Mussoorie: Love Child of The Himalayas – 2
By Hugh & Colleen Gantzer
Sir Walter Raleigh was a handsome swashbuckling, sea-faring scoundrel.
The word “Scoundrel” has a certain dashing quality about it. It indicates a person who is willing to take chances and break the rules of orthodox society in order to achieve his ends. Raleigh had that quality. He has gone down in history with the legend that he spread his cloak over a puddle to save Queen Elizabeth l from getting her feet wet. But he did much more than that. He saved England from a financial disaster.
Sir Walter Raleigh’s Queen, Elizabeth 1, inherited a kingdom that was in dire financial straits. It was Pounds 266,000 in debt, a large sum in those days, but it was the accumulated result of century after century of ravaging by invading armies from Europe.
The Romans had ruled Britain from AD 43 to the early 5th century. The ships they used to cross from Europe to the British Isles were called galleys. These were powered by galley slaves who were chained to their oars. This was the ruthlessness exhibited by the armies of Julius Caesar towards conquered nations. The Romans were followed by the Saxons who dominated Britain from AD 410 to 1066. Then came the Norman Conquest. These French speaking invaders sailed in from Europe’s Normandy led by William the Conqueror. In between all these invasions were forays by the long ships of the Vikings. These blond, blue eyed marauders wreaked havoc on Britain, plundering, raping and then moving on, leaving devastation in their wake.
These conquests and invasions were not the end of England’s problems. Religious strife also fractured English society. Elizabeth’s father, Henry the Eighth had broken away from the powerful Roman Catholic Church because it had not permitted him to divorce Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess. She had not given him the son he wanted nor had the other 5 wives he married in succession. However, his serial marriages did anger the powerful Roman Catholic Church and the sea-faring nations of Spain and Portugal who were also Roman Catholics.
In protest, Henry established his own Church of England. From then on, the dissenting Christians were known as Protestants.
Consequently, when Henry’s eldest Protestant daughter Elizabeth 1st inherited the Throne of England, she found that she was the Queen of an impoverished land. This was when her handsome lover Sir Walter Raleigh came to the rescue of his Queen and country.
Clearly seeing the writing on the wall much earlier, Sir Walter Raleigh had established an English colony in North America 27 years after Queen Elizabeth ascended the Throne of England. This was the first English colony in the new world, and it had a lasting effect on Britain’s fortunes.
To keep his Queen happy, he named his colony VIRGINIA after the Virgin Queen! He then began looking around for agricultural products, unique to the new world, that would find a market in Europe. In today’s world, Walter Raleigh would have been called an agronomist.
His first discovery was TOBACCO.
For thousands of years native Americans have been using tobacco in a number of ways. They chewed it, made it into a poultice and even smoked it. When warring native tribes decided to reconcile with each other they had passed around a Peace Pipe. Tribal chiefs had smoked this pipe in turn and, for some unknown reason, it had become very much easier for the warring chiefs to come to an agreement on even the most contentious issues. Raleigh felt that smoking tobacco would also help clear throat infections. He made a very determined effort to promote smoking in England. We now realise the harmful effect of smoking, but the native Americans have not been social smokers but therapeutic smokers. They were not addicted to smoking but they used smoking as one of the most effective ways of reaching social harmony. Smoking, to them, was not addictive but therapeutic. It is significant that among the most popular smoking tobacco species in the world today is Virginia tobacco.
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That thunderclap was the Himalayas telling us that the Monsoon clouds were withdrawing from our skies. Autumn would soon come to Mussoorie and the voice of the tourist would be heard in our high hamlet. Slowly, the higher Himalayas to the north would exchange their deep green cloaks of oak, rhododendron and conifer for downy-white capes of snow.
Do try these finger chips dusted with our Himalayan spice ZAKIA. Though the spice is native to our mountains, the potato wedges are another gift of Sir Walter Raleigh.
Sir Walter Raleigh introduced potato cultivation into Ireland. From there it spread across the rest of the world and became a virtual staple in many countries in the old world.
But his potato exports did not save his Queen. His pirates did.
From the shores of his American colony, his pirates sailed out to plunder Spanish and Portuguese galleons laden with riches from India. He persuaded the Queen to give a Royal Commission to his pirates and called them Privateers.
In those days the high seas were areas beyond the law of any nation. Consequently, when pirates plundered ships on the high seas, they were not committing any crime against the laws of any nation. Raleigh took advantage of this when his America-based privateers attacked, captured and brought the large Portuguese ship, the Madre de Deus in 1592 to a British Port. It was a bonanza: A situation which creates a sudden increase in wealth, good fortune or profits. The captured ship’s chests were filled with 425 tons of pepper, 45 tons of cloves, 35 tons of cinnamon, 3 tons of mace and 3 of nutmeg. Spices were a recognised commodity imported from India. So was 2.5 tons Benjamin which was a highly scented plant extract used in the perfume industry.
But quite apart from the plant products, was the incredible wealth of jewels and pearls, gold and silver coins, valuable textiles, and fine tapestries.
That date marked a change in the fortunes of England. The total value of the cargo carried by the Madre de Deus was half a million Pounds. It was nearly half the size of England’s Treasury.
Suddenly, England was no longer a rogue nation. It did not have to behave in a dishonest way in order to survive. With this realisation, however, came the revelation that India could be tapped to fill the coffers of Britain indefinitely. But Britain did not have a presence in India. Its great rival Spain had already established firm roots in that land now ruled by an Islamic people: the Moghuls. England had fought a long and bitter religious war with the Muslim powers, ostensibly to recover their holy places associated with Christianity. How on earth, could it seek a cradle alliance with the Moghuls?
Then they realised that a Christian people had already established a very intimate relationship with the Moghul Emperor of India. These people were the Circassians.
(Hugh & Colleen Gantzer hold the National Lifetime Achievement Award for Tourism among other National and International awards. Their credits include over 52 halfhour documentaries on national TV under their joint names, 26 published books in 6 genres, and over 1,500 first[1]person articles, about every Indian state, UT and 34 other countries. Hugh was a Commander in the Indian Navy and the Judge Advocate, Southern Naval Command. Colleen is the only travel writer who was a member of the Travel Agents Association of India.) (The opinions and thoughts expressed here reflect only the authors’ views!).
