Mr. Vroom

[Dave Monroe]

Vroom, Cornelius

60; Dutch: "vroom" = "pious" or "godly"; patriarch of the 5-person Vroom family

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/v.html

Through the medium of interpreters - Mr. Vroom, Secretary for Native
Affairs, acting for the Governor; Albert Ansah, for the king the
conditions of the treaty to be imposed upon the Ashantis were demanded
of them.

The first of these was that Prempeh should render submission to the
Governor, in accordance with the native form and custom signifying
abject surrender....

[...]

Then came the demand for payment of the indemnity for the war....

[...]

... two companies of the West Yorkshire Regiment, under Captain
Walker, were detailed to take possession of the palace, clear it of
all people inside, and to collect and make an inventory of all
property found inside.

One company was accordingly sent to stiffen the cordon of native
levies, and with the other company I proceeded to effect an entrance
by a back way, which I had previously reconnoitred. There had been
reports of the palace being undermined, and it was natural to expect
that if this was so, the main entrance would be the spot selected for
the mine, and that at any rate the place where the inmates were
collected would be safe. Accordingly, making its way through the
deserted garden, this company proceeded to the back entrance, and
burst open the door. This opened into a large courtyard. Not a soul to
be seen! Everything silent. Two painted doors in a side wall were
kicked in by soldiers, and immediately after Tommy Atkins' persuasive
voice was sounding, " Come out of that, you blatherskiting idiot; d'ye
think I want to eat you? " and so on, as a frightened flock of natives
were dragged out into the daylight. They were placed in the courtyard
under sentries, while the remainder of the company proceeded to search
every corner of every court and alley of the palace-and these were
many-for further occupants. A hundred or two of these were taken, and
then the work of collecting valuables and property was proceeded with.

There could be no more interesting, no more tempting work than this.
To poke about in a barbarian king's palace, whose wealth has been
reported very great, was enough to make it so. Perhaps one of the most
striking features about it was that the work of collecting the
treasures was entrusted to a company of British soldiers, and that it
was done most honestly and well, without a single case of looting.
Here was a man with an armful of gold-hilted swords, there one with a
box full of gold trinkets and rings, another with a spirit-case full
of bottles of brandy, yet in no instance was there any attempt at
looting.

http://www.pinetreeweb.com/bp-prempeh-13.htm

THE DOWNFALL OF PREMPEH
A DIARY OF LIFE WITH THE NATIVE LEVY IN ASHANTI 1895-96

By Major R. S. S. Baden-Powell
13th Hussars, Commanding The Native Levy.

With A Chapter on "The Political And Commercial Position of Ashanti"
By Sir George Baden-Powell, K.C.M.G., M.P.

London Methuen & Co. 1896

http://www.pinetreeweb.com/bp-prempeh-00.htm

See ...

Appiah, Kwame Anthony.  Cosmopolitanism:
   Ethics in a World of Strangers.  NY: W.W. Norton, 2006.

http://www2.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall06/032933.htm

Ch. 4, "Whose Culture is It, Anyway?," pp. 115-34.  Also ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/magazine/01cosmopolitan.html