APPENDIX.] THE MAROONS. 343 



ed all the cattle they could find, and carried the slaves 

 into captivity. By this dastardly method of conduct- 

 ing the war, they did infinite mischief to the whites, 

 without much exposing their own persons to danger, 

 for they always cautiously avoided fighting, except 

 with a number so disproportionally inferior to them- 

 selves, as to afford them a pretty sure expectation of 

 victory. They knew every secret avenue of the 

 country ; so that they could either conceal themselves 

 from pursuit, or shift their ravages from place to place, 

 as circumstances required. Such were the many dis- 

 advantages under which the English had to deal with 

 those desultory foes; who were not reducible by any 

 regular plan of attack; who possessed no plunder to 

 allure or reward the assailants; nor had any thing to 

 lose, except life, and a wild and savage freedom. 



Previous to the successes above mentioned, the 

 distress into which the planters were thrown, may be 

 collected from the sense which the legislature of Ja- 

 maica expressed in some of their acts. In the year 

 1733, they set forth, that " the Maroons had, with- 

 in a few years, greatly increased, notwithstanding all 

 the measures that had been concerted, and made use 

 of, for their suppression; in particular, that they had 

 grown very formidable in the north east, north west, 

 and south western districts of the island, to the great 

 terror of his majesty's subjects in those parts, who 

 had greatly suffered by the frequent robberies, mur- 

 ders, and depredations committed by them; that in 

 the parishes of Clarendon, St. Ann, St. Elizabeth, 

 Westmoreland, Hanover, and St. James's, they were 

 considerably multiplied, and had large settlements 



