Chapter 10: The Resident Advisor

Huck Dolihaye had been correct; there was little at Vadanappally other than the road to Thrissur. The village of Vadanappally was not on the coast but was situated on a lagoon, reached via an inlet from the Indian Ocean. I assumed this lagoon was formed at the same time as those around Cochin, and by the same cyclone.

I had been given a letter by Huck to show the senior officer of any Madras European /Native Infantry/Cavalry Regiment I encountered, asking, nay demanding, I be given all the help and assistance I required. As I was carrying dispatches for the Governor of Palakkad and the senior military officer at Palakkad Fort I was deemed to be a courier on East India Company business, and the Company had paid for Mimi’s and my passage from Cochin to Vadanappally. The only drawback to this arrangement was I had to travel in European clothing.

Alongside the jetty at Vadanappally was a stall selling coconut water, which is an extremely flavoursome and enjoyable beverage. I bought a gourd each for Mimi and me, and then engaged a local with adequate English as a postiwallah to carry the letter from Huck to Arimber, the nearest military post some four English miles away. Mimi and I found a shaded spot and sat, resting our backs against the ever-present coconut trees that fringe the entire Malabar Coast. Fortunately, the season of high winds and full-grown coconuts was yet to come so we were able to shelter under the palms without fear of being struck by falling coconuts. While we waited for the postiwallah’s return Mimi sketched the local scene, and I let my mind revisit the events of the past few days.

Two days previously. Cochin

After visiting the Harbourmaster’s office Huck took me on a sightseeing tour of Cochin. we were both dressed in mundu and kurta and I realised how ill-conceived it was for the British to wear European dress in sun-scorched, tropical, lands.

“I know that Akram took you to many Hindu temples, Jack, but there is more to Cochin than temples,” Huck said as he threaded the gig through the pedestrian and cow obstructed streets of the town. “Cochin is a kaleidoscope of different styles of buildings, peoples, languages, and religions, due to Arab, Northern Indian, Chinese, and European influences impinging on the native Dravidian people.”

I was astonished when Huck informed me that even before the Portuguese arrived in India the Chinese had trade and diplomatic links with Cochin. Between 1405 and 1422, six expeditions of huge Chinese fleets, under the command of Admiral Zheng He, visited the Malabar Coast. The Chinese traded for spices, medicinal herbs, jewels, and exotic animals, but also formed alliances with the local rulers, who sent ambassadors to the Yongle Emperor, Zhu Di, along with their tribute.

The Chinese influence is still seen in the local, shore-based, fishing equipment. Each structure is at least 30 feet high, and comprises a cantilever with an outstretched net suspended over the sea and large stones suspended from ropes as counterweights at the other end. Team of up to six fishermen operates each installation. The system is sufficiently balanced that the weight of a man walking along the main beam is sufficient to cause the net to descend into the sea. The net is left for a short time, possibly just a few minutes, before it is raised by pulling on ropes. The size and elegant construction of these fishing nets is amazing, and the slow rhythm of their operation is quite hypnotic. Huck and I spent the best part of an hour watching the slow, steady, rise and fall of the nets into the sea.

Huck pointed out the various Christian churches situated throughout Cochin; Anglican and Catholic cathedrals with their soaring spires, Coptic churches with rounded rooves and minaret like steeples, and the much simpler, and smaller, Saint Thomas Christian churches. I also spotted a modest-sized Methodist chapel. Other, non-Christian, religious buildings abounded. There were several mosques, representing the two main divisions of Islam, Shia and Sunni, Synagogues, Buddhist and Jain temples, plus a score or more of Hindu temples. Huck stopped the gig at the base of a brick-built, circular tower some ten feet high, and a diameter I estimated to be five yards.

“This is all that remains of a Parsee Tower of Silence,” Huck said. He laughed at the look of bewilderment on my face and explained: “Parsees, which means ‘Persians’ in Hindustani, were Zoroastrians who fled from Persia to northern India when the Arabs invaded Persia a thousand years ago. Some parsees made their way as far south as Cochin, and this tower would have been at least another forty feet higher when first constructed.”

“Did the priests of the religion call the faithful to prayers from the top, like the muezzins of Islam?”

“The Parsee dead were placed on top of the tower so that the body would decompose under the rays of a broiling sun, and be consumed by vultures. Some people refer to these towers as Towers of Death, but Parsees call them dakhma. Robert Murphy, a British translator in Calcutta, coined the neologism ‘Towers of Silence’.”

