BOOK III. CHAP. III. 445 



The ringleaders of confpiracy have been the native Africans, 

 and of thefe the Coromantlns (land the foremoll. The Jamaica 

 planters are fond of purchafing the Negroes who pafs under this name, 

 in preference to thoi'e of the other provinces; but the French, and 

 fome other Weft-India colonies, will not knowingly admit them; 

 being fenfible of their dangerous tempers and unfitnefs for the 

 peaceable walk of hufbandry. 



As the infurredions which have happened in our ifland have been 

 mifreprefented, I fliall give a fummary account of them, which 

 may ferve to illuftrate what has been advanced, and explain the 

 motives of them not to have been founded in the manner they have 

 been generally fuppofed, by perfons ill informed, or but little ac- 

 quainted with Jamaica. 



The MiiroH or wild Negroes, of whom I have given the hiftory, 

 were improperly called rebellious. The compilers of the Modern 

 Univerfal Hijlory, in their account of the ifland, have fallen into this 

 miflake, and, giving a detail of the infurreflion that happened in 

 1761, they fpeak of it as " a revolt of thofe Negroes, who, fmce the 

 " late treaty with them in Mr. Trelavvny's government, Jiot having 

 " been fiifficicntly watched., had become io numerous and ftrong, that 

 *' they now meditated no lefs than the extirpation of all the white 

 " men in the ifland. "^ 



It is not an eafy matter to difcover what is meant by " their be- 

 " coming too numerous and ftrong, for want of being watched^' 

 nor how tiie watching of them could either thin their numbers,^ 

 or weaken them : however, the whole is erroneous, and the very 

 reverfe is the trutiij for thefe Negroes have, as far as vvc have any 

 certain information, always adhered to the treaty, and were the 

 principal inflruments employed in fuppreffing that very infurrevStion. 

 The Jamaica laws have from the beginning termed them rebellious; 

 but they did not deferve the appellation, becaufe they were the free 

 defcendants from the aboriginal Sjanilh Negroes, who had never 

 come under any fubmifilon or allegiance to the Britifh government. 

 The rebellions (properly fpeaking) are confined to thofe Negroe 

 ilaves, who have at different periods renounced obedience to their 

 Britifh mafters, and fought to refcue themfelves from a life of 

 labour by force of arms ; and all thefe diilurbances are extremely 

 remarkable,, in that they have been planned and conduced by the 



Coromantin: 



