Tarbes, and Mirande. Here Choyce organised his last major unsuccessful escape; he and two companions dropped out of line during the next day’s march, and headed for the Spanish border, well over the Pyrenees. They struggled for several days over the mountains through the snow with no clothes but those left on their backs by the French sailors who had plundered their prisoners, and with no food but a three-pound loaf of bread luckily served out to each prisoner on the day of their escape. At the border, however, they were apprehended by the French customs officers and brought back to France. Choyce by this time, being bilingual, had adopted a Spanish name as being preferable to an English name in Napoleonic France. Still, he was kept a prisoner.

Now, however, he walked in chains: ‘and the following morning They put a Chain round our Necks with a Padlock under our Chins being in this Manner Chain’d together They gave us a Pound of Brown Bread each, then March’d us off with two Gendarmes and in this Manner We arrived in Four Days at Tarbs\ And in this manner he was marched the entire length of France - through Auch, Toulouse, Grisolles, Montauban, Cahors, Souillac, St Quentin, Cambrai, Sedan, Damvillers, and at last Verdun. They did not remain there long, and were soon moved via Metz, and Boulay to Sarrelibre (now Saarlouis), in August 1804. This march of some 1,089 miles, as Choyce computes it, was accomplished entirely on foot, in chains, fed only on brown bread. They were bedded down at night in town jails, often with hardened French criminals, and were forced to drag, because of the chain, any companion who was too sick from fever and ague to walk. The conditions were indescribable. And Choyce has few kind words for the wealthy English detained in France at the commencement of war (mainly at Verdun) as hostages. They were interested only in money and fun, and did nothing to help these lower class countrymen of theirs. Often subscription money collected in England for the prisoners never reached them, but was pocketed by the ad hoc committees set up to distribute the money. By 1808, Choyce was fed up with French prisons and annoyed with

not receiving his proper allowance. He decided to offer to enlist in the French navy, as all non-English prisoners were allowed to do, and find some way to escape from there. His Spanish pseudonym served him well, and he was despatched to Lorient, but not, as he had hoped, a free man; he marched under guard and occasionally chained to a band of French ‘desarters’. He took ill of fever and had his share of being dragged along on the chain. He had to fight for his life one night against French prisoners at Chalons, spent one night in a charnel house, and a day and two nights in the company of a man who had died shortly after Choyce had joined him in the jail. At last he reached Lorient, having walked some 708 miles, and was taken aboard a French ship in the harbour.

As this was 1808, the English fleet was in command of the high seas and blockading the harbour of Lorient, standing some distance from the harbour entrance which was guarded by three French ships. Being set ashore to live in tents while the ships were being cleaned in preparation for Napoleon’s visit to the place, Choyce devised a means of escape along an arm of the harbour running parallel to the shore, and with one companion paddled out to the British men of war. He was taken aboard the HMS Theseus where his detailed knowledge of the harbour and disposition of the French ships was considered valuable. He was present at and took part in the Battle of Aix Roads, April 1809. In this battle Lord Cochrane experimented with fire ships - without much success - and was later court-martialled for disobeying orders not to follow up the battle by destroying the stranded French ships. Choyce gives detailed and fairly accurate accounts of the battle and mentions the fact of Cochrane’s misdemeanour.

His ship was shortly sent back to England with French prisoners. On being allowed twenty-four hours’ leave in England, Choyce decided not to return, as chances of advancement seemed poor. As soon as he reached London, however, he was empressed and again sent to sea aboard a whaler. On this voyage he went around Cape Horn to the Galapagos Islands (1810), Peru, and back to England (1811). He was empressed again, but managed to raise the required to supply two substitutes.

The last few pages of the memoirs recount later whaling voyages he undertook; so that he must have returned to sea almost immediately. These later voyages can be summarized fairly quickly: i) On the Inspector, 1812, to Timor and other islands in the Indian Seas, Straits of Panther (descriptions of natives), Malacca Passage, Island of Celebes (descriptions of people and houses), Philippine Islands, Spice Islands, St Helena, where they ran into bad storms which damaged the ship and for days they were supplied by passing vessels; England was reached on Christmas Day 1814.

