Lachie Sees Battle, Well Charged!
Lachlan Macquarie is far from an easy person to analyse, especially from this distance in time. His life seems full of contradictions and variations. At this stage, I just intend to set out what I know, most of which appears to be true, as far as I can tell. If I have doubts or concerns I’ll try to raise them as I go. In particular, of course, I want to build up to what I regard as the great disgrace to his career. In comparison, most of what I mention here are mere peccadilloes.
At this stage of his career, Lachlan seems to have been motivated by two major drives. First, he seems to want to further the fortunes of his fellow clan members and the clan itself. Second, he came from a background of poverty, so understandably he wanted money, which he spent on his clan, and on himself. Throughout his adult life, Lachlan maintained detailed notes on his income and expenditure, along with a detailed journal. Or, at least, a semi-detailed journal, because, of course, he did not necessarily put all his thoughts and activities into writing.
The sources I’ve read tell of a young man who threw himself into the deep end of the boozing, whoring life of a British junior officer in India. Many of the sources talk of him as though he bravely took part in a series of major colonial battles against Indian rulers. And, in fact, he was often in the area, and able to write interesting and apparently accurate reports of what he saw. But fight? No. To be fair, on his second trip to war he became extremely ill, and by appearances it was a bit more than a severe series of hangovers, and had to be shipped back to Bombay (now Mumbai). Apparently he was lucky to survive.
Maybe what helped his survival, or perhaps was at least part of the cause of the seriousness of his illness, were the supplies he took with him to “battle”. He mentions in a diary entry covering his part in Britain's 1791 campaign against the Sultan of Mysore he headed off to war with "eight dozen bottles of brandy and Madeira" and "a quantity of gin".
Far be it for me (Lex) to be critical of a twenty-nine year old pisspot, having been one myself. But I’m far from sure, if I had any choice, I would have taken massive quantities of booze with me when I knew I might have to keep myself capable of fighting a very difficult enemy.
And while I try not to be at all judgemental, and my morality would be regarded by many as next to non-existent, Macquarie appears to have had no hesitation in taking advantage of young women who, desperate for money, were forced to resort to sex with whitey. We don’t know when this predilection caught up with him in the most terrible of ways, or one of them anyway.
However, we know with certainty Lachlan contracted syphilis at some stage prior to being sentenced to be Governor of New South Wales. It seems he contracted this ghastly disease pretty early after his arrival in India, and it may have been at least one cause of the illness requiring his withdrawal from the field against Mysore's recalcitrant Sultan. If so, this would mean it was prior to his first marriage, let alone his second. Sadly, but all-too-commonly, we know nothing of the fate of the poor young woman who gave him the disease, nor can we identify those others to whom she gave it, nor those others to whom Macquarie gave it, except, presumably, his two wives.
Of course, in these times, long before the development of rubber condoms, which until they managed to make them extremely thin can’t have been much fun anyway, let alone penicillin, the pox was an ever-present threat, and its consequences were dire indeed.
Samuel Johnson’s Boswell, the same Johnson and Boswell who wrote of their visit to Lauchlan Macquarrie, the 16th Clan Chieftain on Ulva, also wrote of the condoms available at the time, made out of soft leather, particularly sheep skin. I don’t know how available these would have been in Bombay, but, like thick rubber condoms, and to some degree thin rubber condoms, they wouldn’t have been a patch on the real thing!
The booze and sex, however, were mere naughtinesses on Lachlan’s part. At his age, desperate to fit in with his fellow officers, most of whom would have come from significantly better backgrounds than he did, he would have had to play the game of whitey among the needy and less developed elements of humanity.
At this time, Lachlan seems to have been fairly successful in presenting the appearance of a capable and clever soldier, although one suspects his competition was probably not of a very high level. He seems to have been playing for regular promotion in headquarters-type jobs, rather than fighting jobs.
I don’t intend to suggest Macquarie was a coward, far be it from me to condemn anyone who tries to put as much geography as they can between themselves and the killing machines at the front line. My suspicion is, however, that he was working to put himself in positions where he could be of most use to his clan and his own drive for wealth.
