160 THE MAROONS. 



proof the personal attestations! These were the ears of 

 said runaway slaves thus testified deponents. It seemed all 

 square; so ears were counted, and blood-money paid. But 

 after a certain time, the Honourable Gustos Rotulorum, of 

 so-and-so, found he had been done. His honour, if that be 

 the proper title his clemency, his serenity, or whatever other 

 peg more properly belongs to such a functionary to hang his 

 many honours upon acquired the knowledge one day that 

 negroes' ears upon the whole were pretty much alike ; so it 

 just came within the bounds of possibility that the flagrant 

 criminals, the felonious runaways, men who, so to speak, had 

 stolen themselves, might be alive and kicking to that day, 

 the bag of ears notwithstanding. Alive to that day they 

 were, as farther events soon proved. They came one night 

 from their hiding-places, and added to their crime by setting 

 fire to some outhouses of their once masters. But how about 

 the ears 1 for veritable ears they were. They, too, were ac- 

 counted for all in good season. No need to shudder ; nothing 

 cruel this time, only a trifle disgusting. Some old general 

 of a Maroon had obtained those trophies, those sure attes- 

 tations, from a churchyard that lay convenient. Voila tout ! 



With the beginning of this century a better feeling began 

 to subsist between the Maroons and the British. Upon the 

 whole, they have stood very well upon the stipulations of 

 treaties made. Whilst slavery lasted they lent efficient aid 

 towards the capture of runaway negroes, for whose restora- 

 tion they were paid a fixed sum per head; and they now 

 seem to have forgotten all the wrongs that, with more or 

 less injustice, they attributed to us for our strenuous oppo- 

 sition to their independence. They take it as a great honour 

 to be visited by the white man ; and so often as this happens, 

 there is much rough hospitality and a wild saturnalia. They 

 are said to be good Christians now; but upon this point, as 

 several others, much turns on a definition. Their belief in 

 Obeah men is unbounded; and for reputed witches and 