I did not know what a neologism was but showed my disgust at the practice of having ones dead consumed by carrion.

“How barbaric! Have these parsees no respect for their dead?”

“Parsees believe that earth and fire are sacred and that a dead body pollutes their purity, therefore a body cannot be buried in the soil or consumed by flame. It is a disturbing way to dispose of a body to Christian, Jewish and Islamic minds, which is why the Arab invaders of Persia persecuted Zoroastrians but allowed Jews and what few Christians lived in Persia to practice their religions.”

“Are there parsees in Cochin now?”

“No, the Portuguese saw off the few who settled here. Most parsees in India are concentrated in the Bombay Presidency.”

We left the tower and continued on the sightseeing tour, passing a large rambling Portuguese style building.

“This is where Vasco de Gama died on Christmas Eve, fifteen twenty-four,” Huck informed me. “His body was interred in St James’s Church at Fort Cochin until fifteen thirty-nine, when it was taken to Portugal and re-interred in Vasco’s home town of Vidigueira in a casket decorated with gold and jewels. Just as well Vasco was not a Parsee else he would have ended up as carrion fodder on a Tower of Silence!”

Later that morning we stopped at a kiosk that sold what Huck described as ‘street food’, comestibles that are eaten on the hoof so to speak. We have no similar sort of provender in Britain, nor probably anywhere else in Europe, but in Cochin one would see people walking along munching on some delicacy, although there were also venues where customers sat at, or rather squatted around, a low table to partake of their food. In fact Huck and I did just that, and ordered chaat and samosa, or rather Huck did! The former comprised of fried dough and some sort of legume in a spicy sauce while the latter was a baked pastry with a savoury filling of spiced potatoes, onions, and lentils. Different regions of India, even different areas of Kerala, have their local forms of chaat and samosa. I recognised the samosa as being included in the tiffen served me at Ramjam Bhutti’s shop.

“A pukka sahib would not be seen dead in one of these places,” Huck said as we wiped our mouths and fingers before leaving one such venue. “The locals love to see me, and now you, enjoying their local cuisine and mixing with them. I fear we British have given ourselves too many airs and graces. All members of the Honourable East India Company think themselves as aristocrats when they arrive in India when in reality they are only jumped up scribes and mercenaries. Some Brahmins can trace their ancestry back thousands of years, which make those of our ‘great families’, who ‘came over with William the Conqueror’, appear as newly arrived Griffins.”

“My ancestors were farming in England well before William and his band of ruffians invaded,” I said.

“As were mine, Jack, but tilling the soil rather than owning it. I would be doing the same now had I not had the good fortune to be born to a lowborn mistress of a highborn rich man. I escaped peasantry through education, which is the route more people should enjoy.” He grinned at me. “Many of my colleagues in John Company think I have been infected with republicanism, due to my belief that all men, and women, are born equal. Of course, being born equal soon diverges when one is born into the upper class and another born to the lower. Advantage of rank gives promotion to the least able as disadvantages of rank leave clever and intelligent men and women toiling away at menial tasks.”

I had no answer to his argument, and shortly afterwards we arrived back at The Mansion. Akram came to take charge of the gig while Huck and I entered the withdrawing room. He rang for chai, and we settled down on the comfortable cushions arranged around a low, marble-faced, table.

“Sara has taken quite a shine to Mimi,” Huck said. “I had a note from her last night and she sang the praises of your wife as an intelligent, beautiful, and engaging person.”

“Mimi has no trouble in making friends; she is now painting a portrait of the Maharani. Mimi is an excellent artist.”

“Yes, Sara mentioned Mimi’s accomplishments. Sara would dearly love to meet you but cannot leave purdah for another four days, by which time you will be hot on the trail of the Kali reincarnation that you know as the Baroness de Ath.”

“That woman has brought me halfway around the world. I must find her and have her arrested before I can return to England.”

There was a period of silence broken by the arrival of the chai. Huck sipped at his cup then placed it on the tabletop.

“I know that Sara will have spoken to Mimi regarding my marriage,” he raised his hand to stop me interrupting. “I am not annoyed by Sara’s indiscretion; there is a firm friendship between us, in fact a relationship stronger than just friendship. Some facts of my past are known to some of my colleagues but I am unable to fully unburden myself to them. I have only known you a short time but feel as if I have known you all my life. It would be a kindness to me if you allow me to give you a full account of how it is I am where I am today.”

