Real soldiers of fortune

II Baron James Harden-Hickey . . * . . 32 ^

III Winston Spencer Churchill 75

IV Captain Philo Norton McGiffin .... 120

V

General William Walker, the King of the

Filibusters 145 ^

VI

Major Burnham, Chief of Scouts . . . . 191

ILLUSTRATIONS

BlTRNHAM AND COMMISSIONER ARMSTRONG ESCAPING AFTER

Shooting the High-Priest Umlimo . . . Frontispiece

MacIver in the Uniform of the Mexican Empire

Brevet Bestowing the Cross of Takova on General MacIver by the Servian Government

MacIver as General of Brigade in Servian Uniform

Major-General Henry Ronald Douglas MacIver as He Is To-day

FACING PAGE

The Island of Trinidad, off the Coast of Brazil

Topographical Map of the Island of Trinidad

The Order of the Cross of Trinidad

Baron Harden-Hickey, King James I of Trinidad

Winston Churchill in the Uniform of the Fourth Queen's Own Hussars, at the Age of Twenty-one, When He Fought with the Spaniards

Winston Churchill in the Uniform of Lieutenant of South African Light Horse .

Winston Churchill as War Correspondent in South Africa at the Time of His Capture ....

30 42

44 54 72

76 92 98

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Winston Churchill Landing prom the Steamer "Induna"

at Durban after His Escape from the Boer Prison . 108

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, British Under- Secretary for the Colonies 118

Captain McGiffin on Graduation from the Naval Academy at Twenty-three 128

McGiffin as Superintendent of the Chinese Naval College, at the Age of Thirty-two 140

Captain McGiffin in Hospital after the Battle of the Yalu — Showing Damage to Clothes due to Concussion 142

General William Walker 146

Routes of Walker's Three Filibustering Expeditions . 188

Major F. R. Burnham; Taken on the Day the King

Decorated Him with the D. S. 228

Latest Portrait of Burnham; Taken this Year in Mexico

by a Member of His Expedition 232 via

MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY RONALD DOUGLAS MACIVER

ANY sunny afternoon, on Fifth Avenue, or at night in the table d'hote restaurants of University Place, you may meet the soldier of fortune who of all his brothers in arms now living is the most remarkable. You may have noticed him ; a stiffly erect, distinguished-looking man, with gray hair, an imperial of the fashion of Louis Napoleon, fierce blue eyes, and across his forehead a sabre cut.

This is Henry Ronald Douglas Maclver, for some time in India an ensign in the Sepoy mutiny; in Italy, lieutenant under Garibaldi; in Spain, captain under Don Carlos; in our Civil War, major in the Confederate army; in Mexico, lieutenant-colonel under the Emperor Maximilian; colonel under Napoleon III, inspector of cavalry for the Khedive of Egypt, and chief of cavalry and general of brigade of the army of King Milan of Servia. These are only a few of his military titles. In 1884 was published a book giving the story of his life up to that year. It was called " Under Fourteen Flags." If to-day General Mac- Iver were to reprint the book, it would be called " Under Eighteen Flags."

Maclver was born on Christmas Day, 1841, at sea, a league off the shore of Virginia. His mother was Miss Anna Douglas of that State ; Ronald Maclver, his father, was a Scot, a Ross-shire gentleman, a younger son of the chief of the Clan Maclver. Until he was ten years old young Maclver played in Virginia at the home of his father. Then, in order that he might be educated, he was shipped to Edinburgh to an uncle, General Donald Graham. After five years his uncle obtained for him a commission as ensign in the Honourable East India Company, and at sixteen, when other boys are preparing for college, Maclver was in the Indian Mutiny, fighting, not for a flag, nor a country, but as one fights a wild animal, for his life. He was wounded in the arm, and, with a sword, cut over the head. As a safeguard against the sun the boy had placed inside his helmet a wet towel. This saved him to fight another day, but even with that protection the sword sank through the helmet, the towel, and into the skull. To-day you can see the scar. He was left in the road for dead, and even after his wounds had healed, was six weeks in the hospital.

