J86 HISTORY OF [BOOK n. 



but even this resource was at length exhausted, and 

 the sufferings of the rebels, for want both of water 

 and food, were excessive. By the unremitting dili- 

 gence and indefatigable exertions of the troops, all 

 or most oi the passes to other parts of the country 

 were effectually occupied; and a perseverance in the 

 same system must, it was thought, soon force the 

 enemy to an unconditional surrender. 



In spite of all these precautions, however, a rebel 

 captain of the name ot Johnson, found means to con- 

 duct a small detachment of the Maroons into the pa- 

 rish of St. Elizabeth, and to set fire to many of the 

 plantations in that fertile district. His first attempt 

 was against the habitation of a Mr. M'Donald, whose 

 neighbour, a Mr. Haldane, together with his son, 

 hastened to his assistance. The elder Haldane unfor- 

 tunately fell by a musket ball, but the son shot the 

 Maroon dead that fired it, and carried his w r ounded 

 father in his arms to a place of safety, where he hap- 

 pily recovered. The Maroons w r ere repulsed; but 

 proceeding to a plantation of Dr. Brooks, they burnt 

 the buildings to the ground, and killed two w^hite 



O O 7 



men. They left, ho\vever, a white woman and her 

 infant unmolested; and as this was the first instance 

 of tenderness shewn by the rebels to w T omen and chil- 

 dren, it was imputed rather to the consciousness of their 

 inability to continue the war, and the hopes of getting 

 better terms on a treaty by this act of lenity, than to 

 any change in their disposition. 



The earl of Balcarres, as soon as the business of 

 the assembly would allow him to be absent from the 



