A History of the Island of Tamba- Tamba

Jefferson Stock

Jefferson Stock (1830- 1900) was the grandson of Dreadful mutineer John Stock and the half- brother of the artist John Jackson Stock.

In 1879, the 25th anniversary of 'independence' he presented Brougham Kakoy with the manuscript of his A History of the Island of Tamba- Tamba, which he had worked on intermittently for almost 30 years.
Though not a bookish man, Brougham Kakoy made arrangements to have Stock's work published in London. Only a handful of copies are known to survive.
The book is a curious blend of documentary, gossip and fantasy.
Here leading historian Gregory Rowley guides us through Stock's remarkable opus:

I grew up with Stock's book, and revisiting it is like returning to the Tamba- Tamba of my childhood.
The first part of the History is pure fantasy- Stock writes at length about the archipelago in some vague prehistorical times. 
The second part, which again is largely romantic speculation, deals with Caetano do Tristao, although Stock also asserts that Magellan stayed at Tamba- Tamba (Pigafetta makes no mention of this).
An element of historical accuracy creeps into the book as we arrive at the history of HMS Dreadful, and Stock prefaces this episode with an unlikely  biography of his grandfather.
The records of HMS Dreadful show Stock's place of birth as being Liverpool. Jefferson Stock tells us that his grandfather was born in the forests of Equatorial Africa and was captured as a slave and taken to Dahomey when a young boy. He then has him working as a house slave in a number of great English estates and attending to such luminaries as King George III, The Prince of Wales,Edmund Burke and Lord North.
Take into account that when the Dreadful sailed on her fateful voyage that Stock was still only 18.
Jefferson Stock's account of the mutiny and the settlement of Tamba- Tamba are far more dramatic than the contemporary accounts of Thomas Cock (to whom Stock refers as 'Cox') and Bould.
He has Mr Jeffries effectively being driven from the island by the more libertarian minded mutineers. He places his grandfather at the centre of this action.
Stock relates the French bombardment and landing as being successfully repelled by the islanders (he is rather vague as to how they accomplished this and again gives his grandfather a prominent role). In defiance of the contemporary evidence the British annexation is treated as a wholly separate affair, an opportunist venture carried out by Lt Dixon.
Stocks account of the imperial era is geared towards portraying the early governors as being inferior to Brougham Sleight, and his account here is more a series of brief notes on everyday occurrences rather than a cohesive political history of the period. 
The two exceptions are the Slave Revolt, which he describes as a heroic action inspired by the humanitarianism of the islanders, and the San Luisitano incident, which is shown as an assertion of autonomous strength by a Sleight led group who had long sought independence.
Stock's book was published by Rosewater & Weekes (1881) and was largely overlooked in England, although Robert Louis Stevenson is known to have owned a copy.
Working as an elementary school master at Palmerston, he enjoyed the patronage of Brougham Kakoy and produced two further, unpublished manuscripts that survive in the Archive of PROTT Academy:  Kakoy: Being The Life of Sir Brougham Sleight and The Legacy of Literacy at Tamba- Tamba.