This rough handling at the very start might have satisfied some men, but in the very next war Maclver was a volunteer and wore the red shirt of Garibaldi. He remained at the front throughout that campaign, and until within a few years there has been no campaign of consequence in which he has not taken part. He served in the Ten Years' War in Cuba, in Brazil, in Argentina, in Crete, in Greece, twice in Spain in Carlist revolutions, in Bosnia, and for four years in our Civil War under Generals Jackson and Stuart around Richmond. In this great war he was four times wounded.

It was after the surrender of the Confederate Army, that, with other Southern officers, he served under Maximilian in Mexico; in Egypt, and in France. Whenever in any part of the world there was fighting, or the rumor of fighting, the procedure of the general invariably was the same. He would order himself to instantly depart for the front, and on arriving there would offer to organize a foreign legion. The command of this organization always was given to him. But the foreign legion was merely the entering wedge. He would soon show that he was fitted for a better command than a band of undisciplined volunteers, and would receive a commission in the regular army. In almost every command in which he served that is the manner in which promotion came. Sometimes he saw but little fighting, sometimes he should have died several deaths, each of a nature more unpleasant than the others. For in war the obvious danger of a bullet is but a three hundred to one shot, while in the pack against the combatant the jokers are innumerable. And in the career of the general the unforeseen adventures are the most interesting. A man who in eighteen campaigns has played his part would seem to have earned exemption from any other risks, but often it was outside the battle-field that Maclver encountered the greatest danger. He fought several duels, in two of which he killed his adversary; several attempts were made to assassinate him, and while on his way to Mexico he was captured by hostile Indians. On returning from an expedition in Cuba he was cast adrift in an open boat and for days was without food.

Long before I met General Maclver I had read his book and had heard of him from many men who had met him in many different lands while engaged in as many different undertakings. Several of the older war correspondents knew him intimately; Bennett Burleigh of the Telegraph was his friend, and E. F. Knight of the Times was one of those who volunteered for a filibustering expedition which Maclver organized against New Guinea. The late Colonel Ochiltree of Texas told me tales of Maclver's bravery, when as young men they were fellow officers in the Southern Army, and Stephen Bonsai had met him when Maclver was United States Consul at Denia in Spain. When Maclver arrived at this post, the ex-consul refused to vacate the Consulate, and

s

Maclver wished to settle the difficulty with duelling pistols. As Denia is a small place, the inhabitants feared for their safety, and Bonsai, who was our charge d'affaires then, was sent from Madrid to adjust matters. Without bloodshed he got rid of the ex-consul, and later Maclver so endeared himself to the Denians that they begged the State Department to retain him in that place for the remainder of his life.

Before General Maclver was appointed to a high position at the St. Louis Fair, I saw much of him in New York. His room was in a side street in an old-fashioned boardinghouse, and overlooked his neighbors' backyard and a typical New York City sumac tree; but when the general talked one forgot he was within a block of the Elevated, and roamed over all the world. On his bed he would spread out wonderful parchments, with strange, heathenish inscriptions, with great seals, with faded ribbons. These were signed by Sultans, Secretaries of War, Emperors, filibusters. They were military commissions, titles of nobility, brevets for decorations, instructions and commands from superior officers. Translated the phrases ran : " Imposing special confidence in," " we appoint," or " create," or " declare," or " In recognition of services rendered to our person," or " country," or " cause," or " For bravery on the field of battle we bestow the Cross "

As must a soldier, the general travels " light," and all his worldly possessions were crowded ready for mobilization into a small compass. He had his sword, his field blanket, his trunk, and the tin despatch boxes that held his papers. From these, like a conjurer, he would draw souvenirs of all the world. From the embrace of faded letters, he would unfold old photographs, daguerreotypes, and miniatures of fair women and adventurous men: women who now are queens in exile, men who, lifted on waves of absinthe, still, across a cafe table, tell how they will win back a crown.

