444 JAMAICA, 



many indefenfible houfes into arfenals for arming mutinous favages,. 

 was doubtlefs the very height of imprudence, tending not only to 

 generate projeds of hoftiUty, but to aff'ord the means of conducing 

 them with probable hope of fuccef?. Add to this, that many {hop- 

 keepers, from a flrange fpirit of avarice, have been known to fell 

 gunpowder privately to fuch confpirators, although they muft have 

 forefeen the afe to which it might be applied; and, to gain a few 

 fliilliiigs, even hazarded their own deftruftion j incredible as this 

 may feem, yet it is certain that fuch a practice has been carried on, 

 as two laws weie pafled, one in 1730, the other in 1744, to put ^ 

 flop to it. 



Another caufe of confpiracy may have been, a remote hope of 

 fonie Negroes, who, having heard of the freedom granted to the 

 Marons after their obftinate refiftance of feveral years, expecfted, 

 perhaps, that by a courfe of fuccefsful oppofition they might obtain 

 the like terms in the end, and a diftindl fettlement in fome quarter 

 of the ifland. 



The vulgar opinion in England confounds all the Blacks in one 

 claf?, and iuppofes them equally prompt for rebellion; an opinion 

 that is groflly erroneous. The Negroes, who have been chief adors 

 in the feditionsand mutinies, which at different times have broke out 

 here, were the imported Africans ; and, confidering the numbers of 

 them who were baniflied their country for atrocious mifdeeds, and 

 familiarized to blood, malTacre, and the moft deteftable vices, we 

 Ihould not be aftonifhed at the impatient fpirit of fuch an abandoned 

 herd, upon being introduced to a life of labour and regularity. 

 The numbers imported would indeed be formidable, if they 

 continued in a body; but they are foon difperfed among a variety 

 of different efliatcs many miles afunder, by which means they re- 

 main a long time ignorant of each other's place of fettlement. 

 They often find themfclves mixed with many ftrangers, differing 

 from them in. language; and againfl others they hold a rooted an- 

 tipathy. But they are chiefly awed into fubjedlion, by the fuperior 

 multitude of Creole Blacks, with whom they dare not confederate, 

 nor folicit their concurrency in any plan of oppofition to the white 

 inhabitants.. 



Th.e. 