2) 1815 to Falkland Islands (recounted tales of shipwrecked men they found there), Cape Horn, Peru, Galapagos Islands, Tumbez River (heard of peace between England and America), Payta, Cape Horn, Coast of Brazil (heard of‘Peace with all the World’), England, 1816. It was on this voyage that Choyce witnessed a volcanic eruption on Albemarle, one of the Galapagos Islands, late in December 1815. He described the eruption as follows: ‘After leaving Charls s Island We Cruiz’d among the Islands and on the 27th of Dec 1 the Island of Albemarl Baring East from us Six or Seven Leagues, and the South Head baring ESE and Narbio NE D N Between Five and Six Oclock in the Morning it being then calm We heard a rumbling noise like distant Thunder at the same time the Top of a Mountain - on the South part of Albemarl - fell in and a large body of Smoke and Fire ascended to a Prodidious hight at the same time a stream of Burning Lava Ishuing from the Crator and runing down towards the Sea Covering to all appearance a Mile of Ground in Breadth. In the afternoon having a breeze We stood in towards the Volcano and before Sunset perceiv’d another Volcano had broke out Two or Three miles from the former but not so large. After Dark it appear’d aufully grand and We Could then See its dimentions. The Face of the Mountain seem’d to be a Continual Body of Fire the streams of Burning Lava was runing several Miles and extended quite down to the Sea. . . .’

Choyce now improved his position on the whalers; on the last two voyages he sailed as Chief Mate and Master respectively. He was to experience the unruly behaviour of sailors much as his superiors had received from him twenty years before. 3) On the Elizabeth Frances, February 1818, as Chief Mate, bad storms in the North Sea, Yarmouth, Dover, Madeira, Cape Verde Islands, Falkland Islands, Cape Horn, Peru, Cape St Francisco (mention of the Patriots versus the Spanish during the Spanish-American Revolution), Galapagos Islands, Island of Juan Fernandez (Robinson Crusoe Island), Valparaiso, Cape Horn, England in 1820. 4) On the Sarah Ann, September 1820, as Master of the whaling ship, Cape Horn, Island of Juan Fernandez (tales of English, Americans and Spanish who plundered the ships and killed the sailors of any ships they managed to inveigle ashore), also murderers on Island of St Marys, Easter Island, scurvy, Peru, refused right to get provisions in Santa by orders of General San Martin, some sailors deserted to join the Patriots and make their fortune, most whalers off to Japan as whales were becoming scarcer off the coasts of South America, reached Bay of Concepcion in January 1823, where he met Duperrey who was setting off on his voyage of discovery; Choyce took back for him some despatches to the French Government; Cape Horn; reached England on 13 June 1823.

At this point the memoirs come to an abrupt end. It is, perhaps, worth noting that some of his stories can be substantiated. I cannot pretend to have verified many of his claims - that would require studying the geography of Peru and the history of the American revolt, as well as tracking down records of all of the whaling ships Choyce claimed to have sailed in - but the most obvious points I have checked quickly and in all cases they corroborate Choyce. The war between England and Spain which resulted in his capture early in 1797, the outbreak of war with France again in 1803, Lord Cochrane’s court-martial and his later re-appearance as commander of the patriots’ navy in the South American revolt against Spain, and the date of Duperrey’s stay at Concepcion - in all these cases the dates and facts in Choyce’s narrative are correct. In the last case, Choyce’s date is within a day or two of when Duperrey records that his ship anchored in the Bay of Concepcion. A glance at a map showing the harbour of Lorient proves beyond a doubt that Choyce knew his territory when he described his escape from the French Navy. The arm of the harbour down which the two men paddled is separated from the sea by an extremely narrow strip of land across which they dragged their small boat to the open sea, thus escaping the notice of the French frigates guarding the harbour entrance. And the most romantic adventure of all, his being picked up by the HMS Theseus outside Lorient, has been recorded. As mentioned in the introductory paragraph, a letter from the Public Record Office, dated 18 November 1937, gave the following information: ‘There seems to be no reference to Phillip Watts or his companion in this muster book. In the next volume, however, (Ad. 37/1189), a “Gilbert Watts” appears who with a companion, James Choyce, is described as joining the Theseus off Lorient from a French prison on June 29th, 1808. James Choyce is described as A. 8., aged 30, born in Chelsea. The Captain’s Log of the Theseus for June 29th reads as follows: “Fired several guns at some armed boats. Sent the boats manned and armed to cut off fishing boats. At 8 the boats returned.”’ The impressions left with the reader of the memoirs, besides astonishment that he survived all his adventures, are the leniency and freedom in the Peruvian jails and the relatively kind treatment received at the hands of the Spaniards, in comparison with that of the French during the Napoleonic Wars; his descriptions of sailors’ behaviour; his determination to return to England despite his treatment by Englishmen and despite offers to work in Peru and to serve on board a Spanish ship; and, of course, the descriptions of the peoples, manners, and customs of these far-away places as early as the 1800 s. Altogether, a fascinating memoir.