A strange career : life and adventures of John Gladwyn Jebb

Front matter

A Strange Career

LIFE AID ADVENTURES

OF

Chapter I. Boyhood, And Entrance Into The Army

Jack Jebb’s parentage — Early life at Walton — Education at Bonn and at Chesterfield — Holidays at Firbeck — His daring and love of mischief — At school at Cheltenham — Favourite studies — An adventure at Leckhampton — Sent to an army coach — Enters Woolwich — Gazetted to the 88th Regiment — His mother’s death — Has a premonition of the event — The last tie gone — Sails to join his regiment in India,

Chapter II. Indian Service

The route to India thirty years ago — Flirtation on board ship — Jack Jebb’s journey — A hypnotic experiment — Regimental duties — A midnight encounter with a native — Three years of hard work — Down with fever — An acrimonious native official — Indomitable British pluck — A night’s imprisonment — A court scene — Recruiting strength on the hills,

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CONTENTS.

Chapter III. Business Disasters

Re-marriage of Rev. Mr Jebb — Jack Jebb returns to England — Complicated business affairs — Resigns liis commission — At Oxford University — Society, athletics, and reading — An odd apparition — Goes on a shooting tour to Skye — A comfortable income — Determines to speculate — A partner in a Glasgow steel gun-barrel factory — An unfortunate strike — ,£23,000 lost in a year — Belated Government orders — Chafing under inaction — An expedition to Nicaragua — Experiences of a tropical climate — An adventure in Guatemala— Home again — Overend & Gurney’s insolvency — Deprived of his remaining fortune — Employment a necessity — Learns sheep-farming,

CHAPTER IY.

COFFEE-PLANTING IN BRAZIL.

Farm-life in the Highlands — Amongst a silent folk — A haunted glen — Fresh enterprise — Assists in founding the White Star Line —Small gain from the undertaking — A business tour through the United States — Uncongenial duties — Visit to Brazil — Manager on a coffee plantation — Supervision of negro labourers — Dark story of the fazenda — An instance of Jebb’s unselfishness — Overwork and malaria — A moonlight ride through the forest — A vision of the night — Swamp fever — Peculiar receptive conditions of the mind,

CHAPTER Y.

IN THE FAR WEST.

Relapse of illness — Ordered to a colder climate — Getting used to his persistent ill-luck — Opportunely realises certain “expectations” — Sails for New York — Meets with an old frontiersman — After buffalo in the Far West — Some of the discomforts of camping out — Bob Harker’s characteristics — Narrow escape from accidental shooting — A prairie murder — Conjectures as to the perpetrator — A long record of crime

CONTENTS.

— A ghastly sign — Scare in regard to mountain travelling — The vigilantes fail to find a clue — Newspaper articles on the outrages — Personal danger,

CHAPTER VI.

AN ADVENTURE ON THE PLAINS.

On the march — Precautions against Indians — “ Sign ” of buffalo — A bloody conspiracy on foot — A scout’s loyalty — Further atrocities — Break-up of the hunting party — Jack Jebb joins in pursuit of the manslayer — The probable criminal and his rendezvous — Tracked — A description of “ Lost Park ” — The scout’s mode of attack — Retribution at last — A gruesome diary — The career of “ Big Foot ” — The long-cherished vengeance of a member of a Southern race,

CHAPTER VII.

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SPORT IN COLORADO.

Frontier law — Festivities at Alma— Renewed purpose of shooting big game — Setting out to the Rocky Mountains — Abundant sport, and episodes of a varied character — Beartrapping in company of a partner — Another bear story — A close shave — Active hostility of the Utes — Work-ox versus steer-beef — Meets General Fremont, the discoverer of California — Resolves to see the “ Golden State ” — Effects of civilisation in the Western States — Denver and Leadville at the outset of their history — Impressions of San Francisco — Prospecting in Sacramento Valley — The gold-diggers and their ways — Sufferings from fever and ague — A desperate remedy — Perversity of his luck even with diseases — Back to Colorado,

CHAPTER VIII.

FURTHER PURSUIT OF GOLD.

