F OREWORD
iv
Few are those among men who have crossed over to the other shore
while the rest of mankind runs along the bank.
Attributed to Buddha
ake yourself back in time two hundred years…Britain was feeling confident and on
the brink of becoming the greatest empire in history: Napoleon had been recently
defeated at Waterloo,1 France was subject to an army of occupation, and violently
insane King George2 of Great Britain would soon die.
On the southern tip of Africa, controlling the sea route between Europe and the
profitable and exotic East, lay Cape Town ‘the Gibraltar of India’ previously occupied by
the Dutch East India Company, and now a British crown colony.
Two months sail to the north-east of the Cape lay Bengal, the richest region of
India. After the ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ atrocity Bengal had been seized3 by the cunning,
treacherous, but patriotic Clive of India4 in a stunning victory.
Now the British East India Company (often called John Company)5 had the right to
trade and collect taxes6 and the ‘Honourable Company’ was becoming rapidly dominant
over large regions of India. After the Third Anglo-Maratha War,7 which left the British in
control of most of India, involvement changed from adventurism into colonialism. Opium
was an exceptionally profitable crop.
The lure of commercial opportunities from sealskin, timber, flax and whale oil on
the far side of the earth, remote New Zealand, were drawing newcomers to those distant
shores: opportunists, sailors seeking asylum, escaped convicts and missionaries. Traders
dealt in provisions, muskets, rum and tattooed human heads. Cannibalism flourished.
Russia was the only threat to British ambition…and all eyes were on India, the
jewel in the crown! The struggle for control of Central Asia, the so-called ‘Great Game’,8
had begun – espionage, deceit and intrigue, and many cold and hot wars between these
rivals.
For those who were prepared to risk their lives in the conquering and
administration of far-flung colonies there were great opportunities, especially in the
rapidly growing interests in Bengal and its seat of regional British power, Calcutta,9 the
city established in 1690 by Job Charnock.10 Of those that survived in India, some even
believed:
T
Their chief employment was riding in a palanquin,11 eating curry and smoking a
12
hooka.
1 Battle of Waterloo (1815). Napoleon was subsequently interned on the island of St. Helena, in the South Atlantic Ocean.
2 George III of Great Britain (1738-1820; r. 1760-1811).
3 Battle of Plassey (1757); ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’ (1756). Plassey is located north of Calcutta.
4 Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive of Plassey.
5 Jehan Kampani (‘powerful company’). Also known as the ‘Honourable East India Company’. Incorporated by royal charter 31 December 1600
under the name ‘Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies’. From 1708-1873 ‘United Company Of Merchants Of
England Trading To The East Indies’. The company ceased to exist as a legal entity in 1873.
6 These rights are known as ‘diwani’. In Bengal the right to tax is known as ‘zamindar’, a Persian word used in India, of various meanings usually
relating to land ownership and use.
7 Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-1818).
8 The name was coined by Captain Arthur Conolly. In June 1842 he and Colonel Charles Stoddart were beheaded by the Emir’s executioner in
Bokhara (Uzbekistan) after months of maltreatment.
9 Modern day Kolkata.
10 Charnock is believed to have rescued a 15 year old native girl from suttee (burning of the widow alive on her husband’s funeral pyre). He married
her that afternoon and renamed her Maria. They had four daughters, all of whom were married to European merchants living in Bengal.
11 Covered litter or sedan chair, usually carried by four or six men.
12 Sarah refers to this type of ‘tobac’ pipe as a ‘hubble tubble’. The quote is from the memoirs of Lieutenant John Greenwood.
v
THIS WAS THE WORLD that Sarah Mason Speedy (née Squire), the authoress of these
Memoirs, was born into in the frozen winter of 18181 forty miles from the site of the Battle
of Waterloo, to a socially well-to-do English family, the second of a large family of girls.
The military was in Sarah’s blood. It is believed that Sarah’s grandfather2 attained
the rank of colonel, and two uncles3 were lieutenants in the Royal Navy.
Sarah’s father, Tristram Squire,4 joined the army with the rank of ensign in 18095
and a few months later was fighting Napoleon’s army in Spain and Portugal,6 during
which he was promoted to lieutenant.7
Tristram’s regiment was rushed to France in 1815, but arrived too late to take part
in the Battle of Waterloo. He served in the Army of Occupation in France after Waterloo,
and recruited troops8 in Ireland for his regiment.
Tristram was promoted to captain (1821),9 brevet-major (1837),10 regt.-major
11
(1839), lieut.-colonel (1842)12 and rose13 to commanding officer of the 13th Prince
Albert’s Light Infantry,14 and retired with the rank of colonel after thirty seven years of
service. Later his son-in-law,15 notorious for dueling,16 would attain the same position.
We know little of Sarah’s mother, Margaret Eastfield,17 daughter of Captain John
Eastfield other than from Sarah’s Memoirs where she is portrayed with considerable pride.
Sarah’s mother was a resourceful and courageous woman. She cared for the family under
the most trying and dangerous circumstances, facing challenges from the most unexpected
quarters.
She had to be strong, going pregnant into the unknown with her young daughters,
babies included, and sometimes an invalid husband.
SARAH’S FATHER EXCHANGED INTO the unluckily named and tragically fated 13th Light
Infantry18 and in 1822 the Squire family sailed for Bengal, India on a voyage that would
take five months. Six novice Squire ‘griffins’,19 sahib and memsahib1 landed in Calcutta
1 Sarah is a Capricorn (the Goat is an earth sign - practical and prudent, ambitious and disciplined, patient and careful, humorous and reserved). She
was born under an emerging crescent moon 'Prophet's eyebrow' sky. Sarah means ‘Princess’. The mad philosopher, Karl Marx was also born in this
year.
2 Tristram (or William, according to one source) Squire was born in 1747 at Stoke Damerel, Devon, and christened on 6 March 1747 at Stoke
Damerel. He married Ann Charnley on 1 May 1775 at Stoke Damerel. His parents were Tristram Squire and Mary Badcock.
3 William Squire and John Squire.
4 Tristram Charnley Squire (1781-1855) Christened on 11 Jan 1782 at St Bride, Fleet St, London. He married Margaret Smith Eastfield on 22 June
1812 at St Bride. Tristram died 10th June 1855 at Felpham, West Sussex.
5 24th April 1809.
6 Peninsula War (1808-1814) He served with the 7th Royal Fusiliers in the campaigns of 1810, 1811 and 1813.
7 31st January 1810.
