2 SEPTEMBER 2025
Briani at Christmas, the story of Cajee Mahmood
by TIM Taylor
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As I wrote in the first volume of ‘THEY MET IN MAURITIUS’, the Cajee Family still follow the tradition of bringing Briani to the Taylors every Christmas day. Needless to say Cajee G.M was given a copy of “THEY MET IN MAURITIUS” when it was published in 2012. Over the years, when discussing with Cajee G.M, when he drops off the Briani, he has intimated to me that the book does not tell the whole story regarding the relationship between Cajee Mahmood and Sandy Taylor.
According to Cajee G.M, Sandy made the acquaintance with his ancestor, Cajee Mahmood, very soon after his arrival in Mauritius, in the Toftcoombes, in 1879. In fact, Cajee Mahmood was instrumental in getting Sandy employed by Black and Smith, as he was aware that the partnership were on the lookout for a marine carpenter.
Once Sandy was employed by Black and Smith, Cajee Mahmood continued to offer him his help. On the death of John Black in 1879, the partnership of Black and Smith was virtually bankrupt. One of the reasons for this was that John Black was a compulsive gambler and had been using funds from the partnership to gamble. Furthermore, the partnership had been swindled by a senior employee, who used to cash a cheque every week to pay the wages of the men. Then, one day after cashing the cheque, instead of paying the men, he boarded a ship and went to Madagascar with the money! Also, relations between James Smith, the other Partner in Black & Smith, and Sandy Taylor were somewhat rocky, which might explain why Sandy was not offered a partnership and had to be content with being appointed Foreman Shipwright. This must have been really galling for Sandy as he was the one doing all the work.
From the first edition of ‘THEY MET IN MAURITIUS”, we also learn that in the 1880’s Sandy used to be rowed out to the ships entering the harbour to see what maintenance and repairs they needed. We also know that Sandy set up a stevedoring service at about this time.
Surely when he went on board ships to see what repair work needed doing, he also offered a stevedoring service. According to Cajee G.M, this stevedoring service was not provided by Black & Smith, but by Sandy. While Sandy, being a Scotsman, could get along well with the officers on board the ships calling at Mauritius and could get stevedoring work, he had neither the stevedoring skills nor the necessary financial means to finance the business, as the ships’ agents only paid for the stevedoring after the departure of the ship, while the men were paid daily. Again, Cajee Mahmood was on hand to help, both with the technical aspect of stevedoring, but more importantly with the money to make the daily wage payments. Sandy’s venture into stevedoring very much upset the traditional stevedores, Messrs d’Hotman & Sons and they demanded that James Smith sack Sandy. This, Sandy resisted with the help of Cajee Mahmood.
Things really came to a head in 1892 when Black & Smith’s workshops were destroyed by the cyclone of that year. This bankrupted the partnership and James Smith took his family off to Dundee with the view of remaining there (see page 98 in ‘THEY MET IN MAURITIUS”). Sandy, however, was determined to go on and rebuild the business. He had to borrow money to replace the workshops destroyed by the cyclone and again turned to Cajee Mahmood for help, which Cajee Mahmood duly provided.
For many years the Taylor Smith town office, next to the post office, was rented from Cajee Mahmood, who owned the building and had established a ‘lathi’ in part of the building. A ‘lathi’ was a dormitory where the recently arrived Kokni men would eat and sleep. Over the years starting in 1923, Taylor Smith purchased the property, with the purchase of the final part being completed in 1946.
On rereading ‘THEY MET IN MAURITIUS” and also reading between the lines, I believe that the information provided by Cajee G.M gives a more complete picture of the relationship between Sandy and the first Cajee Mahmood.