Purchase of the “Great Whale” mines at Denver — Jack Jebb’s contribution of money to the scheme — Assumes chief management of the mines — His headquarters — Enjoys

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living in the Rocky Mountains — Boston friends on a neighbouring property — Dangers from Rapahoes — The bringing-in of provisions — The mails — Snow-shoeing the most convenient method of travel — Advantages of the Norwegian snow-shoe — An adventurous nocturnal journey — Meets with an accident — Tries a bold experiment — Strikes an old mining-camp — A false alarm — How “bear” tracks are made — Story of a grizzly hunt, 115

CHAPTER IX.

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS DURING WINTER.

A mountain storm — A second night’s camping out — Has a mishap in cooking with a powder labelled “ Borwick’s ” — A toilsome journey — The very low temperature of the season — Discovers that he had taken strychnine — Fall in descending a mining-shaft — Another “ near thing ” — An exceptional winter — Plan of domestic management adopted by Jack Jebb and a companion — On short rations — Reduced to the last extremity — An exception to a whole life’s bad luck —

A supper of elk — The snow lifts — His reflections on the events of the past months, 130

CHAPTER X.

AFFAIRS AT DENVER.

Spring in a western mining-camp — Heavy outlay on the “Great Whale” mines — A consultation on the subject necessary — Starts for New York — Stay at Boston — American hospitality — The variety of religions in Boston — Large spiritualistic element in its schools of thought — Anecdote of a seance — His interest in the Psychical Research Society — Sails for England — Family calls — Marriage and return to Denver — Methods of obtaining camp - supplies — A mysterious pedlar — Trapping bear — An amusing climax —

The great eclipse in the Rockies — A magnificent spectacle — Effect of the phenomenon on a party of Utes — Jack Jebb and his neighbours — A remarkable feat, . . . .145

CONTENTS.

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CHAPTER XI.

LAST EFFORTS AS A PIONEER.

The -winter of 1878 in Colorado — An extraordinary frost — A terrible journey through the storm — Fairly beaten by the weather — An avalanche sweeps away an entire camp — Jack Jebb leads a search party — Risk incurred by the searchers — Success of their efforts — The troubles attendant on mining — The concern at Denver turns out profitless — Back in New York — Becomes a partner in an omelette company — Awaiting developments — Closes with a proposal to go out to Mexico as a manager of mines, . . . . . .165

CHAPTER XII.

THE LAND OF MONTEZUMA.

Different ways of getting to Mexico — Havana — Mexican ladies — Yera Cruz — Jack Jebb takes the railway route from New York — Events of the journey — The town of Mexico — His destination — Picturesque scenery — Is the first European in these sierras — Secures a faithful bodyguard — Friendliness of the workmen — “ Poverty Row ” — A dynamite scare — Domestic difficulties and how met — An ingenious official —

A primitive state of society — The splendid climate — The Padre and his salary — An encouragement to matrimony —

Relics of the old Aztec worship, 183

CHAPTER XIII.

A BRUSH WITH BANDITTI.

Treachery in camp — The ex-manager, Don Eduardo, and his scheme of revenge — The gathering of the enemy — A discontented 'peon — Sebastiano drunk and Sebastiano sober —

The plot leaks out — Peculiar arrangements for defence — A smart capture — An instance of summary justice — Power of the district Cacique — A supporter of the Emperor Maximilian— An old battle-ground — The Cacique’s description of the fight — Devotion of the tribesmen to their chief — The clannish feeling still existent in Mexico, .... 201

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CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIV.

MEXICAN HISTORY AND LEGEND.

The Emperor Maximilian ancl liis fate — His false counsellors — His chivalrous courage — The siege of Queretaro — President J uarez — General Diaz — A case of diamond cut diamond — The strange mixture of absolute freedom and military despotism in Mexico — Progress of affairs at the mines — A breakdown of machinery — Dividends still in the distance — Heroism of an Indian lad — A Mexican superstition — The legend of Don Isidoro de la Vega — His hatred of the Spaniards — Don Miguel Gomez — Don Isidoro’s vengeance — Sent a prisoner to the mines — His punishment — A wild tragedy, .217

CHAPTER XV.

THE CITY OF MEXICO.