8 Probably receiving ‘bringing in money’ for every man enlisted.
9 18th October 1821.
10 10th January 1837.
11 21st April 1839.
12 4th August 1842.
13 In 1842 Sarah’s father, Tristram, became 2nd Lieutenant-Colonel by the death of the greatly distinguished Colonel Dennie, ‘A Soldier as brave as
any the British Army ever possessed’ (more on William Dennie, C.B., in the footnotes to Sarah Speedy’s Memoirs). Tristram succeeded to the
command of the Regiment and remained with it until 1846, when he retired by sale.
14 13th (1st Somersetshire) (Prince Albert’s Light Infantry) Regiment.
15 Alexander Holcombe on the 26th June, 1855.
16 ‘…we went to Felpham, a little village near Bognor, on the south coast of England, to stay with Mrs George Tytler and her father Colonel
Squire…One day, as we were at dinner, he [Colonel Holcombe] tried his best to provoke my husband to say something so that he might call him out
to fight a duel…Next day we were ready to return to London when Colonel Holcombe came forward to shake hands and begged to let bygones be
bygones. I put both my hands behind my back and said, “I will never shake hands with a murderer”, for he had fought many duels.’ (Harriet Tytler,
‘An Englishwoman In India’, Oxford University Press 1986)
17 Margaret Smith Eastfield (15 October 1785 – 1 March 1853).
18 13th (1st Somersetshire Light Infantry) Regiment.
19 A new-comer to India.
vi
just prior to the monsoon of 1823: Sarah aged five, her father and expectant mother, and
two sisters.
The Kent East Indiaman, on which the Squires sailed to India, caught fire two
years later in the Bay of Biscay and blew up! Mortality amongst European civilians in
India was up to one in three, and in the military, one in two.2 The Squire family was off to
fight imperial wars in a pestilent climate so no wonder Sarah was christened3 shortly
before departure.
Battle injuries were usually treated by amputation (most patients would not
survive). Officer families, including the Squires, would be given strong liquor to dull the
pain of operations and enlisted men a piece of wood to bite on.
Malaria (transmitted by mosquitoes) and cholera (spread in contaminated drinking
water) decimated the British. Wild animals were an ever-present danger, especially snakes
and scorpions inside the bungalow and tigers outside.4
Bloodletting5 was used to treat most ailments. Also widespread was the process of
blistering – caustic substances would be laid over the inflicted part of the body and left
there until blisters formed. The blisters were then broken and drained, thereby releasing
the disease from the body.
Military discipline was harsh. Officers could not be flogged, but all other ranks
received a good dose of the lash – during one campaign of her father’s regiment, a total of
2800 strokes were ordered.6
Where, in so destructive a climate, the discharge even of ordinary duties
is frequently attended with most injurious results to the constitution…7
The Squires were doubtless unaware that Calcutta is named after blood drinking
eight-handed Kali, India’s fearsome goddess of death, disease and destruction – sporting a
necklace of human skulls, and a girdle of severed human arms!
There was a cult of Kali known as thugee,8 from which we derive the word ‘thug’.
In her name thugee would befriend, and then strangle, unsuspecting native travellers with a
silk handkerchief containing a consecrated silver rupee coin for a better grip.
Kali’s city, the ‘city of palaces’9 was:
One of the most wicked places in the Universe… Rapacious and Luxurious
beyond concepcion [sic].10
The native races of India were not held in high regard by the British. The Squires
would have been horrified at the dreadful Hindu practices of suttee11 (the burning of the
widow alive on her husband’s funeral pyre) and female infanticide.
Equally amazing was phallic worship,1 the belief in reincarnation, and the
colourful pantheon of India’s thirty million or so Hindu gods and goddesses, including the
1 Sahib ‘sir’ & memsahib ‘madam’ refer usually, but not exclusively, to Europeans.
2 Life expectancy in Britain was about forty years.
3 Sarah Mason Squire was christened on 27 Nov 1822 at St Bride, Fleet St, London.
4 Some animals were only annoying. ‘At night the Indian noises multiplied…The most hated was the aptly named brain-fever bird; its scream went
on and on and on through the days and late into the nights. ‘”Brain-fever, Brain-fever, BRAIN-FEVER!” he screams in an ever ascending scale till
even I who never weary of the cawing of rooks, or the harsh cries of peacocks before rain, could wring his neck’. (Margaret MacMillan, Women of
the Raj (quoting Rosamund Lawrence))
5 Phlebotomy.
6 The Ghuznee campaign in Afghanistan. Only 1700 strokes were actually delivered.
7 East India Vade-Mecum; or; Complete Guide to Gentlemen intended for the civil, military, or naval service of the Hon. East India Company, by
Captain Thomas Williamson (1810).
8 Induction was typically passed from father to son. The women of the household were kept ignorant of the cult activity.
9 In modern times Calcutta is associated with Dickensian poverty. The decline is often attributed to the decision by the British to move the capital to
New Delhi in 1911.
10 According to Robert Clive ‘of India’.
11 ‘Suttee’ properly refers to the woman so burned, rather than the practice or act itself, which is called ‘anumarana’ (‘dying after’).
vii
monkey-god Hanuman and the elephant-god Ganesha who rides about on a rat. Devotees
of the bull-god Nandi improve their health and spirituality with a daily glass of fresh cow
urine and sadhu (ascetic or self-denying Hindus) dust themselves with the ash of burnt
cow dung. Cannabis was used to open the mind to spiritual enlightenment.
One sect of the Jain, followers of the sage Mahavira,2 walked about ‘sky-clad’ or
naked. They went to extraordinary lengths not to harm even the smallest living creature.
Speculation on their ability to fly, possession of miraculous powers, and sexual
feats were rife – and often believed.3 The Indian rope trick was legendary.
Even their pastimes were bizarre. Popular and widespread as a spectacle was
churuk puja or ‘hook-swinging’, a ritual whereby a person was suspended by metal hooks
inserted through the flesh of the back and whirled through the air.4
The ‘noble savage’, the view that civilization alone corrupts man, was a myth.
As degenerate, crafty, wicked and superstitious a people as any race in the known
world…if not more so!5
AND TROUBLE WAS BREWING. To the east the Burmese were restive and challenging British
claims. In the north-west, across the river Sutlej lay the Sikh Empire of Maharaja6 Ranjit
Singh,7 ‘Lion of Punjab’, a potential ally. The Maharaja had a formidable army trained by
Napoleon’s veterans. Beyond the Sikhs lay Central Asia, a potential backdoor to India,
disputed and manipulated in the ‘Great Game’ between Britain and Russia.
