Description
Two Catawba Indians are reported to have arrived in Edinburgh in June 1796, attracting “so much notice that they were taken to the City Guard, having no settled place of residence, to keep them from the crowd which attended them on the streets.” They gave their names as John Redhead and John Cappe and said that when they arrived in Dundee from London, they had been deserted by the man who had brought them to Britain. The magistrates decided to send them to Glasgow in the hope that they would travel on to Greenock and obtain passage home from there. It’s not clear if this is the same pair as were performing at Astley and Handy’s theatres. In Glasgow they were found lodgings in the now demolished King’s Arms while safe passage home was arranged.
Bibliographic sources
“Two Catabaw [sic] Indians,” Caledonian Mercury, 11 June 1796, 3.