Character of the 'peons — Relaxations of the English settlers —

Jack Jebb’s love of the capital — Illustrations of Mexican manners — An attack on the gaol — How a mob was managed — An “ electrical ” state of the political atmosphere — Popular demonstrations — A tiny match-seller — A skirmish in the streets between military and civilians — A ludicrous anti-climax— Misplaced philanthropy — The rule of President Diaz — His private character — Love of sport — Strict measures with banditti, 235

CHAPTER XVI.

THE “KNIGHTS OF THE ROAD.”

A good day’s sport — Reminiscences of travelling adventures —

A general robbed four times in one day — Generous bandits —

A gentlemanly captor — Bandits of an amateurish cut — The limit of endurance reached — Corroboration of the narrative — Another tale — The employment of disbanded troops — A w^ar-interlude in the interests of justice — Robber chiefs and the church — Death of Jebb’s remaining aunt — Meets his second wife — Marriage postponed for financial reasons — An original honeymoon, 250

CONTENTS.

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CHAPTER XYII.

S.EARCH FOR TREASURE.

Reconstruction of the mining concern — Jebb’s large circle of acquaintances — A variety of business proposals — The hidden treasure of Guatamoc — An old chiefs secret — A further story of buried millions — A Padre’s vigilance — The hiding-place of Montezuma’s treasure — Vigorous explorations — Interesting finds — The totem-mark of Guatamoc — An underground passage — Proceedings abruptly stopped — Lingering belief in the existence of Montezuma’s treasure, . . . 267

CHAPTER XVIII.

FRESH FIELDS.

A new gold-mine — An untrustworthy adviser — Seized with serious illness — Tries the sulphur baths at Puebla — The manufacture of antiquities — The bandits of Malinche — A Yankee drummer’s prowess — The pyramid at Cholula — Return to work — Negotiates a mining property in the state of Chiapas — An unpleasant journey — Insect pests — Wonderful relics of a bygone civilisation — A sacred snake — Distress of a British tourist — On the look-out for antiquities — The ingenious American tourist, 283

CHAPTER XIX.

THE SIERRAS ONCE MORE.

Mexican bull-fights — Bull-sports — Reseeks the sierras — Sent for by the Cacique — A supposed mysterious murder — Makes a discovery — The pursuit — Not a case of murder, but of insanity — A fierce resistance — Gratitude of the accused criminal — Popularity among the peons — At “ Poverty Row”

— Enjoyment of the free unconventional life — Birth of a son — Acquisition of an Aztec idol — Its apparent unlucky influence — Its first night on a foreign soil — Continued malign effects, 298

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CHAPTER XX.

CLOSING YEARS.

Residence in Mexico — An ancient house — Out- door pleasures — A pic-nic party at Patzcuaro — A famous picture —Business prosperity seems well assured — Sets out on a visit to England— A misadventure by the way — Arrival at New York — Settles in London — His evil star — Mexico once again — Last illness — Home to London — Death — Jack Jebb’s life hardly a failure, .

Introduction

It is a matter of common experience that among the many acquaintances we make from year to year, we chance now and again to find one whose personality has for us a singular attraction. Such was the fortune of the writer of this preface in the instance of his late friend John Gladwyn Jebb.

I think it was in the year 1889 that I was introduced to Mr Jebb, one night at a London dinner-party, and I remember being impressed at first sight by his powerful build, his kindly face, and the peculiar gentleness of his brown eyes. Before the evening was over I found in him a person different from the generality of men — a man rich in a rare quaintness and originality of mind, and withal one of the most agreeable and interesting companions whom I had met for many a day.

At that time Mr Jebb was at home on a visit from Mexico, where he was engaged in business affairs,

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and it was of Mexico that he talked — its history, its legends, and many strange adventures which had befallen him there. This meeting led to others, and resulted at length in an invitation, that I accepted, to visit Mr J ebb in Mexico, when we proposed to explore some of the ruined cities in the Palenque district, and also to make an attempt to recover Montezuma’s, or rather Guatemoc’s, treasure, whereof the story is told in these pages. To the hiding-place of this hoard he had a key — now, as I believe, lost for ever.