When war inevitably erupted, Sarah’s mother took care of their young family in
Calcutta while Sarah’s father was away with the regiment in the difficult campaign against
Burma.8 He was mentioned in dispatches ‘in a manner most creditable to his zeal and
abilities as an officer and to his gallantry as a soldier.’9
Later the Squires were stationed at various British outposts on the sacred Ganges10
and Jumuna Rivers. For a time the family was residing not far from the site11 of the
Buddha’s enlightenment and later on, within easy horse riding distance of the Taj Mahal.12
Mostly Sarah’s parents expected to travel and live relatively comfortably although
it was at their own expense.
“Three removes are as bad as a fire…” So have we found to our cost, buying things
dear because we must have them, selling them cheap because we must get rid of them. And
then trying to carry about some few household goods, the vexation of their arriving
smashed, cracked, rubbed, bruised, drenched after jolting on miserable hackeries [bullock
carts] over unutterably bad roads, being dragged through streams of all imaginable depths
1 Worship of the male reproductive organs (lingam) as a symbol of the generative power of nature.
2 Born circa 600 BC.
3 ‘Some yogis go stark naked, several of which I have seen in India, and ‘tis reported that the Hindu women will go to them and kiss the yogi’s yard.
Others lie something upon it when it stands, which the yogis take to buy victuals with; and several come to stroke it, as they say, for they lie not with
women nor use any other way to vent their seed. They can hold their breath and lie as if dead for years, all of which time their bodies are kept warm
with oils etc. They can fly and change souls, each with the other or into any beast. They can transform their bodies into what shape they please and
make them so pliable that they can draw them through a little hole, and wind and turn them like soft wax. They are mighty temperate in diet, eating
nothing but milk and a sort of grain they have (17th century writer). See also the ‘Kama Sutra’, an ancient Indian treatise on human sexual behavior.
4 The practice was banned in Bengal in 1865.
5 Attributed to Howell.
6 A raja is a king and a maharaja is a great king. The more grandiose even described themselves as ‘King of King of Kings’.
7 Ranjit Singh (1780-1839; r. 1801-1839).
8 First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826).
9 ‘The Pictorial Times’, Saturday, August 15, 1846.
10 Pronounced ‘Gunga’.
11 Village of Bodh Gaya, Bihar, is the place where Siddharta Gautama attained enlightenment and became the Buddha (circa 500 BC). The Squires
were based nearby at Dinapore, on the Ganges River near Patna.
12 The Taj Mahal is on the Jumuna River at Agra.
viii
and regaled with alternate showers of dust and rain. Such are the “luxuries of Indian
life”.1
However at times conditions were extremely bad. Twice Sarah’s father was
invalided to Cape Town, and the family even journeyed into darkest Africa to seek a cure
for her father’s ailments.
AT THE TENDER AGE of seventeen, Sarah Squire married James Speedy in India.2 James
also had the military in his blood. His father was Captain Robert Speedy3 who was provost
marshal4 of Dublin and his grandfather was Colonel Robert Speedy.5 James’ brother,
Thomas Speedy, retired with the rank of general.
Sarah’s husband James Speedy was born at Dublin, Ireland in 1811,6 entered the
army at the age of seventeen and joined his regiment, ‘The Buffs’,7 in 1828 in Bengal,
India.
James Speedy was a gifted linguist, skilful in Oriental languages, and ‘for several
years held the appointment of regimental interpreter, having passed the prescribed
examinations in 1836, in the Oordoo, Hindee and Persian character.’8 It is not known for
certain how he learned the vernacular. It is likely he had a native tutor or pundit of the
brahman caste,9 a munshi, with whom he met for instruction.
James was honoured to be admitted as regimental interpreter to the great durbar10
in 1837 between Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Sir Henry Fane, commander-in-chief of the
British Indian army.
AFTER THEIR MARRIAGE the Speedys were stationed in north India at Meerut and Kurnaul.
Sarah Speedy was not yet 20 years old, an officer’s wife and a mother, well experienced in
Eastern customs, manners and life, and had a dozen servants. Her parents were still with
the army in India.
Sarah journeyed during a unique period of exploration when very little was known
of the histories, peoples, languages, cultures, geographies and zoologies, outside of
Europe. When she first set foot in India only one event in India’s ancient history was
certain to the British, the invasion of the north-west of India in 326 BC by the great King
Alexander11 of Macedon. In India ‘Sikander’ (as Alexander is called in the East) fought his
last great battle,12 visited the ‘speaking tree’ which foretold his fate,13 and experienced his
only defeat – the exhausted army refused to go further! Descendants of Alexander’s army
still live as a separate tribe in remote valleys of the Hindu Kush Mountains of North-West
Frontier Province.14
However British amateurs made enormous progress with French and German
scholars close at their heels. The Indian origin of one of the world’s great religions,
Buddhism (the civilizing ‘Light of Asia’), was confirmed after an ancient script was
1 ‘The Journals of Honoria Lawrence’ (Kurnal, November 1843)
2 At Agra 14 October 1835.
3 Captain Robert Speedy (1781?-18/01/1867 aged 86).
4 Responsible for military discipline.
5 Colonel Robert Speedy (b.1750).
6 July 6th 1811.
7 3rd (The East Kent) Regiment of Foot (The Buffs).
8 Extract from a letter dated 20 December 1853 from James Speedy (at Chatham Barracks) to Colonel Airey, Military Secretary. Persian was at that
time the international language of diplomacy, prior to French and now English.
9 The four castes of India are: brahman (priest), kshatriya (ruler, warrior, landowner), vaishya (merchants), shudra (artisans, agriculturalists). Within
these four castes are thousands of sub-castes. ‘dalits’ (harijan) are those outside the caste system (once known as ‘untouchables’).
10 A durbar is a royal court or official meeting.
11 Alexander III of Macedon (356–323 BC; r.336–323 BC).
12 Against Raja Porus, king of the Pauravas.
13 The tree foretold that Alexander would die young (he died before his 34th birthday) but his name would live forever. It is not known what
happened to the ‘speaking tree’.
14 Modern-day Pakistan.
ix
successfully translated in 1837.1 The study of old coins revealed the names of kings and
empires as well as the extent of their economic and military domains.
