awing the common enemy into a compliance with such measures as might be adopted, without the effusion of human blood. In a partial manner this effect was happily produced.

The Maroons, intimidated by the military forces that had been collected to check their inroads, appeared sensible of the rashness which had marked their conduct, and expressed desires to negotiate a peace. For this purpose they proposed a conference, to be holden at Trelawney town, between their own chiefs on the one part; and the chief magistrate of the district, the colonel of the militia, and two members of the legislative assembly, whom they expressly named, on the other. Anxious to avert the horrors which necessarily accompany war, the gentlemen whom they thus solicited hastened to comply with their request, and repaired to Trelawney town on the 20th of July, the day on which the savages had threatened to execute their sanguinary designs.

The Maroons, equipped for war, and with their faces painted for battle, assembled together to the number of about 300, and received the negotiators in an attitude of hostile defiance. Their language was at once boisterous and insolent, and accompanied with such menaces, that the gentlemen began to be alarmed for their personal safety. No violence, however, was offered. A degree of savage tranquillity succeeded to these bursts of passion, and a parley ensued. In this they declared, that they did not arraign the justice of the proceedings which had taken place at Montego Bay, neither did they once insinuate that the punishment inflicted on the delinquents was greater than their crimes deserved. But the manner in which the punishment was administered was an offence which they could not pardon; they considered it as an insult offered to their whole body, that a Maroon should have been flogged by a black overseer of slaves, and that too in the presence of culprits who were at that moment confined for felonies of which they had been guilty, and in which they had in part detected them. For this wound, which their national honour had sustained, they demanded satisfaction. In addition to this, they insisted upon the dismission of Captain Craskell, the re-appointment of Mr. James, who had formerly resided among them as superintendant, and an additional grant of lands to cultivate. These they declared were the only grievances they had to state, and the only requests they had to urge; and if these were complied with, all hostile intentions and preparations should cease, and perfect tranquillity should be again restored.

The demands which were thus made involved subjects of some moment; and deliberation, as well as authority, was necessary to ratify the grants which they expected. The British gen

tlemen promised to use their influence in obtaining what they requested, when their case should be stated to the governor and legislative assembly; and beyond this their power did not extend. Their primary object at present was, to restore tranquillity, and prevent the effusion of human blood. Apparently satisfied with these open declarations, the Maroons put on a placid countenance, and seemed willing to wait the event of the claims which they had now stated, from a conviction that the government would grant their demands.

But actions that are passed cannot be recalled; and those that are marked with indiscretion, though varnished with specious pretences, and covered with the shield of authority, obtain a complexion which cannot easily be effaced. In the present instance, the national pride of the Maroons had received a wound which was difficult to cure. The lenitives which had been applied had suspended the smarting for a moment, but the corrosion still continued. The sore was covered, but not healed. They still felt the anguish of the indignity which had been offered to them, and it rankled deeply in their hearts.

Though, in general, the Maroons were governed by the im pulse which the passing moment communicated, they were not altogether strangers to intrigue. They had learned to conceal the latent purposes of their souls under the smiles of dissimulation, and to appear highly satisfied with a prospect of peace, while they were making more vigorous preparations for war. The conference terminated on the grounds which have been stated; mutual interchanges of civility took place, and permanent friendship was apparently restored.

The demands of these perfidious friends were immediately transmitted to government; but before they could be taken into consideration, it was discovered, that the conference was only a project to gain time, that they might banish suspicion while they were maturing a diabolical conspiracy, in conjunction with the negro slaves, on whose co-operation they relied for a general insurrection, and, probably, a subsequent massacre of all the white inhabitants throughout the island. There was also another circumstance which induced them to postpone the moment of revenge. The July fleet of merchantmen was to sail on the 26th; and, on their departure, only a small military force would be left on the island, the 83d regiment being about to embark at the same time for St. Domingo. Even during the conference their secret intrigues had been carrying on, through the medium of agents whom they had sent to the different plantations. These emissaries met with various receptions; some being cordially received and secreted by the slaves, and others repelled with abhorrence by those whom they attempted

to seduce. From an attachment which those of the latter description felt toward their masters, information of their designs and attempts were communicated by them; but the confidence that was placed in their professions of friendship and fidelity, in adhering to the conditions of the treaty which had just been made, so far prevailed, that the governor actually permitted the fleet to sail and the regiment to embark. The delusion, however, was of short continuance. The evidences of their treachery, which had been disregarded, gained ground, and every day brought with it some corroborating circumstance.

Lord Balcarras, the governor, convinced of his error, dispatched a swift-sailing boat from the east end of the island, to overtake, if possible, the frigate which had the troops under convoy, with a letter to the captain, stating to him the situation of affairs, and directing him to change his course immediately, and sail with the transports to Montego Bay. Providentially the fleet was overtaken; the orders were obeyed; and the whole force, consisting of a thousand effective men, landed on the 4th of August. In the mean time the whole island was put under martial law; reinforcements of troops and dragoons made forced marches from different parts, and hastened to join the 83d regiment which had just landed. The governor himself, interested in the issue of the approaching contest, determined to command the forces in person, and left Spanishtown for that purpose on the same day that the troops debarked at Montego Bay.

