BOOK II. CHAR XIII. 33,^ 



ur' them. The follownig year, they difcovered the place where 

 the Blacks held their ufual rendezvous, and gave them fomo an- 

 noyance. But they ftill found means to hold out, until, being hard 

 prefled by colonel D'Oyley, who, by his final overthrow of the. 

 Spaniards at Rio Nuevo, having taken from them all hope of fu- 

 ture fuccour from their antlent friends, they became vcrv much 

 ftreightened, for want of provifions and ammunition. The main 

 party, under the command of their captain, Juan de Bolas (whole 

 place of retreat, in Clarendon, ftill retains his name), furrendered 

 to the Englifli on terms of pardon and freedom. But other parties 

 remained in the mod inacceilible retreats within the mountainous 

 wilds; where they not only augmented their numbers by procre- 

 ation, but, after the ifland became thicker fown with plantation?, 

 they were frequently reinforced by fugitive flaves, and at lenc^th 

 ■grew confident enough of their force to undertake defcents upon 

 the interior planters, many of whom they murdered from time to 

 time ; and, by their barbarities and outrage, intimidated the Whites 

 from venturing to any confiderable diltance from the fea-coaft. 

 One of thefe parties was called the Vermaholis Negroes; in ouell: 

 of whom captain Ballard was fent, in the year 1660, with a de- 

 tachment, and took feveral of them prifoners. In 1663, the lieu- 

 tenant-governor Sir Charles Lyttelton, and his council, iHbed a 

 proclamation, offering to grant twenty acres of land jf^tr head, and 

 their freedom, to all fuch of them as would come in. But I do not 

 find that any of them inclined to accept the terms, or quit their 

 lavage way of life. On the contrary, they were better pleafed 

 with the more ample range they polledkl in the woods, where 

 their hunting-ground was not yet limited by fettlements. They 

 took care that none of the latter fhould be formed; and, for this 

 purpofe, butchered every white family that ventured to feat itfelf 

 any confiderable diftance inland. When the governor perceived 

 that the proclamation wrought no eftecl upon their favage minds, 

 Juan de Bolas, who was now made colonel of the Black regiment, 

 was fent to endeavour their redudion ; but, in the piofecution of 

 this fervice, he fell unfortunately into an.ambufcade, and was guc 

 in pieces. In March, 1664, captain Colbeck, of the White mi- 

 litia, was employed for the fame purpofe. He went by fea to the 



X X 2 North 