Mighty Everest was identified as the highest mountain in the world in 1852 – two
years after Sarah Speedy left India.
Sarah frequently alludes to curio collecting in India and Africa: native languages
inscribed on silver, idols, stuffed animals, skins, clothing, and ivories. Sarah’s family
obtained ancient coins featuring elephants, maharajas on horseback or riding sacred bulls,
fierce warrior-kings, fire worshippers,2 gods and goddesses. Those with an inquisitive
nature, people like the Squires and the Speedys, were also providing vital curios,
specimens and information to The Asiatic Society3 based in Calcutta, and the British
Museum in London.
DISASTER STRUCK THE BRITISH in the winter of 1842. The Army of the Indus, sent to teach
the Afghans a lesson in military supremacy, was instead massacred in Afghanistan and this
was the greatest blow to British prestige in the East until the fall of Singapore exactly one
hundred years later.
Sarah’s father was an officer in this ill-fated army and was lucky to survive the
war4 on the far western edge of India, where he was a brigade-major at the famous
storming of the citadel at Ghuznee5 in Afghanistan. Later, most of the regiment including
British wives, children and pregnant women were wiped out in the ‘massacre in the
passes’ on the frantic retreat6 from Kabul through the bitter blood-stained snow.
Sixteen thousand died. Sarah’s father, who was engaged in the ‘glorious’ defence
of Jellalabad, was promoted and became commanding officer of what remained of his
distinguished regiment.
Conditions in India were appalling. James Speedy’s health was not good and he
was sent to the Himalaya7 Mountains ‘the resort of the rich, the idle, and the invalid’,8 then
to England.
The next challenge for the British in India was the Punjab, a potentially wealthy
region watered by five rivers9 which merge and form the mighty Indus River. The Sikh
Empire had fallen into a state of disorder after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839.
Relations with the British broke down, resulting in more wars.10
While in England James Speedy was promoted to captain,11 exchanged into the 8th
The King’s Regiment12 and after his health improved, James and Sarah sailed for India.
The Speedys were stationed in west India at Poonah and Bombay, and the province of
Sind13 at Karachi and Hyderabad, on the Indus River. Eventually the Sikh army
surrendered14 and further territory was annexed.
Ten months later, in January 1850, James and Sarah left India never to return. At
the end of his military career James Speedy had attained the rank of major.
1 By James Princep. The Ashokan script was inscribed on ancient stone pillars located over wide parts of the Indian Subcontinent.
2 Followers of the prophet Zoroaster.
3 Founded in 1784 by the great Orientalist, Sir William Jones (Described by Dr. Johnson as ‘one of the most enlightened of the sons of men’).
Disconcertingly for the British, in 1786 Sir William announced the discovery of the common origins of European languages and Sanskrit, the sacred
language of India. The racial implications were apparent.
4 First Afghan War (1838-42).
5 Battle of Ghuznee (1839) Tristram Squire was invalided back to British India after this siege, thereby avoiding the subsequent massacre in the fatal
retreat from Kabul. His medal reads: Obverse ‘GHUZNEE’, Reverse: ‘23rd JULY/MAJOR T.C. SQUIRE/13th OR A.L.INFT./1839’
6 January 1842.
7 Himalaya (Sanskrit): home (or abode) of snow.
8 Victor Jacquemont.
9 Punjab (Sanskrit): five rivers - the Sutlej, Ravi, Beas, Jhelum and Chenab Rivers.
10 First Sikh War (1845-1846) and Second Sikh War (1848-1849).
11 By seniority after being a lieutenant for sixteen years.
12 8th (The King’s) Regiment of Foot
13 Present day south Pakistan.
14 March 12 1849.
x
MEANWHILE THE FAR-FLUNG pioneer colony of New Zealand was ostensibly at peace. A
treaty had been signed at Waitangi1 which provided for the establishment of British
government, peaceful settlement of the land, acknowledgement of native property rights,
and the granting of the rights and privileges of British subjects to the Maori. However, this
was coming unstuck as a result of the sale of muskets. Intertribal feuding became deadlier,
and along with land ownership quarrels between British settler and Maori, trouble was
inevitable.
The years in India had taken its toll on the health of Sarah and her husband: Scinde
fever, malaria, sunstroke, cholera outbreaks, primitive medical care…! At the age of thirty
eight, Sarah Speedy and her family set their sights on New Zealand, and sailed from
England with their five younger children, arriving in Auckland in 1856.
The Speedys settled at last in a seven-roomed house, the Grange, in Mauku2 on
750 acres of good land watered by a stream. The climate was healthy, the farm bountiful
and relations with the natives were still generally good.
Ferdinand von Hochstetter, the esteemed German geologist and explorer, stayed3
with the Speedys at Mauku. Although Sarah’s Memoirs are silent the visit is recorded by
Hochstetter in the first major work about New Zealand to appear in the German language,
Neu-Seeland (1863),4 a book of travel, geological observations and encounters with Maori
and Pakeha, set in an old Gothic font.
The Speedys’ eldest daughter Emelia married one of the earliest European settlers
in the Raglan district,5 and at this point Sarah’s Memoirs draw to a close…the year is
1859… and Sarah, about forty years of age, is expecting the youngest of their children to
survive, James Henry Havelock Speedy.6
SARAH’S HUSBAND, MAJOR JAMES SPEEDY, is appointed the first resident magistrate,7
coroner and native agent8 of the Lower Waikato, highly respected by Pakeha9 and Maori
alike; a daughter, Rose Speedy is born.10 War with the Maori11 (‘fire in the fern’) ignites
and he is placed in military command of the district; in 1866 appointed a justice of the
peace. The Grange is sold and the Speedys relocate to Waiuku, near the mouth of the
Waikato River, the village being central to the Major’s official duties.
James Speedy dies tragically in 186812 from complications after being thrown from
his horse. He was returning from seeing his son Charley (Captain Tristram Speedy) off on
a mission to help rescue European hostages held in Abyssinia13 and died 4 days after his
son’s arrival there.
James’ funeral and various encounters between 1865 and 1868 with the Speedys
were recorded by Reverend Vicesimus Lush in his journals, later published as The Waikato
Journals of Vicesimus Lush (1982).14 Major Speedy’s role during the Maori Wars was
recorded in The Defenders of New Zealand Being A Short Biography Of Colonists Who
Distinguished Themselves In Upholding Her Majesty’s Supremacy In These Islands
1 Treaty of Waitangi (1840).
2 About 40 miles to the south-west of Auckland, a few miles west of Pukekohe.
3 27 January 1859.
