Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott, the first governor of Seychelles |21 March 2015

Over a century ago, Seychelles was a British colonial outpost.  TONY MATHIOT remembers the man who played a fundamental role in its watershed moment,
On Monday May 8, 1904, Governor Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott (1857-1941) stood on the deck of the Messageries steamer oxus and waved at the large mingled group of inhabitants that had gathered at the long pier to wish him farewell.

During the four years and 6 months that he had spent in the fledgling colony, they had grown fond of him. Among the group were religious dignitaries, medical officers and members of the executive and legislative councils, and of course, ordinary citizens who had met him on his peripatetic visits across Mahe. Certainly there was a tone of sadness to the occasion. A sentiment felt also by the 46 year old Governor as he waved goodbye.

He saw the clock tower that he had unveiled the year before, the splendid new building that he had built to serve as the Government Secretariat. Further back, he could see the old Government House which had been his residence, and the avenue of Sandragon trees that led to it. He gazed at the forested mountains that loomed above, and despite the sense of regret that he felt at having to leave, in the candid sanctuary of this mind he knew that he was leaving the archipelago of Seychelles in a prosperous state in comparison with how it was when he arrived. The young Governor felt the delightful satisfaction of fulfilment. Indeed, such were his accomplishments that one is entitled to hyperbolize by stating that Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott’s steadfastness of purpose and ardent determination to create prosperity in all sectors of the colony’s development surpassed the initiatives of most of his predecessors. He was the leading protagonist in its great moment of transition.

Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott was appointed Administrator of Seychelles on August 19, 1899 to succeed Henry Cockburn Stewart (1844-1899) who passed away on June 5 that same year, while away on leave. Sweet-Escott arrived on board SS Nuddea on November 8, 1899 and spent some time at the quarantine station on Long island. He assumed the administration on Wednesday November 20, 1899 when he took his oaths on the second floor of the old courthouse building (the present National History Museum). His salary was R12,500 annually.

He was used to the sweltering climate of the tropics, having spent almost a dozen years in Mauritius where, from 1881 to 1886, he was Professor of classics at the Royal College of Mauritius before taking up the post of assistant colonial secretary which led to his promotion as acting colonial secretary.

In 1899, Seychelles was enduring its last days as a dependency of Mauritius, a status that it had been accorded since 1814 when Great Britain had officially taken possession of Mauritius and Seychelles by the Treaty of Paris. After more than half a century later, an order-in-council 1872 gave Seychelles a modicum of autonomy by the creation of a Board of Civil Commissioners who was empowered to ‘make regulations for the peace, order and good government of the Seychelles’. Throughout the late 19th century, more Constitutional changes were made which created the office of Administrator (1888) who was given all powers of the governor, in the latter’s absence from Seychelles, except the power of pardoning persons sentenced to death. Still, the Administrator’s dispatches to the Secretary of State for the colonies had to go through the hands of the governor of Mauritius which created considerable and exasperating tardiness in the Administrator’s transactions. In 1897, this restriction was removed, but despite that, Seychelles remained subordinate to Mauritius according to the dictates of colonial bureaucracy. So it was with a certain degree of latitude that the forty-two-year Administrator assumed his post. He would be the third and the last Administrator of Seychelles. And was he stupefied, disgruntled or amused by the contrast?

When he arrived, the population of Seychelles was slightly around 19,000 inhabitants compared to that of Mauritius which had exceeded 400,000. He found the small colonial outpost that he knew of solely from the epistolary documents that he handled during his time as acting colonial secretary under Governor Sir John Pope Hennessy (1834-1891), Sir Charles Cameron Lees (1837-18920) and H.E.H Jerningham (1842-1914), practically devoid of mostly everything that he had grown used to back in Mauritius. There, there were railways (since1862), a chamber of commerce (since 1850) over a dozen newspapers and of course, a prosperous sugar industry.

