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Military Expeditions and Judicial Terror
147
can indeed say little to boast of, being a composition of scum – composed of all
nations – ages shapes – and sizes & by chance wafted together from all the different
corners of the globe.
In spite of this, he commends this motley group for outstanding bravery,
“fighting like little Devils” and on many occasions offering “infinite service”
to the colony. Most mercenary soldiers, however, did not see why they should
allow themselves to be shot at, and worse still killed, for the pittance that
they received as pay. Even the regular troops sent from Europe often suffered
from the same malaise.
The ordinary soldier was often brutalized for trivial offences (including
being given as many as fifteen hundred lashes sometimes, at least in the
British army), received very low pay, was frequently accused of being drunk
(as were members of the White militias), experienced high levels of morbidity
and mortality within the first few months of arrival in the colonies, and
generally chafed under the conditions of their assignment to the colonies.
The officer ranks were only slightly better, though they too did not appreciate
fully why they were sent to the ends of the earth, as far as they were concerned,
to fight an enemy that was largely invisible and for a cause whose
rationale they hardly understood and for which they cared even less. On more
than one occasion the Jamaica Assembly reprimanded military and militia
officers for incompetence and/or cowardice. On at least two occasions officers
in that country were court-martialled for their conduct during military
engagements. 5
The militias that were made up of local citizens were usually segmented
along lines of class and colour, rather than military experience and ability.
Many of them, in the face of battle, simply ran away in the hope of fighting
(or running) another day. Rich planters in Jamaica simply refused to perform
militia duties, to pay the taxes that were necessary to keep the military installations
in good order, and sometimes to allow their enslaved charges to work
without pay on the military installations (Patterson 1979, 285). Some Brazilian
slaveholders in Pernambuco did much the same thing, threatening to abandon
their farms if they were forced to hand over their servile charges for state
use as baggage carriers (Carneiro 1946, 100). To combat the widespread reluctance
of the colonists in that country, the capitães do mato (see below) were
authorized to impress them into service, regardless of their protests and
objections (Pinto Vallejos 1998, 188). In contrast, some rich planters in Brazil