Accordingly, at the beginning of the year 1891 I journeyed to Mexico, where I was warmly welcomed by Mr Jebb, and from that time I date my intimate acquaintance with him. All the things which we were to have done together we did not do, seeing that we were stayed by a sudden and terrible domestic calamity, whereof it is needless to write. Therefore it was that the ruined cities for which we were about to start remained unvisited and Guatemoc’s treasure unsought.

Still, we made several expeditions together, and among them a month’s trip into the interior of the State of Chiapas — on the whole the roughest piece of journeying that has come within my experience in any part of the world.

It was as a travelling companion that Mr Jebb

INTRODUCTION.

XVII showed at his very best ; for not until discomfort and even danger had been endured in his company, was it possible to measure his complete, his colossal unselfishness. When the nerves are shattered by sorrow and anxiety, and the body is worn out with petty vexations and weariness ; when the stomach turns at the nastiness that in the wilder parts of Mexico passes for food, and every square inch of skin is smarting from the stings of insect

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pests, — then it is, perhaps unconsciously, that the most patient and considerate of us are apt to revert to the primitive principle of “ every man for himself."

Not so Mr Jebb, however. If there were not enough hammocks, or a lack of room to swing them in the shed, it was he who insisted upon sleeping outside in the rain and on the ground ; if there was a choice of places in the coach, it was he who sped to secure the worst one, and so forth.

Indeed he carried this principle to extremes, as the following story will show.

Among our baggage on the occasion of this journey into the depths of Chiapas was a mule-load of silver — some 3000 dollars of it, which we were conveying to the Santa Fe mine. One night we reached a certain inland town, and were hospitably entertained in one of the largest houses ; still, as

INTRODUCTION.

such a thing as robbery, highway and wholesale, has been heard of in the more remote districts of Mexico, Mr Jebb thought it safer to take to his bedroom the bullion which we were known to have in our charge. Now, as he learned afterwards from native sources, the possibility of possessing themselves of so much cash proved too much for the feeble honesty of sundry of the inhabitants of this town, who entered into an agreement to steal the dollars that night, and should we interfere in the matter, incidentally to cut our throats.

About midnight these worthies began to attempt the execution of their plan. As it chanced, Mr Jebb and myself occupied different sleeping-places, separated by the length of a large eating-room. The house stood upon the edge of a very steep slope, at the foot of which ran* a river, and immediately beneath the rickety and latchless French windows of Mr Jebb’s room rose a supporting wall built of loose stones.

In the middle of the night I was awakened two or three times by the furious barking of some curs belonging to the establishment as they rushed through the gardens on the slope ; but the noise ceasing after a while, having ascertained that my revolver was at hand, I went to sleep again, thinking no more of the matter.

INTRODUCTION.

XIX

In tlie morning Mr Jebb, who had risen early to make inquiry and investigations, asked me if I had been disturbed in the night. Then he told me this story. It seems that he had some suspicion that an attempt would be made to steal the silver, and therefore he slept very lightly. In due course the barking of the dogs roused him, and he crept from his bed to the French windows, which it was impossible to secure, and listened. Hearing the robbers whispering below at the foot of the wall, he retreated to the bed again and seated himself on the edge of it, holding a wax match in one hand and his long-barrelled Colt cocked in the other.

This was his plan : to wait till he heard the thieves push open the French wdndows, then to strike the match (for the night was pitch-dark), and by its light to fire at them over it before they could attack him.

For a long while he sat thus, and twice he heard the loose stones dropping as his assailants began to climb up the wall beneath the window ; but on each occasion they were frightened by the clamour of the dogs, which at length grew so loud that, thinking our Indian servants, who slept at a distance from the house, would be aroused, the thieves took to flight without the dollars,

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INTRODUCTION.

leaving nothing but some footprints behind them.

“ And why did you not come and wake me ? ” I asked, when he had finished his tale.

“ Oh,” he answered, “ I nearly did so, but I knew that you were very tired ; also there was no use in both of us handing in our checks, for there were a dozen of those devils, and had they got into the room, for their own sakes they would have made a clean sweep of us.”