Once in a written document the general did me the honor to appoint me his literary executor, but as he is young, and as healthy as myself, it never may be my lot to perform such an unwelcome duty. And to-day all one can write of him is what the world can read in "Under Fourteen Flags," and some of the

" foot-notes to history " which I have copied from his scrap-book. This scrap-book is a wonderful volume, but owing to " political " and other reasons, for the present, of the many clippings from newspapers it contains there are only a few I am at liberty to print. And from them it is difficult to make a choice. To sketch in a few thousand words a career that had developed under Eighteen Flags is in its very wealth embarrassing.

Here is one story, as told by the scrap-book, of an expedition that failed. That it failed was due to a British Cabinet Minister ; for had Lord Derby possessed the imagination of the Soldier of Fortune, his Majesty's dominions might now be the richer by many thousands of square miles and many thousands of black subjects.

On October 29, 1883, the following appeared in the London Standard: "The New Guinea Exploration and Colonization Company is already chartered, and the first expedition expects to leave before Christmas." " The prospectus states settlers intending to join the first party must contribute one hundred pounds toward the company. This subscription will include all expenses for passage money. Six months' provisions will be provided, together with tents and arms for protection. Each subscriber of one hundred pounds is to obtain a certificate entitling him to one thousand acres/'

The view of the colonization scheme taken by the Times of London, of the same date, is less complaisant. " The latest commercial sensation is a proposed company for the seizure of New Guinea. Certain adventurous gentlemen are looking out for one hundred others who have money and a taste for buccaneering. When the company has been completed, its shareholders are to place themselves under military regulations, sail in a body for New Guinea, and without asking anybody's leave, seize upon the island and at once, in some unspecified way, proceed to realize large profits. If the idea does not suggest comparisons with the large designs of Sir Francis Drake, it is at least not unworthy of Captain Kidd."

When we remember the manner in which some of the colonies of Great Britain were acquired, the Times seems almost squeamish.

In a Melbourne paper, June, 1884, * s tne following paragraph:

" Toward the latter part of 1883 the Government of Queensland planted the flag of Great Britain on the shores of New Guinea. When the news reached England it created a sensation. The Earl of Derby, Secretary for the Colonies, refused, however, to sanction the annexation of New Guinea, and in so doing acted contrary to the sincere wish of every right-thinking Anglo-Saxon under the Southern Cross.

" While the subsequent correspondence between the Home and Queensland governments was going on, Brigadier-General H. R. Maclver originated and organized the New Guinea Exploration and Colonization Company, in London, with a view to establishing settlements on the island. The company, presided over by General Beresford of the British Army, and having an eminently representative and influential board of directors, had a capital of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and placed the supreme command of the expedition in the hands of General Maclver. Notwithstanding the character of the gentlemen composing the board of directors, and the truly peaceful nature of the expedition, his Lordship informed General Maclver that in the event of the latter's attempting to land on New Guinea, instructions would be sent to the officer in command of her Majesty's fleet in the Western Pacific to fire upon the company's vessel. This meant that the expedition would be dealt with as a filibustering one."

In Judy, September 21, 1SS7, appears:

" We all recollect the treatment received by Brigadier-General Mad. in the action he took with respect to the annexation of New Guinea. The General, who is a sort of Pizarro, with a dash of DArtagnan, was treated in a most scurvy manner by Lord Derby. Had Maclver not been thwarted in his enterprise, the whole of New Guinea would now have been under the British flag, and we should not be cheek-by- jowl with the Germans, as we are in too many places."

Society, September 3, 1887, says:

" The New Guinea expedition proved abortive, owing to the blundering shortsightedness of the then Government, for which Lord Derby was chiefly responsible, but what little foothold we possess in New Guinea is certainly due to General Maclver's gallant effort."

Copy of statement made by J. Rintoul Mitchell, June 2, 1887:

" About the latter end of the year 1883, when I was editor-in-chief of the Englishman in Calcutta, I was told by Captain de Deaux, assistant secretary in the Foreign Office of the Indian Government, that he had received a telegram from Lord Derby to the effect that if General Maclver ventured to land upon the coast of New Guinea it would become the duty of Lord Ripon, Viceroy, to use the naval forces at his command for the purpose of deporting General MacL Sir Aucland Calvin can certify to this, as it was discussed in the Viceregal Council."

