APPENDIX.] THE MAROONS. 389 



val from their plantations of all the white servants, to 

 attend military duty. In the meanwhile, cultivation 

 was suspended, the courts of law had long been shut 

 up ; and the island at large seemed more like a garri- 

 son, under the power of the law-martial, than a coun- 

 try of agriculture and commerce, of civil judicature, 

 industry and prosperity. 



On the other hand, it was loudly declared, that a 

 compromise with a -lawless banditti who had slaugh- 

 tered so manv excellent men, and had murdered in 



* 



cold blood even women in child-bed, and infants at 

 the breast, was a shameful sacrifice of the public ho- 

 nour; a total disregard to the dictates of justice; an 

 encouragement to the rest of the Maroons to commit 

 similar outrages, and a dreadful example to the ne- 

 groes in servitude; tending to impress on their minds 

 an idea, not of the lenity of the whites, but of their 

 inability to punish such atrocious offenders. It was 

 alleged withal, that the rebel Maroons were not 



themselves seriouslv desirous of such an accommoda- 



j 



tion. Their only purpose was to gain time, and pro- 

 cure an opportunity to get into better quarters ; judg- 

 ing, perhaps, that the militia of the country, a large 

 proportion of whom were at the distance of one hun- 

 dred miles from their places of residence, would soon 

 be tired of the contest. Manv facts were indeed re- 



4 



lated, and some strong circumstances adduced, which 

 gave a colour to this charge; and proved, that the Ma- 

 roons had not altogether relinquished their hopes of 

 creating a genera! revolt among the enslaved negroes. 

 Such an event was not likely to happen, while the 

 country continued in arms. The dismission of the 



