790 
inhabitants, the constant exercise of 
‘their limbs in ascending and de- 
scending, and their custom of ex- 
ploring the vast mountains and pre- 
cipices of the interior of the country, 
in pursuit of the wild boar, contri. 
bute to produce the strength and 
symmetry in which the Maroons of 
Trelawny-Town, and Accompong- 
Town, who were the same race of 
men, far excelled the other negroes 
of every description in the island. In 
chara¢ter, language, and manners, 
they nearly resembled those negroes, 
on the estates of the planters, that 
were descended from the same race 
of Africans, but displayed a strik- 
ing distinction in their personal ap- 
pearance, being blacker, taller, and 
in every respect handsomer ; for 
such of them as had remained in 
slavery, had intermixed with Eboe 
negroes, and others, imported from 
countries to the southward of the 
coast of Africa, people of yellow 
complexions, with compressed fea- 
tures, and thick lips, who were in 
every respect inferior to themselves. 
In their person and carriage, the 
Maroons were ereét and lofty, in- 
dicating a consciousness of superio- 
rity ; vigour appeared upon their 
muscles, and their motions displayed 
agility. Their eyes were quick, 
ewild, and fiery, the white of them 
appearing a little reddened ; owing, 
perhaps, to the greenness of the 
wood they burned in their houses, 
with the smoke of which they must 
have been affected. They possessed 
most, if not all of the senses in a 
superior degree. ‘They were accus- 
tomed, from habit, to discover, in 
the woods, objeéts which white peo- 
ple, of the best sight, could not 
distinguish ; and their hearing was 
so wonderfully quick, that it enabled 
them to elude the most active pur- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1803. 
suers ; they were seldom surprised, 
They communicated with one ano- 
ther by means of horns ; and when 
these could scarcely be heard by 
other people, they distinguished the 
orders that the sounds conveyed. It 
is very remarkable, that the Ma- 
roons had a particular call upon the 
horn for each individual, by which 
he was summoned from a distance 
as easily as he would have been 
spoken to by name, had he been 
near. It appears wonderful, at 
first, that a single horn should be 
able to express such a number of 
names ; but, on refleétion, it is not 
more wonderful than the variety of 
changes of which a dozen bells are 
susceptible, or the multiplisity of 
words that are formed by the com- 
bination of twenty-six letters. Al- 
lowing that the horn admits a less 
variation of tones than the chimes of 
twelve bells, it has a greater advan- 
tage in one respeét for conveying 
particular ideas, from being capable 
of varying the duration of sound, 
which bells are not; so that, besides 
numerical combination of monoto- 
nous notes, it can adopt all the mo- 
dulation of concatenated measure, 
and the poetical feet might be so as- 
sociated as to transmit a great va- 
riety of ideas. But to return to the 
Maroons:—It has been said that 
their sense of smelling is obtuse, and 
their taste depraved. With respect 
to the former, I have heard, on 
the contrary, that their scent is ex- 
tremely prompt, and that they have 
been known to trace parties of 
runaway negroes to a great distance, 
by the smell of their firewood; and 
as to the latter, they are, like other 
negroes, fond of savory dishes, 
jirked hog, and riugtail pigeons, 
delicacies unknown to an European 
table, but which a Quin himself 
would 
