On the 12th, general Lindsay arFived from Martinico; on the 14th he was joined by a small reinforcement of 150 men from Martinico; and, on the following day, marched with his whole force, about 750 men, for Gouyave. In the mean time the infurgents had received confiderable acceffions of force, and Fedon affumed the command under colour of a commiflion from victor Hugues. Before the British general, however, was enabled to take any effective meafures for diflodging them from their ftrong poft at Belvidere, he put an end to his own existence on the 22d of March; according to fome, in the delirium of a fever, occafioned by the inclemency of the climate; and, according to others, in diftrefs of mind at the calamitous fituation in which he was placed.

The cruelty and imprudence of the English colonifts now feem to have impelled the infurgents to put in force their threats of retaliation. A M. Alexandre, a native of France, who had never taken the oath of allegiance to the British government, had been fent by the infurgents to Trinidada to purchase ftores, &c. but was taken in his paffage by the Refource frigate; and was tried and executed, with many circum ftances of cruelty, on the parade at St. George's. The immediate confequence of this intemperate act of almoft favage vengeance, was, that the British prisoners were fhot by the rebels on the fixth day after the execution of M.

Alexandre.

On the 2d of April a detachment from Barbadoes of 1250 were landed at Gouyave; and, on the 7th of the fame month, the infurgents received a fupply of arms and ammunition by a fchooner from Guadaloupe. On the 8th the 1796.

rebel camp at Belvidere was attacked by the British, who, however, were forced to retreat with the lofs of upwards of 100 men in killed and wounded. On the 14th, brigadiergeneral Nichols was fent from Martinico to affume the command, v. hich he did on the 16th. He immediately proceeded to visit the camp before Belvidere; and perceiving that the fituation was not favourable to his views, he withdrew the troops, and determined to drive the enemy from Pilot Hill, where they were pofted in confiderable force.

An engagement took place on the 22d between a party of the British pofted at the obfervatory under major Wright, and the infurgents, in which the latter were put to flight. In the mean time the general was adopting the only mode that could be adopted to fave the island, that of embodying the moft faithful and able negroes. On the 26th the camp at Belvidere was evacuated; and Pilot Hill was taken poffeffion of on the 4th of May; the enemy having abandoned it in the courfe of the night, on obferving the preparations made for the attack. From the inadequate force, however, under his command, and the ravages of the fever, general Nichols was obliged to remain inactive for the remainder of the year; and, as the infurgents were either not frong or not enterprifing, nothing occurred but a few fkirmishes of no importance. The general, however, fucceeded in establifhing pofts at Grenville, St. Patrick's, St. David's, and Charlotte Town; and, by this arrangement, the principal harbours were fecured, and the infurgents precluded from a communication with the fea.

In this distracted state the island continued, to the utter ruin of the planters; while, in the month of

R

June,

had taken place in the British parliament. As thofe debates chiefly turned upon the authority of a private letter, we then intimated our doubts with respect to the accuracy of the statement, which we expected further information would enable us to correct. That information has fince been both amply and ably laid before the public by Mr. Bryan Edwards, the laborious and wellinformed author of the Hiftory of the West Indies. By the ftatement of this gentleman, it appears, from the treaty concluded in 1738 by governor Trelawney with the Maroons, that, contrary to the hafty affertions of fome members in the house of commons, the Maroons were, for every offence against the white inhabitants, to be delivered up to the common courfe of juftice in the ifland, that these people existed in the most depraved ftate of barbarifm, --and that in the month of July 1795, two Maroons having committed a felony were apprehended, tried by a jury at Montego Bay, and fentenced, according to law, to be whipped; which fentence was inflicted in the ufual manner by the black overfeer of the workhoufe negroes, whofe office it is to inflict punishment on fuch occafiond.

On the return of the offenders to Trelawney town, the principal Maroon fettlement, the whole body of Maroons affembled; and after fome tumultuous debates, they determined to fend a written defiance to the magiftrates of Montego Bay, adding that they intended to attack the town on the 20th of July. The militia affembled on the 19th; but the parties were prevented from proceeding to extremities by the Maroons defiring a conference with the magiftrates, in the course of which the matters in difpute were fettled to the apparent fatisfaction of all concerned.

Mr. Edwards, however, afferts that

the Maroons, in defiring this conference, were actuated folely by motives of treachery; that they knew that the principal part of the regular force on the island was to fail on the 26th for St. Domingo; and that they immediately began to tamper with the negro flaves, and to feduce them from their allegiance. Seriously and juftly alarmed at this information, as the fleet had already failed, lord Balcarras loft no time in difpatching after it a swift failing veffel, which was fortunate enough to overtake it on the 2d of Auguft; and on the 4th, one thousand men under col. Fitch difembarked from the tranfports in Montego Bay.

The war now formally commenced, though it appears that there was a confiderable party among the Maroons themselves averfe to hoftility. On the 12th of Auguft, on the approach of the British troops, the Maroons withdrew from the new town: but they employed this manœuvre merely as a feint, to draw their opponents into an ambufcade, where the conflict proved fatal to the British commander, col. Sandford, and a confiderable number of his party. After this affair, the Maroons cftablished their head-quarters at a poft which was almoft inacceffible, called the Cockpits, whence at different times they difpatched fmall parties, who conducted this defultory warfare with the ufual cruelty of barbarians. Col. Fitch, who fucceeded col. Sandford in the command, followed him likewife in his fate, and fell a facrifice to this wily and active enemy in an ambufcade.

The general affembly was convened in September; and in fuch circumftances it was natural to recur to paft experience for a prece dent to govern their conduct. It was found that in the long and bloody war which had been carried on R 2 previous

previous to the treaty of 1738, a certain fpecies of dogs had been employed, to difcover the concealment of the Maroons, and to prevent the fatal effects refulting from their ambufcades. By a refolution therefore of the affembly, an order was fent to Cuba to procure a hundred dogs, accompanied with a proper number of Spanish chaffeurs: but in the mean time fuch measures were purfued as promised to render their afliftance unneceffary.-By the indefatigable zeal and activity of gen. Walpole, who fucceeded col. Fitch in the command, the Maroons were completely hemmed in, and the paffes to other parts of the country were effectually fecured. From the want of a fupply of water, and the terror which the rumours, propagated concerning the dogs, had infpired, the Maroons were therefore induced to conclude a treaty; which, however, they did not perform; and many endeavours were in vain used to prevail on them to furrender according to the terms of that treaty. But, on a confiderable body of regulars, accompanied by the Spanish dogs, being fent into the woods to attack the Maroons,

the greater part of them laid down their arms, and foon after the remainder alfo furrendered; and they, with their wives and families, were removed, in the month of June following, to Lower Canada, where lands are provided for them by the legislature of Jamaica, and where they are to form a free, and, we hope, a flourishing fettlement.

Mr. Edwards ftates, "that not a drop of blood was fhed after the dogs arrived." We are happy to be enabled, on fuch good authority, to correct the hafty sketch of thefe proceedings, which we gave in our laft volume, from the debates in parliament, and which, on a review, we find, were not even accurately ftated from thofe debates; and conclufions were drawn therein, which the debates do not warrant. We had no intention to calumniate the condu&t of the government of Jamaica, or to afperfe the character of the noble and refpectable governor who administers it; and we lament that our defire to furnish the public with the earlieft intelligence on the fubject, fhould have betrayed us into the errors we have now pointed out.

LTHOUGH every power in

fluence of the republic, England

or lefs degree, the force of the ench arms or the diplomatic in

mulation of debt and the derangement of her finances, fuffered the

leaft