4 F. V. Hochstetter, ‘Neu-Seeland’ (Stuttgart, 1863). Later translated as ‘New Zealand’ (1867).
5 Located on the west coast of the North Island.
6 James Henry Havelock Speedy (8/9/1859-4/3/1947).
7 Appointed by Sir George Grey on 17/01/1862, at a salary of three hundred and fifty pounds a year.
8 Entrusted with the task of reconciling the interests of Maori and settler.
9 The Maori term for European settlers. The origin of the word is uncertain.
10 Rose Haultain Speedy (1863 (Parnell, Auckland)-21/08/1880). Cause of death was ‘Internal injuries resulting from accidental fall – 6 days’.
Tombstone reads ‘Be ye also ready’.
11 Maori Wars (1860-1872).
12 The accident occurred 4th December 1867 and he died 6th February 1868 (coincidently the anniversary of Waitangi Day).
13 British Expedition to Abyssinia (1868).
14 Alison Drummond (editor), ‘The Waikato Journals of Vicesimus Lush. 1864-8, 1881-2’. Pegasus 1982.
xi
(1887)1 and includes an illustration of James Speedy seated magisterially with Ahipene
Kaihau, chief of Ngatiteata and members of his family.2
RELATIVELY LITTLE IS KNOWN of the rest of Sarah’s life. By late 18723 she had a farm
called ‘Fairlea’4 located towards Kariotahi Beach (the ocean beach closest to the village of
Waiuku, a few miles from her old homestead at Mauku). In 1877 she purchased 4 acres of
land for £2-10-00.
Tragedy struck in August 1880 with the death of Sarah’s teenage daughter Rose
Speedy who fell from a roof and died whilst boarding as an invalid a steamboat bound for
Onehunga.
Mr Lusk wrote to Sarah towards the end of 1880 asking her to make the surveyed
road through her property at Mauku [sic] available for use until the Roads Board could
afford to buy it, adding that her tenant has no objection.
In later years Sarah lived in ‘the cottage by the sea’5 on the farm with her son
6
Alfred, ‘who had fought with the Dutch forces in suppressing the natives in Java…but the
East had wrecked him…’7 Sarah regularly wrote charming letters to her family telling of
the animals on the farm, the pets and birds, and her garden. To Sarah the world was a
wonderful place as long as she lived.8 Of farm improvements she wrote
Alfred is going to fence in two acres of our swamp continuing on from the
Cabbage Tree Paddock & we have called the new piece of ground The Tea Tree Paddock, as
it is covered with tea tree scrub, some 6, 7 & 8 feet high. Alfred Holmes’ ditch & fence is
one boundary, Cabbage Tree Paddock fence is another, so we have only two sides to fence,
5 chains9 long & 3 chains width. 10
Although it was very badly farmed, summers were delightful – the scent of a great field of
potatoes in hot sunshine, pheasants walking in the rows and fruit trees in an orchard.
Winters were dreary. There were weeks of frosts and little heat in the pinewood fires. No
one came to the cottage as roads were impassable and the journey for meat and stores on
horseback took an entire day.11
Alfred is much tormented by the small birds, not sparrows alone, but larks &
yellow-hammers, between them all. They keep him running up & down the fields all day
long. They have destroyed nearly 5 pounds of red clover, that came up well indeed, & now
1 Thos. Wayth Gudgeon, ‘The Defenders of New Zealand Being A Short Biography Of Colonists Who Distinguished Themselves In Upholding Her
Majesty’s Supremacy In These Islands’, H. Brett 1887.
2 More recent publications recording Major Speedy and family include: James Cowan ‘The New Zealand Wars: A History of the Maori Campaigns
and the Pioneering Period, Volume 1: 1845-64’ (1922) p 306; Parham, W. T. 'Fulloon, James Francis 1840 - 1865'. Dictionary of New Zealand
Biography; ‘The Waiuku Story 1854-1954’, compiled by the Brochure Sub-Committee of the Waiuku Centenary Committee; Nona Morris, ‘Early
Days in Franklin, A Centennial Volume’ (1965); Brian Muir, ‘A Far Cry From Kent. Tales of the Kentish Hotel’, p13; Brian Muir, ‘Old Waiuku and
District’ (1980); Brian Muir, ‘Waiuku and District, The Romantic Years’ (1983); ‘Not Self but Service, Mauku School Centenary, 1883-1983, 14th16th October 1983, The History of the Mauku School and the District’ pp 15-17, 22, 25-26; ‘Auckland Waikato Historical Journal’ April, 1988 No.
54, p 6; Charlotte Macdonald et al., ‘The Book of New Zealand Women, Ko Kui Ma Te Kaupapa’ (1991), p 328-329; Audrey Bruce, ‘In the Trail of
the Missionary. 163 Years of Methodism in West Franklin’ (circa 2000), p21.
3 Based upon a letter written by Sarah Speedy to her son Alfred dated 4th November 1872 (transcribed by Tim Jerram) giving her address.
4 Sarah Mason Speedy is recorded in 'A return of the freeholders of New Zealand, giving the names, addresses and occupations of owners of land,
together with the area and value in counties and the value in boroughs and town districts, October 1882 / compiled from the assessment rolls of the
Property-tax Dept.' Wellington. Govt Print. (1884) as owning a 442 acre property valued at £460 in Manukau County.
5 From a letter written by Sarah Speedy to her son Alfred dated 4th November 1872.
6 Alfred Mason Speedy (04/1845-01/08/1910).
7 Autobiography of James Havelock Jerram (unpublished). A letter written by Sarah Speedy dated 4th November 1872 to her son Alfred refers to a
‘fearful skirmish’.
8 Autobiography of James Havelock Jerram (unpublished).
9 1 chain = 66 feet.
10 Letter from Sarah Speedy to daughter Harriet, probably early 1884 (transcribed by Tim Jerram).
11 Autobiography of James Havelock Jerram (unpublished).
xii
they are pulling up the young blade of the oats. It is so vexing, after all the expense for
seed ploughing, etc to have it destroyed.1
TWO DECADES PASS FROM the death of Sarah Speedy’s husband James…the year is 1890,
New Zealand’s ‘Long Depression’ is nearly over and Sarah is in her early seventies.
