344 JAMAICA. 



gave proofs of great fagacity. One of their white conductors, hav- 

 ing fliot a wild hog whilft they were on a march, the Indians told 

 him that was not the way to furprize the Blacks, for the noifc 

 ferved only to put them upoii their guard; and that, if he wanted 

 provifions, they could kill the game equally well with their arrows, 

 or lances, without giving any alarm. It was their practice to ob- 

 ferve the mofl: profound filencein marching to the enemy's quarters; 

 and, when they had once hit upon a track, they v.'ere fureto dif- 

 cover the haunt to which it led. They eftefted conliderable fer- 

 vice ; and were, indeed, the moft proper troops to be employed 

 in that fpecies ofaftion, which is known in America by the name 

 of biiJJj-fghting. They were well rewarded for their good con- 

 duit ; and afterwards difmifled to their own country, when the pa- 

 cification took place with the Marons. In 1741, the ailembly 

 fhewed a further mark of efteem for thefe honell Indians; for, 

 being informed that fomc traders belonging to the iQand had made 

 a practice frequently of ftealing away, and felling their children as 

 flaves, which occafioned the Indians of Darien and Sambla to 

 .withdraw their friendlhip from the Engliih, and embrace alliance 

 with the Spaniards ; they palled a bill, enading, that all Indians, 

 imported into the ifland for fale, (hould be as free as any other 

 aliens or foreigners; and that all fuch fales ihould, ipfo faSio, be 

 void; and the buyer and feller be liable to a penalty of 50/. 

 each. In 17395 governor Trelawny, by the advice of the principal 

 gentlemen of the ifland, propofed overtures of a peace with the 

 Maron chiefs. Both parties were now grown heartily wearied 

 out with this tedious conflict. The white inhabitants wirtied re- 

 lief from the horrors of continual alarms, the hardfliip of military 

 duty, and the intolerable burthen of maintaining an army on foot. 

 The Marons were not lels anxious for an accommodation : they 

 were hemmed in and clofely befet on all fides ; their provifions 

 deftroyed ; and themfelves reduced to fo miferable a condition by 

 famine and inceflant attacks, that Cudjoe (whom I converfed with 

 many years afterwards) declared, if peace had not been ofiered to 

 them, they had no choice left but either to be ftarved, lay violent 

 hands on one another, or furrender to the Englifh at difcretion. 

 The extremity, however, of their cafe was not at that time knowi> 



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