I did not make any reply ; but I remember thinking, and I still think, that this conduct showed great courage and great unselfishness on the part of Mr Jebb. Most people would have retreated at the first alarm ; but this, with the utter fearlessness which was one of his characteristics, he did not do, since the dollars in his charge were too heavy to carry ; and before men could be found to assist him, they would have been secured by the robbers, who knew well where to look for them. In the rare event, however, of the supply of personal pluck proving equal to such an occasion, how many of us, for the reasons given, having a well-armed white companion at hand, would have neglected to summon him to take his part in the fray ? A man must be very brave and very unselfish indeed to choose to face a band of Mexican

INTRODUCTION.

XXI cut-throats alone when a word would bring a comrade to his side.

I have told the story of this particular little adventure at length, although it is trivial compared to many others which are to be read of in this book, because I happen to be personally acquainted with the details, which serve to illustrate one side of my late friend’s character.

Into Mr Jebb’s history I do not propose to enter, for it is set out hereafter by his biographer. Rarely if ever in this nineteenth century has a man lived so strange and varied an existence. “ Adventures are to the adventurous,” the saying tells us, and certainly they were to Mr Jebb. From the time that he came to manhood he was a wanderer ; and how it chanced that he survived the many perils of his daily life is nothing less than a mystery. In the end, however, they brought his fate upon him prematurely ; for the diseases of which he died resulted from neglected illnesses and continual exposure that would have sufficed again and again to kill any one of a less perfect constitution.

When I returned to England in 1891 he came also, and for a while took up his abode in London. Soon, however, his old restlessness and his love of sunshine got the better of him, and he journeyed back to Mexico armed with an invention for ex-

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INTRODUCTION.

tracting metals from refractory ores by a new process which, he was convinced, would bring in thousands. As might be expected, it did nothing of the sort ; indeed it broke down utterly when put to the proof, and Mr J ebb’s health with it. For the last of many times, a mere wreck of his former self, he crossed the Atlantic homewards, to die in London, after much suffering most patiently endured, on the 18th March 1893.

On next page is reproduced a fragment of a letter which he wrote to me, dated shortly before his death. I believe that these are the very last words he was able to pen, and it will be seen that his strength failed him before he could complete them.

It only remains for me, if I may venture to do so, to say a few words as to Mr Jebb’s character, which in many ways strikes me as one of the most attractive that ever came under my observation.

Of all friends he was the gentlest and truest ; of all men the most trustful. Indeed it was this childlike guilelessness that ruined him, for throughout his life he was the prey of his own sanguine temperament. He worked hard for many years, worked as few men work, and yet I believe I am right in saying that he never once got the best of a bargain, or had to do with an enterprise

INTRODUCTION.

which proved successful — at any rate, so far as his own interests were concerned.

It is not wonderful, therefore, beginning life

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SrZyZ-V /z*-xyjp as a rich man, that he ended it as a poor one. Yet so perfectly upright was his nature, that never did the slightest blame or suspicion attach

XXIV

INTRODUCTION.

to him among so many failures ; and every time that he discovered afresh the imperfections of commercial humanity, it seemed to come upon him as a surprise.

In the city of Mexico, where business men are — business men, he was respected universally, and by the Indians he was adored: “ He is a good

man, Jebb,” said an honourable old Jewish trader of that city to me, — “a man among a thousand, whom I would trust anywhere. See, I will prove it to you, Amigo ; he has lived in this town doing business for years, yet, with all his opportunities, he leaves it 'poorer than he came here. Did you ever hear the like of that, Amigo f ”

And so it came about that John Gladwyn Jebb left both Mexico and this land, where we have “ no abiding city,” almost as naked of the world’s goods as when he entered it. He was not suited to the life that fell to his lot, at least not to the commercial side of it, for an adventurer — using the term in its best sense — he must always have been. He was too sanguine, too romantic, too easily deluded by others, and too mystical — a curious vein of mysticism was one of his most striking characteristics — for this nineteenth century. As a crusader, or as a knight-errant, doubtless he would have been a brilliant success, but as a manager of

INTRODUCTION.

XXV companies and a director of business matters it must be confessed that he was a failure.

Would that there existed more of such noble failures — the ignoble are sufficiently abundant — for then the world might be cleaner than it is. It matters little now : his day is done, and he has journeyed to that wonderful Hereafter of which during life he had so clear a vision, and that was so often the subject of his delightful and suggestive talk. But his record remains, the record of a brave and generous man who, as I firmly believe, never did, never even contemplated, a mean or a doubtful act.

