452 



JAMAICA. 



In your despatches, in the addresses of the Legis- 

 lative Council and House of Assembly, and in the 

 reports of the naval and military officers engaged in 

 the suppression of the insurrection, the loyalty of 

 the Maroons in resisting and defeating the efforts of 

 the rebels has been spoken of in terms of grateful 

 commendation, no doubt sincerely felt and well de- 

 served ; and I observe one of the measures now to be 

 proposed to the Legislature by one of the members 

 of your executive committee is entituled "A Bill to 

 employ the Maroons as a permanent Auxiliary Mili- 

 tia Force." I have, however, been greatly con- 

 cerned to find in the enclosed despatch from Sir L. 

 McClintock the following statement : " At least 800 

 were shot, chiefly by the Maroons, who entered 

 with fierce zeal into the bush hunt after rebel ne- 

 groes." I have to request your immediate attention 

 to this subject. I trust it will appear that Sir L. 

 McClincook has been misinformed, and that an im- 

 pression so unfavorable to the employment of the 

 Maroons an impression which I certainly should 

 never have derived from your despatches and those 

 to which I have above referred will not turn out to 

 have been well founded. It appears from your 

 speech to the Legislature, and from the addresses of 

 both its branches in reply, that you and they were 

 of opinion that there had existed a wide-spread and 

 diabolical conspiracy to murder the white and mixed 

 races, and amongst those races themselves this opin- 

 ion would appear to be almost universal. Proofs of 

 this conspiracy were adverted to as existing, but 

 they are not to be found in the papers yet sent home. 

 I request that you will furnish me with them as fully 

 and completely as you can without delay. In 

 making these inquiries, I beg to be understood as 

 directing your attention to the principal points on 

 which I desire to be informed, and not as prejudging 

 any person concerned in anv nroceeding. I have, 

 etc., ED WARD CARD WELL. 



In reply, Gov. Eyre wrote : 



As the various officers who were engaged in com- 

 mand of detachments during the rebellion are now 

 more or less scattered, and the chief in command, 

 Brig.-Gen. Nelson, is absent from the colony, it is 

 possible that some delay may take place before all 

 can be referred to, and thus some of the information 

 sought may not be procurable at once. I will, how- 

 ever, transmit to you whatever reports or explana- 

 tions may reach me as quickly as possible after re- 

 ceiving them, without waiting until the whole are 

 ready. In the mean time I forward a report from 

 Col. Fyfe, in command of the Maroons, in reference 

 to the very extraordinary allegations made against 

 them in Sir L. McClintock' s official report to the Ad- 

 miralty. I can only say that until I saw that despatch 

 I never heard even the most distant rumor that the 

 Maroons had behaved in the way alleged, and I can- 

 not imagine upon what data Sir'L. McClintock based 

 his opinion. I have written to Vice-Admiral Sir J. 

 Hope to request he will call upon Commodore Sir L. 

 McClintock to explain the grounds upon which his 

 statement was made, but there is little probability 

 of my receiving it in time for the present mail. In 

 colonial communities fabrications and exaggerations 

 of the grossest kind are constantly being circulated 

 either for sheer wantonness, from a desire to appear 

 important in the eyes of those to whom the state- 

 ments are made, or from worse motives. These ca- 

 nards are very generally circulated by the local press, 

 and often obtain currency and credence at a dis- 

 tance ; but an officer in Sir L. McClintock' s position 

 ought not to take notice of any such unauthorized 

 rumors, or embody in an official report opinions con- 

 veying such injunous reflections upon a race which 

 had so recently rendered such valuable service to the 

 colony without being very sure that his opinions were 

 well founded. That improprieties or acts of wrong 

 have been committed during the existence of martial 

 law I do not doubt. It was only to be expected this 



should be so, but I trust it will be found eventually 

 that these instances have been comparatively few, 

 and have either been unknown to and unsanctioned 

 by the officers immediately in command, or have 

 taken place under the pressure of circumstances 

 which, if not justifying, may, at least in some degree, 

 palliate the irregularities committed. In reviewing 

 the acts of the military and naval authorities in deal- 

 ing with any rebels who were found in arms or in 

 summarily disposing, after trial by court-martial of 

 those who were taken prisoners, it is necessary to 

 bear in mind that there were no prisons or gaols to 

 which to send prisoners, and that some five hundred 

 men were engaged in quelling a rebellion in districts, 

 St. David, St. Thomas-in-the-East, and Portland, 

 tenanted by a population of some forty thousand, and 

 comprising upwards of five hundred square miles of 

 country. Nor must it be forgotten that nearly the 

 whole of this population, if not in actual rebellion, 

 was sympathizing with the rebels, and taking no 

 steps to arrest its progress or aid the authorities. It 

 was impossible, under such circumstances, that they 

 could either take charge of and guard any large 

 number of prisoners, or make long delays to insti- 

 tute more formal trials. The administration of sum- 

 mary justice became a necessity, and any hesitation 

 would have been fatal to the success of the military 

 operations. Whilst regretting the necessity of, and 

 deploring the evils unavoidably resulting from such 

 a course of action, I do not see how it could have been 

 avoided. 



Farther information enabled Gov. Eyre to 

 add a postscript as follows : 



Sunday, December 24th. 



Since writing this despatch I have received an ex- 

 press from the Admiral containing Sir L. McClintock' s 

 explanation. You will be glad to learn that his opin- 

 ion rested on no better grounds than mere rumors 

 or unautbenticated reports and newspaper state- 

 ments. I trust this instance will show how little to 

 . be depended upon information or opinions are when 

 expressed by persons not having the opportunity of 

 personal knowledge or of referring to authentic re- 

 ports, and when the grounds are not given upon 

 which such information or opinions rest. No doubt 

 the tone and terms used in some of the reports by 

 officers engaged in the field are not such as could 

 have been wished, considering the grave events to 

 which they relate ; but great allowances must be 

 made for the circumstances under which these re- 

 ports were written, when harassed and worn out by 

 the duties and anxieties of the dav, and whilst the 

 minds of the writers were still freshly impressed with 

 the atrocious occurrences that had then so recently 

 taken place, and which might again occur in other 

 districts at any moment. But it is very hard that our 

 soldiers and sailors, whose courage, zeal, ariB exer- 

 tions have been the saving of Jamaica, should be so 

 misrepresented and traduced, as I see they are, by a 

 large section of their countrymen at home, who know 

 nothing of the dangers or difficulties which had to be 

 surmounted, or of the pressing necessity which ex- 

 isted for the most prompt and decisive action. I 

 have now only to thank you for the confidence you 

 have been pleased to express, pending further in- 

 formation, in my own character and in that of the 

 military and naval officers concerned. As regards 

 myself, I rest upon the conviction that I did my duty 

 faithfully in not shrinking from undertaking a re- 

 sponsibility which few men would have accepted, 

 and in doing which I was quite aware of what the 

 consequences would be, so tar as regards misrepre- 

 sentation and vituperation, on the part of a very 

 powerful party at home ; but which action, on my 

 part, I believed to be, and still believe to have been, 

 essential to the preservation of Jamaica. I do not 

 pretend to have acted within the strict trammels of 

 the law, no man could under such circumstances; 

 but I do not doubt being able to justify myself fully 