Sarah’s children have asked their mother to record for posterity her four decades of
adventures courtesy of Empire…Waterloo to Waikato. Colonial tales and anecdotes from
France, Ireland, England, India, Burma,2 Sumatra, Mauritius, Africa, St Helena, Isle of
Man and New Zealand flow from Sarah’s dip pen and pot of ink at her rural cottage
‘Fairlea’.
The surviving Memoirs comprise ninety nine3 hand-written pages, brown with age
and are part of the LL Speedy & Sons collection of papers. There are four very simple
sketches within the text, all concerning Africa: ‘How the Wagons were Placed’ and ‘Plan
for our Camping’ (nearly identical drawings), ‘Kaffir Tent’ and ‘Asbestos’.4
The writing is for the most part clear and legible, and to write a document of this
length at Sarah Speedy’s age, with few abbreviations, amendments or crossings out was a
remarkable achievement.
There is no paragraphing and Sarah tends to use long sentences, piling clause upon
clause separated by exclamation marks, dashes, colons, and full stops all in a
conversational or narrative style. Occasionally words or phrases are underlined for
emphasis. From the year 1837 certain pages are marked at the top or edge with applicable
year, or years.5
Words are drawn from Arabic, Dutch, French, Hindi, Persian, Tamil and Urdu
languages. There are old-fashioned spellings of words e.g. lanthorne (lantern), shew
(show); geographical locations e.g. Burmah (Burma), Cabul (Kabul); and people e.g.
Hindoos (Hindus), Runjeet Singh (Ranjit Singh).
An examination of the manuscript shows that the original pages 1 to 12 are
missing and in their place are replacements numbered 1 to 32. Pages 15-32 of the
replacement pages overlap part of the same period of time as the early part of the existing
original pages and differ slightly from them in detail. In the present work the differences
have been amalgamated where possible; other differences have been recorded where
relevant or interesting in the footnotes.
When writing her Memoirs, Sarah must have been very proud of her eldest son,
bagpipe skirling,6 swashbuckling Captain Tristram ‘Charley’ Speedy who appears in the
1 Letter from Sarah Speedy to daughter Harriet 16th July 1891 (transcribed by Tim Jerram).
2 Renamed Myanmar in 1989.
3 54 sheets (leaves) of paper:- Sheet 1 recto: ‘Life Sarah Mason Speedy/Daughter Colonel T.C. Squiare [sic]/born 1818 died 1897/Account of her life
up to 1859’ (black ink, probably Henry Wily’s handwriting); Sheet 1 verso: blank; Sheet 2 recto: ‘Sarah Mason Speedy’ (pencil, Henry Wily’s
handwriting)/‘Memoirs of /Mrs S. M. Speedy wife of Major James Speedy/1818 to 1859’ (pencil, Sarah Speedy’s handwriting), unknown hand has
changed the line to ‘Memoirs of /Mrs S.arah M. Speedy wife of Major James Speedy/from 1818 up to 1859’ (Red and blue pen)/”Beachly Downs”
(pencil, Henry Wily’s handwriting), unknown hand has changed this to ‘[Beach]ley [Dow]nes’ (pencil); Sheet 2 verso: ‘Put at front of first page see
over’ (pencil, Lionel Lawrence Speedy’s handwriting)/ ‘Shadows I call you/Out of memory store/And as you pass by/ in review/I am a child once
more’ (Henry Wily’s handwriting); Sheets 3-18: recto and verso ‘Memoirs’; Sheet 19: recto and verso blank; Sheets 20-52: ‘Memoirs’; Sheet 53:
‘Memoirs’, verso blank; Sheet 54: recto and verso blank. Some sheets are joined together, others are loose. Not all sheets are of exactly the same
size, but are approximately 32cm x 20cm. Sheets 3 to 12 are written in black ink; sheet 13 recto is black ink, verso black and purple ink; sheets 14-18
purple ink; sheets 20-53 blue ink. Subsequent hands have underlined and re-written unclear words in pencil.
4 ‘How the Wagons were Placed’ (Sheet 14 verso), ‘Kaffir Tent’ (sheet 18 recto), ‘Asbestos’ (sheet 21 verso), ‘Plan for our Camping’ (Sheet 21
verso).
5 eg sheet 52 recto is marked at the top ‘1850-51-52’
6 'Captain Speedy is altogether an inferior order of being. He has apparently a delight in dressing himself in a gorgeous leopard skin, with a grand
turban on his head, and still further exciting the curiosity of the natives by playing on the bagpipes, an instrument on which he performs with much
facility. If you have seen his elephantine form, you will be able to judge of the figure he would present under these circumstances.' - Sir William
Jervois, Governor of the Straits Settlements, August 1876. ‘Speedy disliked being outdone by his guests. When the boundary commission came to
Larut in late January 1874, Speedy had his first meeting with Pickering, the Chinese expert. He was mortified to discover that Pickering could speak
Chinese and play the bagpipes – both accomplishments which Speedy envied him. He immediately said that he (Speedy) could speak Chinese though
xiii
Memoirs as a youngster. Tristram’s life, although never recorded in his own hand, was
even more extraordinary than Sarah’s! He was one of the more renowned adventurers and
explorers of the Victorian age, a legend in his own time and a gifted linguist (like his
father), a commander of armies and the confidant of monarchs and maharajas.
The young Speedy had served1 in India’s wild North-West Frontier Province2
(1854-60) receiving the Indian Mutiny, Punjab and Eufoszai medals.
Bored with cantonment life, he sailed to the Horn of Africa to go big-game
hunting. However he was summoned to the court of Emperor Theodore of Abyssinia
(modern-day Ethiopia) who bestowed on Speedy the title ‘Basha Felika’, roughly
equivalent to ‘Captain Speedy’. The Emperor placed him in charge of training his army
however Speedy later fell out with Theodore who was becoming increasingly paranoid and
deluded and he had to flee!
This was followed by a stint as locum tenens at the Red Sea port of Massawa as
British vice-consul. Early in 1864 Speedy resigned this appointment. New Zealand now
beckoned and he served in the Waikato Militia, was promoted to captain in 1864 and
received the Maori Wars medal.
During the Abyssinian War (1867-68) his knowledge of Abyssinia was crucial to
the commander, Sir Robert Napier (later 1st Baron Napier of Magdala). Speedy was
recalled from Auckland to join the expedition’s Intelligence Department and received the
Abyssinian medal.