Previously to the return of the troops that had embarked, the whole island was in a precarious situation. Of the Maroons the inhabitants knew not the exact number, and on the success of their machinations among the negroes they could form no calculation. The example of St. Domingo might, for any thing they could perceive to the contrary, have excited them to desperate adventures; and the secret correspondence between the slaves and the Maroons, who were then waiting to engage in war, rendered every exertion necessary, and called even the most indolent into action. The fate of Jamaica, in their estimation, depended upon the issues of a few hours; the lives and welfare of themselves and families were at stake, and, under Providence, rested upon the efforts which prudence, unanimity, and courage, were about to make. But even wisdom and personal valour must have been ineffectual against such myriads as would have swarmed, if the negroes had attempted a general revolt. In this case, an universal massacre of the white inhabitants would most probably have been the result, and the rich plantations would either have evaporated in flames, or have sunk into heaps of ashes, while the island would have

exhibited nothing but a scene of desolation. It was under these bodings of despair that the inhabitants were depressed, when intelligence arrived that the troops had reached the shore, to cooperate with the militia and dragoons.

The arrival of the military from almost every quarter could not fail to alarm the Maroons to a considerable degree. They must have been sensible, if they had reflected but a moment, that they were utterly unable to cope with the forces brought against them, especially as they knew their own powers, their numbers and resources, and the utter impossibility of their obtaining reinforcements in case of a defeat. On the approach of Lord Balcarras, they were alarmed to such a degree, that the great question of peace or war was once more agitated in their councils, and after violent debates a division took place; the aged and politic declaring in favour of peace, the thoughtless and headstrong contending for war. Unfortunately the latter once more prevailed, and all hopes of accommodation were at an end. The governor, however, previous to the commencement of any actual hostilities, issued a proclamation, specifying their offences, stating their situation, and denouncing the severe measures to which he should have recourse on the fifth day from the date of that paper; at the same time, though a reward was offered for their heads, and their town threatened to be consumed with fire on the day above mentioned, yet prior to that day they were within the reach of mercy; and such as chose to accept of it were commanded to repair immediately to Montego Bay.

The period allotted them for consideration expired on the 13th of August: on the 11th about forty Maroons, consisting chiefly of the aged and infirm, hastened to obtain mercy; but all besides resolved to abide by the decision of the sword.

Of those who came in, two were again dispatched with overtures of conditional pardon; but they were detained by their countrymen, and never more permitted to return.

The ensuing night they accomplished for themselves what the governor had threatened in his proclamation, and actually set fire to their own town, having first provided for the safety of their women and children. They then proceeded to attack the out-posts of the British camp, which was stationed at a place called Vaughan's Field, and in their first onsets they were but too successful. Aware of their inability to face our troops in the open field, they retreated with precipitation after the first encounter; but it was only to decoy the forces which they opposed into ambuscades, which had been purposely laid to ensnare them. During their momentary triumphs they afforded but too many melancholy specimens of their barbarous dispo

sitions, and by their remorseless cruelties convinced the white inhabitants of the treatment which they had to expect, if victory should ultimately crown their arms. Solitary plantations, which they found in a defenceless state, they joyfully consumed with fire, and the affrighted inhabitants were instantly murdered, without any regard to age or sex. Even the severest sickness could not protect the unhappy victim; the cries of helpless infants were insufficient to suspend the dagger; and even mothers in childbed were obliged, after feeling by sympathy the pangs which their infants had been doomed to suffer, to participate in their fate. No specific charge of guilt was necessary on these occasions to invite the assassin; even complexion became criminal, and an opportunity to murder gave a sanction to the deed. In short, it was a war of extermination, in which slaughter and desolation were the primary objects for which conquest was to be obtained.

The promptitude and decision of Lord Balcarras at this awful time was perhaps one of the happiest events which the island had ever experienced. The occasion was momentous, and the effects which resulted from his decided conduct were great beyond all example. The negroes, terrified at the general movements which they perceived in the military departments, in the alertness of the officers, and the personal activity of the governor, were awed into submission even without a menace, and easily detached from the interests of the Maroons. Both their language and their conduct concurred to beget confidence in their fidelity; so that no danger being apprehended from that quar ter, the whole military force was at liberty to act against those who had occasioned the war.

The successes which had crowned the Maroons in their first exertions had filled them with the highest expectations, and both flattered their vanity, and gave fresh vigour to their natural ferocity and personal courage. The ground on which they stood was highly favourable to their mode of warfare, and gave them advantages, which, on a champaign country, they could not have possessed. Conscious of their inability to face the troops which were sent to oppose their progress, they waited opportunities to elude their vigilance, and to harass them by falling on the more defenceless parts of the country. They had fixed their principal repository in the interior of the island, surrounded by those ramparts of nature which art was scarcely able to overcome. From these inaccessible fortresses, it was their custom to sally in the dead of night, and seize upon those objects which, from a distant eminence, they had marked on some preceding day. The roads which led to these places of concealment were extremely difficult to pass; so that the works of nature seemed to