“Anything you tell me will remain between the two of us.”

“I am sure your beautiful wife would be able to tease out any secrets you may learn, but no matter, Sara would have already told her what she knows of my marriage – she is privy to most of my secrets.”

Huck Dolihaye’s story.

Huck was born on the 4^th August 1800, at Hucknall Torkard (hence his given name) a small town some seven miles to the north-west of Nottingham. His mother was Seraphina Dolihaye, who claimed her father’s family were Huguenots, and as she was a skilled dressmaker and seamstress she well may have told the truth. Huck was born on the wrong side of the blanket – his father being the youngest son of the local landowner, the Earl of Nottingham. Bertram Finch had fallen in love with Seraphina when she was employed as his sister’s ladies maid. His love was returned, and, as was usual in such circumstances, Seraphina became pregnant.

When Seraphina’s condition was discovered she was dismissed, given a few guineas, and left to her own devices, as was usual in such circumstances. However, Bertram Finch, using part of an inheritance left him by an aunt, set up Seraphina as a dressmaker and seamstress in Hucknall Torcard, a town well away from the Finch’s main residence in Essex. Although Bertram married a year later, Seraphina remained his true love, and mistress, for the rest of his life. Thanks to Bertram’s generosity and Seraphina’s dressmaking skills Huck was able to attend Nottingham Grammar School. At sixteen years of age, he was accepted as a clerical cadet by the Honourable East India Company, and spent a year at their training establishment at Haileybury in Hertfordshire. He arrived in Calcutta shortly before his eighteenth birthday and took to life in India like a duck to water. When Huck arrived in India it was still usual for a newly arrived ‘Griffin’ to take a local girl into his household, and bed, in order to learn the local language and customs. By the time Huck reached his majority he spoke six local languages fluently, and had a thorough understanding of the native Indians. He visited Hindu temples and talked to the priests, he respected their beliefs and would sometimes take part in festivals. This was not the usual behaviour of young gentlemen of the Honourable East India Company. However, he became the first sahib a native appellant would ask for when dealing with officials of the Company. The Governor of Calcutta town, Sir Gregory Masters, recognised the ability of the young man and employed Huck as one of his personal secretaries, soon promoting him to Seniot Writer. With Sir Gregory as his sponsor Huck’s future was assured.

“I wrote a treatise concerning the employment of Anglo-Indians in John Company...”

I interrupted him. “But there are none.”

“Precisely, a waste of talented and able men simply because of their colour. Of course, while they prefer to be addressed as Anglo-Indians, ‘Eurasian’ is probably a more accurate term as many have French, Dutch, Portuguese or Danish blood along with English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh!”

“Danish?”

Yes, the Danes are here in India and have been for nigh on two hundred years. They have only a few trading posts; Tranquebar, Serampore, and Balasore, but I would say they are the most productive and profitable of the European companies trading in India. The Danes set up small enterprises, typically clothing manufacturing, and then have native Indians run them. Indians buy the raw materials, and design and produce the garments. The Danes buy the finished goods and then ship them to Europe. Most of the administration posts are filled by natives, and only the Governor of the trading post and a few officials are Danes. There is no army of mercenaries or bureaucrats to finance and their overheads are negligible, which means all profits go to the shareholders and not in paying a vast administrative and military machine, as does John Company. I had mentioned the Danish way of doing business in my treatise...”

“And I rudely interrupted you while you were telling me about it. Please forgive my bad manners and continue.”

He gave me a smile and went on to tell me how he put forward the idea of recruiting Eurasians as junior writers and then promote them through the ranks until eventually Eurasians would have a major influence in determining Company policy in India. He cited the way the Danes employ locals to run factories and enterprises under Danish control but make most of the operating decision’s themselves. Huck costed the difference in recruiting and training British personnel with the cost of recruiting and training local Eurasians. There was a staggering difference in outlay, almost three times more expensive to recruit and train British employees than Eurasians. He pointed out the advantages of locally born employees; the languages they spoke practically from birth, their knowledge of local customs and religions, their immunity to the sicknesses that claim so many British lives, and having an in-built tolerance to the heat and humidity of the Indian climate.