To those who knew him and have lost sight of him there remain also a bright and chivalrous example and the memory of a most perfect gentleman.

H. EIDER HAGGARD.

Ditchingham, 21 st August 1894.

A STRANGE CAREER.

CHAPTEK I.

BOYHOOD, AND ENTRANCE INTO THE ARMY.

JACK JEBB’s PARENTAGE— EARLY LIFE AT WALTON — EDUCATION AT BONN AND AT CHESTERFIELD — HOLIDAYS AT FIRBECK — HIS DARING AND LOVE OF MISCHIEF — AT SCHOOL AT CHELTENHAM — FAVOURITE STUDIES — AN ADVENTURE AT LECKHAMPTON — SENT TO AN ARMY COACH — ENTERS WOOLWICH — GAZETTED TO THE 88TH REGIMENT — HIS MOTHER’S DEATH— HAS A PREMONITION OF THE EVENT— THE LAST TIE GONE — SAILS TO JOIN HIS REGIMENT IN INDIA.

In telling the life story of a real or a fictitious personage, it is usual to start at the beginning and plod on more or less steadily, until at the last “ Finis ” can be added to the adventures or the days of the hero. But there are times when the chronicler feels that it would be easier to begin at the end — when the character has attained to all that it ever will of good and of evil, and when

A

BOYHOOD, AND ENTRANCE INTO THE ARMY.

we can see by what strange chances and weary paths it came to its maturity. As this book is intended, however, to be a sketch of many adventures in distant lands rather than of the manly and loyal nature of him who underwent them, it shall follow the orthodox course.

There are many disadvantages about being an only child ; and if there are any corresponding benefits to be derived from that fact, the subject of this memoir, John Beveridge Gladwyn Jebb, never profited by them. Born in 1841, when both his parents had passed their first youth, he was naturally regarded by them as a sort of Koh-i-noor, a roc’s egg, or something equally rare and priceless. They agreed in doing their best to spoil him ; but unfortunately they held diametrically opposite views as to the best way of performing the operation.

There is no need to go further back in the annals of the Jebb family history than to the time of John’s grandfather, himself an only son, who at one time possessed considerable property both in England and in the West Indies, but who, through various mischances, died a comparatively poor man. The small estate of Walton, Derbyshire, was entailed on his eldest son, Sir Joshua Jebb, K.C.B., Director-General of Prisons,

FAMILY “JARS.” 3

who, not wishing to live there, sold it to his third brother, the Rev. John Beveridge Jebb, who, since his marriage in 1839 with Charlotte, eldest daughter of Mr Richard Dann of Water-

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mouth, Devon, had lived at Walton with his father until the death of the latter in 1845. The Rev. J. B. Jebb, who held the living of Walton together with that of Brampton, Chesterfield, was a person decidedly above the average in ability. The same may be said of his wife. Moreover, the couple had this in common, that they both held strong and settled opinions on life, religion, and other leading questions.

For the first few years of marriage they were strongly attached to each other, though there arose between them the usual amount of occasional “jars”; but unfortunately the “jars” multiplied and the affection diminished as time went by. It was a case of misunderstanding ; for there was no deep root of bitterness in either. The fortune was chiefly on the side of Mrs Jebb, who had given her husband absolute power over it, and he was not sufficiently mindful of the generosity she had shown. This circumstance is only touched upon because of its effect upon the training and character of the son.

The one thing in which there was perfect accord between husband and wife was their intense love for the lad, who very early showed signs of a strong and original character. Cousins much older than himself, who remember “ Jack ” (as from boyhood he insisted on being called) in the arms of his tall, gaunt, faithful nurse, talk of his dark eyes, even then intent and searching. At that early age they say his powers of observation were remarkable, and that he would ask questions and make remarks with an intelligence beyond his years. They tell a story of his escaping from the faithful one into the farmyard, when he was two years old, and being shortly discovered holding on with both hands to the throat of a half-strangled gander which had flown at him. As he had no companions, it was fortunate for him that he was not at all a gregarious child : indeed, from the time he could run alone, his chief joy was to get away from every one, and hiding in the woods, to play at being a solitary Red Indian by his camp fire.