Just after our Civil War Maclver was interested in another expedition which also failed. Its members called themselves the Knights of Arabia, and their object was to colonize an island much nearer to our shores than New Guinea. Maclver, saying that his oath prevented, would never tell me which island this was, but the reader can choose from among Cuba, Haiti, and the Hawaiian group. To have taken Cuba, the " colonizers " would have had to fight not only Spain, but the Cubans themselves, on whose side they were soon fighting in the Ten Years' War ; so Cuba may be eliminated. And as the expedition was to sail from the Atlantic side, and not from San Francisco, the island would appear to be the Black Republic. From the records of the times it would seem that the greater number of the Knights of Arabia were veterans of the Confederate Army, and there is no question but that they intended to subjugate the blacks of Haiti and form a republic for white men, in which slavery would be recognized. As one of the leaders of this filibustering expedition, Maclver was arrested by General Phil Sheridan and for a short time cast into jail. This chafed the General's spirit, but he argued philosophically that imprisonment for filibustering, while irksome, brought with it no reproach. And, indeed, sometimes the only difference between a filibuster and a government lies in the fact that the government fights the gunboats of only the enemy while a filibuster must dodge the boats of the enemy and those of his own countrymen. When the United States went to war with Spain there were many men in jail as filibusters, for doing that which at the time the country secretly approved, and later imitated. And because they attempted exactly the same thing for which Dr. Jameson was imprisoned in Holloway Jail, two hundred thousand of his countrymen are now wearing medals.

The by-laws of the Knights of Arabia leave but little doubt as to its object.

By-law No. II reads:

" We, as Knights of Arabia, pledge ourselves to aid, comfort, and protect all Knights of Arabia, especially those who are wounded in obtaining our grand object.

" III — Great care must be taken that no unbeliever or outsider shall gain any insight into the mysteries or secrets of the Order.

" IV — The candidate will have to pay one hundred dollars cash to the Captain of the Company, and the candidate will receive from the Secretary a Knight of Arabia bond for one hundred dollars in gold, with ten per cent interest, payable ninety days after the recognition of (The Republic of ) by the United States,

or any government.

" V — All Knights of Arabia will be entitled to one hundred acres of land, location of said land to be drawn for by lottery. The products are coffee, sugar, tobacco, and cotton."

A local correspondent of the New York

Herald writes of the arrest of Maclver as

follows :

" When Maclver will be tried is at present unknown, as his case has assumed a complicated aspect. He claims British protection as a subject of her British Majesty, and the English Consul has forwarded a statement of his case to Sir Frederick Bruce at Washington, accompanied by a copy of the by-laws. General Sheridan also has forwarded a statement to the Secretary of War, accompanied not only by the by-laws, but very important documents, including letters from Jefferson Davis, Benjamin, the Secretary of State of the Confederate States, and other personages prominent in the Rebellion, showing that Maclver enjoyed the highest confidence of the Confederacy."

As to the last statement, an open letter I

found in his scrap-book is an excellent proof.

It is as follows :

" To officers and members of all camps of United Confederate Veterans: It affords me the greatest pleasure to say that the bearer of this letter, General Henry Ronald Maclver, was an officer of great gallantry in the Confederate Army, serving on the staff at various times of General Stonewall Jackson, J. E. B. Stuart, and E. Kirby Smith, and that his official record is one of which any man may be proud.

" Respectfully, Marcus J. Wright,

Agent for the Collection of Confederate Records.

" War Records Office, War Department, Washington, July 8, 1895."

At the close of the war duels between officers of the two armies were not infrequent. In the scrap-book there is the account of one of these affairs sent from Vicksburg to a Northern paper by a correspondent who was an eyewitness of the event. It tells how Major Maclver, accompanied by Major Gillespie, met, just outside of Vicksburg, Captain Tomlin of Vermont, of the United States Artillery Volunteers. The duel was with swords. Maclver ran Tomlin through the body. The correspondent writes :

" The Confederate officer wiped his sword on his handkerchief. In a few seconds Captain Tomlin expired. One of Major Maclver's seconds called to him : ' He is dead ; you must go. These gentlemen will look after the body of their friend.' A negro boy brought up the horses, but before mounting Mac- Iver said to Captain Tomlin's seconds : ' My friends are in haste for me to go. Is there anything I can do? I hope you consider that this matter has been settled honorably ? '

" There being no reply, the Confederates rode away."

