796 ANNUAL RE 
mountains. I am informed that the 
fact was otherwise, that those of the 
settlers were insuflicient, their ne- 
groes being employed in different 
labour, and that they purchased 
the superabundance of the Maroons. 
Their grounds, after the corn was 
cut down, might, for a length of 
time, appear to the eye in a ruinous 
state; while, under the surface, a 
large stock of nutritive roots were 
growing to maturity. These roots 
were their surest support, at the 
period when a scarcity was most to 
be apprehended, after a long con- 
tinued succession of dry weather. 
In the course of time, these patches 
of land were cleared and replanted, 
and they again gradually assumed 
the appearance of being neglected ; 
it is no wonder, therefore, that the 
eye of a casual visitor should have 
been deceived, and that he should 
. have been Jed to declare ** that he 
perceived no vestige of culture :” 
but I cannot so well account for his 
asserting ‘* that the Maroons sup- 
plied themselves from the plantations 
of the whites, by purchase or theft*, 
as I have the best authority for 
what I have affirmed, respeéting the 
superabundance disposed of by the 
people of Trelawncy town. 
The women chiefly were employ- 
ed in the cultivation of their grounds; 
but this they did not account an im- 
position upon them by the men. 
We are not to imagine that what 
would be real cruelty in a refined 
state of society, is cruelty, or eyen 
hardship, ina rough and unpolished 
people, among whom, every indivi- 
dual depends upon his own exertions 
for his support. In what country 
on the globe is it, that, in the class 
of mankind doomed to labour, we 
Shall not find tribes, the women of 
GISTER, 1803. 
which participate the toils of the 
men? Is it France? Is it Wngland ? 
If the Maroon women were em- 
ployed in burning trees and in til- 
lage, the men, besides hunting and 
pursuing runaways, were employed 
in fencing the grounds, building and 
repairing houses, attending to their 
cattle and horses, of which they 
had about 200 head, and carrying 
on their petty commerce. ‘They 
were none of them mechanics ; all 
their knowledge of that kind was 
confined to the art of erecting a 
house and repairing a gun. 
Their traflic consisted in the dis- 
posal of the increase of their stock of 
all kinds, their jirked hog, and sw 
perfluous provisions, which enable 
them to purchase other commodi- 
ties, and to put money by. ‘They 
made a considerable profit by ma 
nufaéturing tobacco. They bought 
the leaf of the plant on the estates 
within the distance of twenty or 
thirty miles, which their women and 
children assisted them in carrying 
home, each loaded with a weight 
proportioned to the strength of the 
carrier. ‘The purchase was put into 
bags, which were made by knitting 
the fibres of the trumpe-tree, and 
mahoe bark, the ends of which were 
contracted into a bandage that went 
round the forehead, and served as a 
stay to the load, which rested on 
the back. The leaves were dried 
and prepared for use by the men, 
who twisted them into a kind of 
rope, of about the third of an inch 
in diameter, which they rolled up 
in balls, and carried out in the same 
manner to the different estates for 
sale. 
The maroon marriages, or con- 
tra¢ts of cohabitation, were attend- 
ed with no religious or juridical 
ceremonies 5 
* Edwards, 