Here, he found coconut estates, vanilla plantations, cinnamon forests, a guano industry on outlying islands, mission schools in all the districts, a college established since 1867, a Government Savings Bank and two newspapers, Le Reveille and The Seychelles Government Gazette. There was a soap industry that exported to Zanzibar and Madagascar.  The currency in use was the Indian silver rupee which Mauritius had been using since 1876.  There was the Hotel Equator, the Princess Hotel and Hotel Victoria which gave accommodation to visitors. The mainstay of the economy was vanilla, which had been introduced in 1866 from Reunion and had since the early 1890s proven to be the most important article of cultivation of export. The year of Sweet-Escott’s arrival in Seychelles was a record year for vanilla. It brought R1,338, 720 selling at R32 per kilo.

Sweet- Escott presided over his first session of the Legislative Council on Wednesday December 27, 1899 when the first ordinance he assented to was The Seychelles Appropriation Ordinance 1900, which provided the Seychelles with the sum of R329,788.93, (in 1899 it was R277,705). The Legislative Council consisted of the three members of the Executive Council, Edmond Rouillard, who among the six posts he occupied was also Legal Adviser and curator of Vacant Estates, Samuel Mackenzie Bennet, treasurer and collector of customs, Louis Ogilvy Chitty, auditor and inspector of schools, and three unofficial members who were appointed for a term of three years, Eugene Serret, Elysee Savy and Victor Henry Loyd.


It was during his first session that Sweet-Escott made known some of the key issues of great concern that he had on his agenda for the first couple of years of his administration. He manifested his practical approach to development by negotiating – in today’s words – ‘the best deal for Seychelles’. For example, he repealed ordinance no.8 of 1898 – an ordinance for raising the sum of £20,000 for the construction of roads and for the making of a general Land Survey which was enacted by Henry Cockburn Stewart, and introduced another ordinance along the same line but which provided for the redemption of the loan in 30 years by an annuity of principal and interest combined at the rate of £49.99 for every £1,000 borrowed. He announced his intentions to create the botanical experimental station that his predecessor Thomas Risely Griffith (1889-1895) had wanted to establish in 1895. He articulated his rationale with supreme sagacity.

‘Depending for its prosperity, as Seychelles does, on practically one product, it appears to be a matter of vital importance to its inhabitants to ascertain whether there is no other product of commercial value for which these islands are adapted…’ He considered it ‘an anomaly that these islands should not enjoy the advantages of a local post, and I am now taking steps to meet this want.’

By telling those present that ‘it had been my anxious desire since my arrival in Seychelles to make myself acquainted with the requirements of these islands…’ Sweet-Escott was pledging to improve the economy and welfare of one of the smallest nations in the British Empire.
Among the various plans he had to implement in the process of fulfilling his proposed goals, Sweet-Escott also honoured his predecessor’s patriotic wish. During a meeting of the Legislative Council on May 1, 1897, Henry Cockburn Stewart had proposed that a Public Fountain be erected in front of the Treasury and Courthouse building to mark the 60th year of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-1891). Accordingly, the Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee Fountain was unveiled, albeit belatedly, on January 5, 1900, by Lady Sweet-Escott.

During the year 1900, various development projects that he initiated demonstrated the excellent level of standard of achievements that would characterise his tenure of office. Roads, bridges and buildings were constructed on Mahe, Praslin and La Digue. A turtle pond was built at the end of the Long pier. The Leper camp was transferred from Curieuse Island where it had been established since 1829 to the two Round Islands. He established an Internal Postal Service which saw the distribution of 13,997 letters and newspapers during its first year of operation.

With ordinance no.30 of 1900, he gave a new momentum to the promotion and development of education in Seychelles which included scholarships and laureats, the creation of a Board of Education and the appointment of an Inspector of Schools. In his bid to introduce the learning of the English language in all the schools, he had to face acrimonious opposition from the Catholic mission who owned most of the district schools. He had to face unforeseen events as well… on September 11, 1900, King Prempeh of Ashanti (1873-1931) arrived on Mahe to begin an exile that would last for twenty-four years. He had been banished from his Kingdom, the Gold Coast (Ghana) for revolting against British occupation. King Prempeh was accompanied by some seventy followers including close members of his family. Thus, a special ordinance had to be enforced regarding their detention and accommodation.

The revenue for that year was R399,311 against an expenditure of R351,919. The total value of exports (including coins) was R1,036,161. The total value of imports was R1,000,911 (including coins). Coconuts and coconut oil were exported to Mauritius, Madagascar, Zanzibar and India. Most of the vanilla produce was exported to United Kingdom and France whereas most of the guano was exported to Mauritius. Zanzibar remained the chief market for soap. Minor export products were tortoise shell (1,440kg) and salted fish (7,139kg).