In a newspaper of to-day so matter-of-fact an acceptance of an event so tragic would make strange reading.

From the South Maclver crossed through Texas to join the Royalist army under the Emperor Maximilian. It was while making his way, with other Confederate officers, from Galveston to El Paso, that Maclver was captured by the Indians. He was not ill-treated by them, but for three months was a prisoner, until one night, the Indians having camped near the Rio Grande, he escaped into Mexico. There he offered his sword to the Royalist commander, General Mejia, who placed him on his staff, and showed him some few skirmishes. At Monterey Maclver saw big fighting, and for his share in it received the title of Count, and the order of Guadaloupe. In June, contrary to all rules of civilized war,

Maclver in the Uniform of the Mexican Empire.

Maximilian was executed and the empire was at an end. Maclver escaped to the coast, and from Tampico took a sailing vessel to Rio de Janeiro. Two months later he was wearing the uniform of another emperor, Dom Pedro, and, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, was in command of the Foreign Legion of the armies of Brazil and Argentina, which at that time as allies were fighting against Paraguay.

Maclver soon recruited seven hundred men, but only half of these ever reached the front. In Buenos Ayres cholera broke out and thirty thousand people died, among the number about half the Legion. Maclver was among those who suffered, and before he recovered was six weeks in hospital. During that period, under a junior officer, the Foreign Legion was sent to the front, where it was disbanded.

On his return to Glasgow, Maclver foregathered with an old friend, Bennett Burleigh, whom he had known when Burleigh was a lieutenant in the navy of the Confederate States. Although to-day known as a distinguished war correspondent, in those days Burleigh was something of a soldier of fortune himself, and was organizing an expedition to assist the Cretan insurgents against the Turks. Between the two men it was arranged that Maclver should precede the expedition to Crete and prepare for its arrival. The Cretans received him gladly, and from the provisional government he received a commission in which he was given " full power to make war on land and sea against the enemies of Crete, and particularly against the Sultan of Turkey and the Turkish forces, and to burn, destroy, or capture any vessel bearing the Turkish flag."

This permission to destroy the Turkish navy single-handed strikes one as more than generous, for the Cretans had no navy, and before one could begin the destruction of a Turkish gunboat it was first necessary to catch it and tie it to a wharf.

At the close of the Cretan insurrection Maclver crossed to Athens and served against the brigands in Kisissia on the borders of Albania and Thessaly as volunteer aide to Colonel Corroneus, who had been commander-in-chief of the Cretans against the Turks. Maclver spent three months potting at brigands, and for his services in the mountains was recommended for the highest Greek decoration.

From Greece it was only a step to New York, and almost immediately Maclver appears as one of the Goicouria-Christo expedition to Cuba, of which Goicouria was commander-in-chief, and two famous American officers, Brigadier-General Samuel C. Williams was a general and Colonel Wright Schumburg was chief of staff.

In the scrap-book I find " General Order No. II of the Liberal Army of the Republic of Cuba, issued at Cedar Keys, October 3, 1 869." In it Colonel Maclver is spoken of as in charge of officers not attached to any organized corps of the division. And again :

" General Order No. V, Expeditionary Division, Republic of Cuba, on board Lilian," announces that the place to which the expedition is bound has been changed, and that General Wright Schumburg, who now is in command, orders " all officers not otherwise commissioned to join Colonel Maclver's ' Corps of Officers.' "

The Lilian ran out of coal, and to obtain 19 firewood put in at Cedar Keys. For two weeks the patriots cut wood and drilled upon the beach, when they were captured by a British gunboat and taken to Nassau. There they were set at liberty, but their arms, boat, and stores were confiscated.