After meetings with Queen Victoria in England, Speedy was appointed HM’s
guardian to the young Prince Alamayu Simeon, son of the late Emperor Theodore.
Speedy married Cornelia Cotton and returned with his wife and the Prince to India
and was stationed at Sitapur3 as District Superintendent Oudh Police (1869-71) and during
this time was a companion of the Duke of Edinburgh (the second son of Queen Victoria)
on a shooting trip in Nepal.
In 1871 he sailed to the Straits Settlements in Malaya and took up an appointment
as superintendent of police on the island of Penang. Speedy resigns in 1873 to raise and
command a body of troops or police from India to restore order in Larut, a highly
profitable but lawless Malayan mining district, for the Mentri (Chief Minister) Ngah
Ibrahim.
In 1874 Speedy was appointed assistant British resident of Larut and he
established and named Malaysia’s oldest town, ‘Thaipeng’ or ‘Taiping’ meaning
‘Heavenly Peace’. He remained assistant resident until 1877.
The following year Captain and Mrs Speedy spent several months ‘wandering in
the Soudan’ and his wife published a book of their travels.
In 1883-85 Speedy went on a mission led by Vice-Admiral Sir William Hewett to
the court of King John (Johannis) of Abyssinia to negotiate over the regions disputed
borders and in 1897 he was on the mission to Abyssinia under Rennell Rodd (the future
Lord Rennell) to the court of King Menelik of Abyssinia to settle the frontiers by
agreement before the King’s army could prevail. King Menelik awarded Speedy The Star
of Ethiopia.
Swettenham doubted whether he really could. Speedy also obtained some bagpipes from Penang and tried to emulate Pickering, who in his earlier
days in Formosa got into the habit of playing on the pipes for the entertainment of the Chinese. Of Speedy’s piping Swettenham says that ‘his
appearance and marching were impressive but the sounds he drew from the bag and pipes were merely discordant noises, and I think his duties left
him no time in which to perfect himself as a piper’. This incident is probably the basis of the derisive passage quoted at the very beginning of this
paper. But it is evident that Jervois was wrong in saying that Speedy “performed with much facility.”’ – Journal of the Malayan Branch Royal Asiatic
Society. ‘Captain Speedy of Larut’, by John M. Gullick. M.A. See also ‘Murder on the Verandah, Love and Betrayal in British Malaya’ by Eric
Lawlor (1999), ‘Out in the Midday Sun’ by Margaret Shennan (2000) and the reference to the tune ‘Highland Laddie’ in ‘Flashman on the March’ by
George MacDonald Fraser (2005).
1 HM’s 81st Regiment (The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) & 10th Regiment of Punjab Infantry.
2 After partition in 1947, Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province.
3 Seetapore.
xiv
Speedy appeared in newspaper stories and books. During the Abyssinian War
(1867-68) the correspondents George A. Henty of the Standard and Henry M. Stanley of
the New York Herald reported on him extensively. He was mentioned most favourably in
the official dispatches of Sir Robert Napier (later 1st Baron Napier of Magdala) during the
Abyssinian War (1867-68) and a woodcut illustration of him was published in the
Illustrated London News in 1868.
Queen Victoria wrote of meetings with Speedy and Prince Alamayu, son of
Emperor Theodore of Abyssinia, in the Royal Diaries. The pioneering society
photographer Julia Margaret Cameron1 captured his image in a series of portraits in 1868.
Tristram Speedy appears in A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia; With Some
Account of the Late Emperor Theodore, His Country and People (1868)2 by Henry Blanc.
Tristram’s wife, Cornelia Cotton, published books regarding some of their
adventures: Anecdotes of Alamayu, The Late King Theodore’s Son (circa 1869)3 and My
Wanderings in the Soudan (1884).4
The naturalist Charles Darwin makes two references to Captain Speedy in The
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (1872).5 The journalist and explorer Sir Henry
Stanley in Coomassie and Magdala (1874)6 says ‘Basha Felecca had a Turkish scimitar,
the gift of an Indian Raja…he used to amuse Theodore with splitting sheep in two from
head to tail, which feat no Abyssinian could imitate.’
The intrepid traveller Isabella Bird comments on Captain Speedy and his troops in
The Golden Chersonese, and the Way Thither (1883). Captain Speedy was the likely
inspiration for Rudyard Kipling’s short story The Lang Men o’ Larut (1889). He is
mentioned in Robert Louis Stevenson’s In the South Seas (1896)7 as dressed in Abyssinian
costume.
In 1899 an article written by Captain T.C.S. Speedy was published in Harper’s
New Monthly Magazine entitled ‘A Glimpse at Nubia, Miscalled “The Soudan”’. He died
before completing Abyssinian colloquial book for Travellers and an English-Amharic
dictionary.
SARAH SPEEDY LIVED FOR another seven years after her literary efforts recording her life of
adventure were penned. She died8 on 13th December 1897 in her 80th year at her home
‘Fairlea’ – the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and zenith of the empire her
family had helped build and had sacrificed so much for. Sarah is buried9 in the peaceful
little cemetery on the edge of the sleepy rural township of Waiuku, south of Auckland.
On 28th February 1948 her father’s regiment, 13th Prince Albert’s Light Infantry,
the 'Illustrious Garrison', had the honour of being the last British regiment to march out of
India after independence was granted.
1 Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879)
2 ‘A Narrative of Captivity In Abyssinia; With Some Account Of The Late Emperor Theodore, His Country And People’ (1868) by Henry Blanc.
London, Smith, Elder and Co.
3 ‘Anecdotes of Alamayu, The Late King Theodore’s Son’ (circa 1869) by C. C. [sic] London: William Hunt and Company, Holles Street,
Cavendish Square.
4 ‘My Wanderings in the Soudan’ by Mrs. Speedy. In Two Volumes. London. Richard Bentley & Son, New Burlington St. 1884. Printed by R. & R.
Clark, Edinburgh.
5 ‘In the northern regions of Africa Captain Speedy, who long resided with the Abyssinians, answered my queries partly from memory and partly
from observations made on the son of King Theodore, who was then under his charge.’; ‘And Captain Burton speaks of certain negroes "spitting with
disgust upon the ground." Captain Speedy informs me that this is likewise the case with the Abyssinians.’
6 ‘Coomassie and Magdala. The Story of Two British Campaigns in Africa’ by Henry M. Stanley 1874.