On January 22, 1901, Queen Victoria passed away at the age of 81 years old, and on January 25, her eldest son Edward VII (1841-1910) assented to the throne. On February 4, 1901, a thirty-one-year-old Mauritian botanist, Paul Evenor Rivalz Dupont (1870-1938) arrived in Seychelles and was appointed curator of the Botanic station. Sweet-Escott was proud to have achieved one of his most important priorities, which testified to his stated conviction that a botanical experimental station where specimens of various plants could be grown and then distributed to landowners would help in the propagation of fruit trees and timber, that in the long term would be of economic importance to the country, a far seeing strategy that would be of immeasurable benefit to the Seychellois inhabitants, many decades later. He established an Agricultural Board ‘For the general interest of agriculture’.

Less than two years after his arrival, he was proving that he was an administrator who truly had the prosperity and welfare of Seychelles at heart. He asked Raphael Dupuy, the Headmaster of Victoria’s school to design a specific flag for Seychelles, and after the motto Finis Coronat Opus, (the end crowns the work) which Sweet-Escott himself had composed, was inserted, the flag of the Union Jack bearing the Seychelles distinguishing devices was approved by the Legislative Council on February 9, 1901. The devices were also adopted as the public seal of Seychelles.

During the year 1901, he assented to 21 Ordinances, among which were the first laws created to protect the turtle, and to regulate fishing. 61 places were declared ‘landing stations’. Registration of fishing boats were stringently enforced, dimensions and sizes of nets and traps were defined and a close season for catching female lobsters was introduced. Clearly, the circumspect exploitation of our natural resources was a dominant factor for Sweet-Escott who must have appreciated the vulnerability of a small island whose many inhabitants wrested a living from the sea.

It was also in 1901 that Sweet-Escott experienced his first disappointment. One of his most ambitious objectives was to create a volunteer force for the defence of Victoria, an issue that had been nagging at his mind ever since he arrived. In May of 1901, he sent a dispatch to the colonial office in Great Britain to raise the subject with the Secretary of State for the colonies Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914). His intention was to form a volunteer force entirely composed of 100 men recruited from the black population, like the one that then existed in the British Honduras (Belize). The one there was the only force in the British Empire made up of natives of African descent. From 1893 to 1898, Sweet-Escott had worked in the colonial office in the British Honduras, where he must have certainly been impressed with that volunteer force which was formed in 1897, while he was there. He suggested that the force would be equipped with Martin Henry rifles used by the police. Chamberlain agreed wholeheartedly with Sweet-Escott’s proposed scheme which alas never materialised on account of lack of funds. At that time, the only place where the British were engaged in military hostilities was in South Africa where it had been fighting the Dutch Boers since 1899. The war ended in 1902.

On Thursday September 19, 1901, Sweet-Escott opened the first Seychelles Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition which was held on Gordon Square (Freedom Square). It was a delightful event where 224 exhibits testified to the artisanal craftsmanship of the inhabitants and to the fertility of the land.
During the year 1901, the Chinese immigrants constructed their Pagoda and their society of good fellowship ‘Khum Fock Fooy Qoon’. Chinese traders had been arriving in Seychelles since the late 1800s and they had brought their rickshaws and business acumen with them. A commercial treaty signed at Shanghai on September 5, 1902 would promote the importation of Chinese products in the British colonies.

 On October 7, 1901, two native rulers of Uganda, Mwanga (1866-1903) King of Buganda and Kabarega (1850-1923) King of Bunyaro, accompanied by Kabarega’s son and 8 servants arrived on the SS Booldana, having been banished into exile for daring to defy British authorities in Kampala. Mwanga died on March 8, 1903 and Kabarega and his sons and servants were released in 1923.