In a sailing vessel Maclver finally reached Cuba, and under Goicouria, who had made a successful landing, saw some " help yourself ,J fighting. Goicouria's force was finally scattered, and Maclver escaped from the Spanish soldiery only by putting to sea in an open boat, in which he endeavored to make Jamaica.

On the third day out he was picked up by a steamer and again landed at Nassau, from which place he returned to New York.

At that time in this city there was a very interesting man named Thaddeus P. Mott, who had been an officer in our army and later had entered the service of Ismail Pasha. By the Khedive he had been appointed a general of division and had received permission to reorganize the Egyptian army.

His object in coming to New York was to

engage officers for that service. He came at

an opportune moment. At that time the city was filled with men who, in the Rebellion, on one side or the other, had held command, and many of these, unfitted by four years of soldiering for any other calling, readily accepted the commissions which Mott had authority to offer. New York was not large enough to keep Maclver and Mott long apart, and they soon came to an understanding. The agreement drawn up between them is a curious document. It is written in a neat hand on sheets of foolscap tied together like a Commencement-day address, with blue ribbon. In it Maclver agrees to serve as colonel of cavalry in the service of the Khedive. With a few legal phrases omitted, the document reads as follows:

"Agreement entered into this 24th day of March, 1870, between the Government of his Royal Highness the Khedive of Egypt, represented by General Thaddeus P. Mott of the first part, and H. R. H. Maclver of New York City.

" The party of the second part, being desirous of entering into the service of party of the first part, in the military capacity of a colonel of cavalry, promises to serve and obey party of the first part faithfully and truly in his military capacity during the space of five years from this date ; that the party of the second part waives all claims of protection usually afforded to Americans by consular and diplomatic agents of the United States, and expressly obligates himself to be subject to the orders of the party of the first part, and to make, wage, and vigorously prosecute war against any and all the enemies of party of the first part; that the party of the second part will not under any event be governed, controlled by, or submit to, any order, law, mandate, or proclamation issued by the Government of the United States of America, forbidding party of the second part to serve party of the first part to make war according to any of the provisions herein contained, it being, however, distinctly understood that nothing herein contained shall be construed as obligating party of the second part to bear arms or wage war against the United States of America.

" Party of the first part promises to furnish party of the second part with horses, rations, and pay him for his services the same salary now paid to colonels of cavalry in United States army, and will furnish him quarters suitable to his rank in army. Also promises, in the case of illness caused by climate, that said party may resign his office and shall receive his expenses to America and two months' pay; that he receives one-fifth of his regular pay during his active service, together with all expenses of every nature attending such enterprise."

It also stipulates as to what sums shall be paid his family or children in case of his death.

To this Maclver signs this oath :

" In the presence of the ever-living God, I swear that I will in all things honestly, faithfully, and truly keep, observe, and perform the obligations and promises above enumerated, and endeavor to conform to the wishes and desires of the Government of his Royal Highness the Khedive of Egypt, in all things connected with the furtherance of his prosperity, and the maintenance of his throne."

On arriving at Cairo, Maclver was appointed inspector-general of cavalry, and furnished with a uniform, of which this is a description : " It consisted of a blue tunic with gold spangles, embroidered in gold up the sleeves and front, neat-fitting red trousers, and high patent-leather boots, while the inevitable fez completed the gay costume."

The climate of Cairo did not agree with Maclver, and, in spite of his " gay costume," after six months he left the Egyptian service. His honorable discharge was signed by Stone Bey, who, in the favor of the Khedive, had supplanted General Mott.

It is a curious fact that, in spite of his ill health, immediately after leaving Cairo, Maclver was sufficiently recovered to at once plunge into the Franco-Prussian War. At the battle of Orleans, while on the staff of General Chanzy, he was wounded. In this war his rank was that of a colonel of cavalry of the auxiliary army.

His next venture was in the Carlist uprising of 1873, when he formed a Carlist League, and on several occasions acted as bearer of important messages from the " King," as Don Carlos was called, to the sympathizers with his cause in France and England.