7 ‘Captain Speedy--in an Abyssinian war-dress, supposed to be the uniform of the British army--met with much acceptance.’
8 Sarah’s death certificate records ‘Cardiac Vascular disease uncertain. Senile decay.’
9 Row 8, plot 84 at Waiuku Cemetery. ‘Beloved by all’
xv
SARAH'S MEMOIRS WERE FIRST published in The Franklin Times in 1926 in an edited serial
form1 under the heading Mrs Speedy: Her Life and Times, A Varied Life. The editor, Henry
Wily, stated that the Memoirs were written for her family but ‘contain so much of interest
that we obtained permission to publish them’. Wily added a note at the end of the series2 to
provide information about the Speedys as pioneers in the Lower Waikato region, from the
end of Sarah's Memoirs in 1859 to the death of her husband James in 1868. In South
Auckland (1939) Wily wrote ‘Mrs. Sarah Speedy, wife of Major Speedy, Franklin’s first
magistrate, in her journal [sic], which I published a few years ago, gives an interesting
account of a visit made to Raglan in 18573 to visit her eldest daughter, wife of a well
known early resident, Captain Johnstone, taking her second daughter with her…’4 The
series in The Franklin Times was condensed and included in Battles, Buggies and Babies
(1975)5 by Sophie Johnstone-Smith.
Lionel Lawrence Speedy took an interest in his grandmother’s Memoirs, and
arranged for his secretary to transcribe the hand-written pages. The present work is based
upon carbon copies of these.
Robert Harper rewrote some portions of Sarah’s Memoirs in the unpublished
Basha Felika (1988) on the life and times of Tristram Speedy. Harper’s work was
posthumously rearranged and illustrated by Jean Southon in The Rise and Fall of Basha
Felika (2004).6
IT HAS BEEN MY good fortune to have visited countries and outposts of empire where the
Squires and the Speedys were stationed or visited in the East, on backpacking expeditions
over thousands of kilometers by land and sea. The Orient is no less dangerous in modern
times than it was in Sarah Speedy’s day – adventure is still to be found there: I was very ill
with malaria, confronted by dacoits (bandits) on more than one frightening occasion, and
very nearly went down on a boat that was caught in a typhoon on the Indian Ocean off
north-west Sumatra.
All colour photographs, footnotes (background information which may be ignored
by the casual reader), paragraphing, square brackets and italics are mine. I have attempted
to transcribe Sarah Speedy’s manuscript as accurately as possible and I hope the reader
will treat with leniency any defects that may be perceived in my presentation of Sarah
Speedy’s Memoirs.
Others assisted putting together Sarah Speedy’s Memoirs. The original handwritten manuscript of Sarah’s Memoirs has been used with the kind permission of Lloyd
and Squire Speedy (great-grandsons of Sarah). Jean Glen spent an Easter reading Sarah’s
manuscript against the digital version of Memoirs.
1 The series began on Friday 23 April 1926. Installments were published on 26 April, 28 April, 30 April, 3 May, 5 May, 7 May, 10 May, 12 May, 14
May, 17 May and finished on Wednesday 19 May 1926 under the heading ‘Mrs. Speedy – Her Life in New Zealand. Additional notes.’ It was edited
by H.E.R.L. Wily (Editor of The Franklin Times; Co-author of Wily and Maunsell, H., ‘Robert Maunsell, L.L.D. – A New Zealand Pioneer – His
Life and Times’ (1938); Author of ‘South Auckland’ (1939). Wily knew the Speedy family and had met Tristram ‘Charley’ Speedy. He devised a
system of paragraphs and headings: ‘Visit to Ireland, Sails for India, A Vigorous Shark, Surf Boat, Cooling the Air, A Spartan Father, First Burmah
War, Colonel Squire’s Illness, The “Anna”, The Galley Slaves, A Strange Tribunal, En Route Once More, A Malay Pirate, A Clever Horse, A Slow
Journey, A Native Queen, Adventure with a Lion, An Ostrich Nest, The First Missionaries, Xmas in the Wilds, Prairie Dogs, A Storm at Sea, James
Speedy Arrives, Chased by Hyenas, The East India Company, A River Trip, Like a Gypsy Camp, A March to Meerut, A Friendly Buffalo, A
Thunderstorm, The Great Runjeet Singh, A Direlect [sic], A Festive Nurse, An Intelligent Elephant, The Money Recovered, A Review, Beebee
Zindu, Lunch with the Beebee, Zindu Petitions the Governor, Homeward Bound, Family History.’
2 Titled ‘Mrs Speedy: Her Life in New Zealand, Additional Notes.’ This was published on May 17 and May 19 1926.
3 This date is incorrect. Emelia Speedy married Captain Johnstone in 1859.
4 South Auckland (1939) page 225.
5 Battles, Buggies and Babies (1975) by Sophie May Johnstone-Smith. Rice Printers, Hamilton pp 108-130. The date of publication in ‘The Franklin
Times’ is recorded as ‘1800’ when it should read ‘1926’.
6 ‘The Rise and Fall of Basha Felika’ (2004) by Jean Southon and Robert Harper. Published by Jean Southon. The Bibliography cites ‘Sarah Speedy,
“Recollections” (unpublished) [sic]’ and ‘Sarah Speedy, “New Zealand – Further Recollections” [sic] (unpublished)’.
xvi
FOR TOO LONG HAVE these Memoirs lain hidden and unread, and the pleasure to be derived
from Sarah Speedy’s writing makes one regret that we possess only a comparatively tiny
sample of her experiences.
The 150th anniversary of Sarah Speedy’s arrival in New Zealand seems an
opportune moment to make them available again, to correct the errors and omissions in
previous versions, and to print her sketches for the first time.
Sarah’s writing style is crisp, concise and often poetic; always touching. In
accordance with the manners and customs of her age, military matters are not discussed,
except as they directly relate to her experiences. An enormous array of personages appear
in her account, like characters on an exotic Oriental stage. Some are incredibly rich and
powerful, others famous, and many are people in the most dreadful circumstances
imaginable – kings and queens, generals and soldiers, maharajas and slaves, heroes and
cowards. All are colourful. Surely there is no human trait which does not appear in Sarah’s
account.
At the heart of these Memoirs is the personality of Sarah herself: strong, incredibly
resourceful, intelligent, and never a victim. But this is to anticipate her wondrous tale…
Allan Lawrence Tristram Speedy, BCom, MCom [Auck], FRAS
Auckland
November 2006