So, while many of his biographies place him at various battles, none can go so far as to claim he was more than "present". Nonetheless, following the captures of various establishments and the usual British mass theft of the various Indian princes' ill-gotten gains paid for by the sweat and blood of the unfortunates over whom they ruled who, surely, had a far greater claim on this wealth, and the split-up of such wealth that could be clawed back from the line thieves, Macquarie began to earn some serious money. Or, if not earn it exactly, be paid it. One such haul amounted to some £3,000 (very, very roughly, some £240,000 or $A410,000 in 2017 terms)
At this stage of his career, Lachlan seems to have been motivated by two major drives. First, he seems to want to further the fortunes of his fellow clan members and the clan itself. Second, he came from a background of poverty, so understandably he wanted money, which he spent on his clan, and on himself. Throughout his adult life, Lachlan maintained detailed notes on his income and expenditure, along with a detailed journal. Or, at least, a semi-detailed journal, because, of course, he did not necessarily put all his thoughts and activities into writing.
The sources I’ve read tell of a young man who threw himself into the deep end of the boozing, whoring life of a British junior officer in India. Many of the sources talk of him as though he bravely took part in a series of major colonial battles against Indian rulers. And, in fact, he was often in the area, and able to write interesting and apparently accurate reports of what he saw. But fight? No. To be fair, on his second trip to war he became extremely ill, and by appearances it was a bit more than a severe series of hangovers, and had to be shipped back to Bombay (now Mumbai). Apparently he was lucky to survive.
Maybe what helped his survival, or perhaps was at least part of the cause of the seriousness of his illness, were the supplies he took with him to “battle”. He mentions in a diary entry covering his part in Britain's 1791 campaign against the Sultan of Mysore he headed off to war with "eight dozen bottles of brandy and Madeira" and "a quantity of gin".
Far be it for me (Lex) to be critical of a twenty-nine year old pisspot, having been one myself. But I’m far from sure, if I had any choice, I would have taken massive quantities of booze with me when I knew I might have to keep myself capable of fighting a very difficult enemy.
And while I try not to be at all judgemental, and my morality would be regarded by many as next to non-existent, Macquarie appears to have had no hesitation in taking advantage of young women who, desperate for money, were forced to resort to sex with whitey. We don’t know when this predilection caught up with him in the most terrible of ways, or one of them anyway.
However, we know with certainty Lachlan contracted syphilis at some stage prior to being sentenced to be Governor of New South Wales. It seems he contracted this ghastly disease pretty early after his arrival in India, and it may have been at least one cause of the illness requiring his withdrawal from the field against Mysore's recalcitrant Sultan. If so, this would mean it was prior to his first marriage, let alone his second. Sadly, but all-too-commonly, we know nothing of the fate of the poor young woman who gave him the disease, nor can we identify those others to whom she gave it, nor those others to whom Macquarie gave it, except, presumably, his two wives.
Of course, in these times, long before the development of rubber condoms, which until they managed to make them extremely thin can’t have been much fun anyway, let alone penicillin, the pox was an ever-present threat, and its consequences were dire indeed.
Samuel Johnson’s Boswell, the same Johnson and Boswell who wrote of their visit to Lauchlan Macquarrie, the 16th Clan Chieftain on Ulva, also wrote of the condoms available at the time, made out of soft leather, particularly sheep skin. I don’t know how available these would have been in Bombay, but, like thick rubber condoms, and to some degree thin rubber condoms, they wouldn’t have been a patch on the real thing!
The booze and sex, however, were mere naughtinesses on Lachlan’s part. At his age, desperate to fit in with his fellow officers, most of whom would have come from significantly better backgrounds than he did, he would have had to play the game of whitey among the needy and less developed elements of humanity.
At this time, Lachlan seems to have been fairly successful in presenting the appearance of a capable and clever soldier, although one suspects his competition was probably not of a very high level. He seems to have been playing for regular promotion in headquarters-type jobs, rather than fighting jobs.
I don’t intend to suggest Macquarie was a coward, far be it from me to condemn anyone who tries to put as much geography as they can between themselves and the killing machines at the front line. My suspicion is, however, that he was working to put himself in positions where he could be of most use to his clan and his own drive for wealth.
So, while many of his biographies place him at various battles, none can go so far as to claim he was more than "present". Nonetheless, following the captures of various establishments and the usual British mass theft of the various Indian princes' ill-gotten gains paid for by the sweat and blood of the unfortunates over whom they ruled who, surely, had a far greater claim on this wealth, and the split-up of such wealth that could be clawed back from the line thieves, Macquarie began to earn some serious money. Or, if not earn it exactly, be paid it. One such haul amounted to some £3,000 (very, very roughly, some £240,000 or $A410,000 in 2017 terms)