In 1901, the revenue of Seychelles was R486,323 against an expenditure of R401,521. The total value of coconut products for that year was R205,321. The declared value of the 71,899kg of vanilla exported was R1,108,792. The total value of exports (including coins) was R1,483,245.
Since the early days of his administration, Sweet-Escott was vexed that the Seychelles islands remained subordinate to Mauritius. He felt that this link had a restraining influence on the economic progress and development of Seychelles. In many of his despatches to Chamberlain, he exhorted the secretary of state for the colonies to consider the separation. On March 21,1902, he wrote that ‘…it appears to be somewhat anomalous that these islands should remain under the Mauritius Government’.

Early in 1902, he allowed for the steamers of the ‘Messageries Maritimes’ to be accorded the status of men-of-war vessels which would entitle them to certain rights, privileges and immunities. Together with the British India Steam Navigation Company, they provided Seychelles with the only mode of communication to the outside world. In May, he appointed his son Stanley Bickham Sweet-Escott to be his assistant private secretary. It was an unsalaried post. During that same month, he moved into his new offices and council chamber at new government secretariat building (the former court of appeal building) that had been constructed at a cost of R27,622.48. A rectangular one-storey building of masonry whose pedestrian simplicity seemed offset by the ornamental ironwork of the balustrade and staircase which typified the aesthetic concerns of the Edwardian period. Indeed, celebratory events on June 26, 27 and 28 marked the coronation of King Edward VII, who was actually crowned on August 14, 1902.

In December of 1902, a new government boat, a steam launch ‘Alexandra’ built by the Royal Indian Marine Dockyard arrived to replace ‘Wave’ which had been in operation since 1852. It was named after the wife of Edward VII, Princess of Denmark. That same month, on the 24th, the first annual exhibition of school work opened in buildings at government House. The revenue for that year was R437,465, less than for the previous year. This was due to a reduction in the amount of vanilla exported, 17,569kg for R580,877. There was a reduction also in the total value of exports for the year 1902, which was R1,036,161.
On April 1, 1903, Sweet-Escott unveiled the Victoria Memorial Clock tower. Its cost of R6,447.62 included public donations that amounted to R3,233.81. Among that large crowd who gathered in Victoria to witness that momentous occasion, no one could have had reason to have the slightest hint of an imminent change… a historical milestone for Seychelles that was a personal triumph for Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott…

By letters patent of August 31, 1903, the Seychelles were erected into a colony of the British Empire. On September 1, 1903, King Edward VII appointed Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott Governor of the colony of Seychelles. The ceremony was held on Monday November 9 – on the King’s sixty-second birthday at the courthouse, attended by over one hundred invited guests. The government gazette of that same day published acclamatory addresses by members of various establishments including the Roman Catholic clergy, the Indian community, inhabitants of Port Glaud.

From that day, three Orders-in-Council came into force: The Seychelles Legislature Order-in-Council 1903, The Seychelles Judicature Order-in-council 1903 and The Seychelles Capital Offences Order-in-council. This meant that Seychelles had achieved a new state of nationhood – an auspicious preliminary to its eventual Independence seventy-three years later.

As Governor, Sweet-Escott’s salary was R18,000 annually. During the next six months that he had left in the colony, the governor continued to have the support of his chief clerk, Walter Lockhart Rind, who handled all his correspondences. He did all that he could within the ambit of his gubernatorial duties to improve the general welfare of the colony. Among the twelve ordinances that he enacted as governor, ordinance no 4 of 1904 ‘to authorise the loan to planters of a sum not exceeding one hundred thousand rupees from the surplus balance of the colony’ testified to his concerns for the agricultural development of Seychelles. During his equestrian peregrinations across Mahe, he met with folks of various occupations: tinsmiths, lime sellers, victuallers, opium sellers, vanilla curers, pawn brokers…

Governor Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott presided over his last session of the Legislative council on Thursday May 5,1904, during which he expressed his valedictory sentiments ‘….I believe in the future of Seychelles, and I am confident that under the wise administration of the distinguished official who will shortly take my place…. a period of enterprise and prosperity will ensue’.

Sweet-Escott was governor of British Honduras from May 1904 to August 1906, after which he was appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean, until 1912 when he became Governor of Fiji, until 1918. He died on Wednesday April 9, 1941. He was knighted in 1904. Sir Ernest Bickham Sweet-Escott is enshrined in the history of Seychelles as a figure of sublime dignity. Perhaps, his epitaph could have consisted of three words: Finis Coronat Opus.