Page images
PDF
EPUB

of his country, as the most arbitrary of all measures; and it would require a thousand Argusés to watch and circumvent him in these illicit indulgences. Such as are baptized as Christians, are a little more scrupulous; some of these affect a form of marriage, and seem to lay aside all thoughts of other women than the one to whom they are united. But this is little better than form. Imbued as their minds are with strong passions, and witnessing as they are likely to continue to do, the licentiousness of their more enlightened rulers, it is not likely they will relinquish the pleasures, or resist the temptations, of an unrestrained sexual intercourse.

The mortality among the grown negroes may be ascribed to various causes-to intemperance and irregularity, night exposure, violent exercise at their junkettings and plays, transition of the seasons, and, at particular seasons, disorders brought on by green roots, unripe fruits, &c. As to the labour they are made to perform on most of the estates, it is, as before said, seldom more than what they can go through with ease, and without injury to their health. The health of the negroes upon a plantation depends much upon. the situation of the place. Their houses are generally built in dry, airy situations; but on the mountain estates, in spite of every precaution, they are liable to severe colds, and other complaints produced by cold, in consequence of the

heavy and daily rains, which prevail in these parts to a greater degree than in the low country nearer to the coast,

The negroes are acquainted with the use of many simples for the cure of some disorders, such as yaws, ulcers, bone-ache, &c. and the care and management of negroes afflicted with these disorders is generally confided to an elderly negro woman who professes a knowledge of this branch of the medical art. The vaccine inoculation has been introduced into this island, and practised on the negroes with much success.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Origin of the Maroons. Description of the mode in which they carried on their war with the whites. Their barbarity. Anecdote of a Maroon. Thoughts on the employment of dogs against them. Their way of life, &c.

THE Maroons are the descendants of the rebellious negroes who were in arms against the whites prior to the year 1739, at which period a peace was concluded with them. The first insurrection of the negroes of any consequence was about fifty years before this time, in the parish of Clarendon. Various parties of insurgents and runaways at length formed themselves into a body, under a desperate leader called Cudjoe, and often issued from their retreats, burning and plundering, and massacreing wherever they went, the defenceless white inhabitants. Parties were sent in pursuit of them, and engagements often took place between these and this banditti with various success, but generally in favour of the Maroons, they being more accustomed to traverse the mountainous woods, and better acquainted with the fastnesses and retreats they afforded. At length the whites were so wearied and harassed with this perpetual state of savage warfare, being

They

in continual alarm of their barbarous enemies, and seeing no likelihood of being ever able to drive them from their retreats, and compel them to surrender, that a treaty was concluded with them by Governor Edward Trelawney, by which they were declared free, and lands were allotted for their subsistence. They were, however, to be subject to the laws and government of the whites; only, in petty cases, they might decide their own differences, subject in some measure, however, to the control of a white superintendant; but a violation of the laws, or the peace of the whites, was punishable by their laws. now built towns or villages for themselves on the lands assigned them; the principal of these, as containing the greatest number of inhabitants, and the chief leaders of the Maroons, was Trelawney town, in the parish of Trelawney, situated in the mountains, and about equi-distant from Montego Bay and Falmouth. These original Maroons were chiefly of the Coromantee country, this tribe being the most restless, daring, and bloodthirsty of all the negroes brought to the West Indies. Among other articles in the treaty with this people, it was agreed that they should in future assist the whites in reclaiming runaway negroes who had fled into the woods; for each of whom, when brought in, they were to receive a specific reward. They were also to assist the whites in all their contests either with

foreign or domestic enemies. These sable allies were however little to be depended upon. They never could be considered as sincere and cordial friends, however they might affect to be so. Twó subsequent insurrections of the Coromantee negroes took place in this island, one in 1760, and another in 1765; but they were quelled. Both of these originated in the parish of St. Mary; but it is said that the whole of the Coromantees throughout the island were privy to the first

insurrection.

The Maroons continued peaceable under the whites, till an unfortunate accident, or circumstance, which happened in 1795, kindled the embers of rebellion. Two Trelawney town Maroons were convicted by the magistrates of Montego Bay of stealing a hog from a white settler of St. James's, and were sentenced for this crime to be whipped publicly by the work-house driver. The Maroons were indignant at this ignominious sentence: they said, that, if the whites had put their companions to death, they would not have complained; but to disgrace and degrade them was an injurious insult to the whole tribe, and could not be atoned for but by a retaliating vengeance. At this time too, they pretended to be aggrieved by other circumstances; they wanted more land; they wanted a superintendant of their own choosing; in short, there would have been no end to their wants, in the humour in which they then

« PreviousContinue »