A. F. Elliot diaries, 1866-1881, bulk 1866-1879.

ArchivalResource

Elliot, A. F. A. F. Elliot diaries, 1866-1881, bulk 1866-1879.

A. F. Elliot diaries, 1866-1881, bulk 1866-1879.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/695044957

The manuscript volume comprises six diaries (456 pgs.) Elliot wrote during tours of duty in West Africa, primarily in Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, and Ghana. Around 1881, Elliot had the diaries bound together and presented the volume to his wife, Amy. The diaries detailed his third to eighth tours of duty; presumably he did not maintain them during his first and second tours. His sixth tour of duty, 1873-1874, took him to Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. While attached to the 2nd West Indian Regiment there, he recorded a firsthand account of the Third Anglo-Ashanti War, including descriptions of the fighting and treatment of the wounded. Elliot made notes on all those he met, including soldiers, colonials, local residents and tribal leaders. While he seldom mentioned his medical work, he chronicled treatments for and the deaths of British soldiers and colonials, as well as vaccinations and other aid for Africans. He also noted his visit to a "lunatic asylum" and his presence at a tribal circumcision ceremony. However, his entries focused primarily on the weather and his pastimes, especially his hunting, fishing, and trapping trips. He included many sketches of the birds and animals whose hides and body parts he preserved. During his seventh tour of duty, Elliot transported to Africa a sailing vessel named after is wife, and much of his free time thereafter was spent on sailing jaunts. While Elliot considered service in West Africa was "voluntary transportation of the worst kind" (p. 102), he acknowledged that his commitment to his career would lead him to sign up for additional tours of duty there. Includes pen & ink drawings; calligraphic titles and month headings; a few photographs; and several of Elliot's watercolors, including one of Bulama (Bolama) Island. In addition, there are four detailed watercolors of pastoral scenes painted by Lieutenant, then Captain, John Edward Bale of the 1st West India Regiment. The scenes incorporate into a heading the month they were painted, from September to December 1874. Elliot provided hand-drawn calendars and charts of weather observations for Sierra Leone and Bulama (1866-1868), as well as a two-page listing of horse medicines. At a later date he annotated several of his entries with more detail, and during his final two tours he included language in code as part of several passages.

1 v. (0.8 lin. ft.)

Duke University Libraries, Duke University Library; Perkins Library