The devil is white

About this book

They say their Devil is white ... It is 1791 and a group of English gentlemen are recruiting settlers for a new world. Anti-slavers, they foresee the shining vision of a free colony in Africa where white and black can live together in harmony. At first, all seems well. More than a hundred men, women and children sail from London on board the Pharaoh. They are bound for Muranda, an uninhabited island off the west coast of Africa that seems to be ideal: isolated, fertile, well watered. When they land, Muranda seems a paradise. Fruit hangs from the trees, the waters swarm with fish, the local king is friendly. Some begin to work. Others prefer to laze and swim, to drink and dance at night. But then the tropical rains begin and beat relentlessly down. Fever strikes arbitrarily and cruelly. The shelters they have half-built crumble. Argument and near mutiny break out, followed by disastrous desertion.