220 NARRATIVE OF THE MUTINY, &c. 



men, yet I could not but entertain the strongest suspicions of the 

 whole of the infantry.* I therefore gave positive orders, that if 

 any troops advanced near my post, without permission, they 

 should be fired upon. 



About one in the morning of the 24th, as no firing had been 

 heard in the direction of Long Wood, I began to entertain ap- 

 prehensions for the safety of the Lieutenant-Governor ; and about 

 the same time two lights and a number of men were discerned, 

 moving slowly along the side of a hill, two miles east from Plan- 

 tation-house ; which were supposed to be the mutineers advanc- 

 ing with cannon. Major Doveton, commandant of the volunteers, 

 immediately dispatched two active men of his corps to gain intel- 

 ligence. Messrs. John Bagley and Kenned^^ were selected for 

 that purpose ; but very soon after, a black messenger brought 

 intelligence that Colonel Broughton and his party were taken 

 prisoners. 



This information gave me at first some uneasiness, on account 

 of the danger to which my friend and colleague would be exposed 

 in the intended attack upon the mutinous troops: but there was 

 no alternative ; for however much 1 value the life of Colonel 

 Broughton, I could not permit considerations of a private nature 

 to interfere with my pviblic duties ; nor to deter me from carrying 

 into execution the plans I had formed, which were imperiously 



* These suspicions were not indeed without just cause ; for, Archihald Nimmo, who had 

 been one of the most daring and active in seducing the soldiers, and in administering the 

 oath, and obligation, to seize the Governor, and send him off' the islcuid, had the audacity 

 to range himself among the friends of the Governor, who came to reinforce Plantation- 

 house. He had hoped by his influence to have turned those friends into foes; and 

 seemed, at one time, when the Long Wood mutineers approached, to be on the eve of 

 making the attempt : but perceiving he was suspected, and closely watched, by a non- 

 commissioned officer, with a drawn sword, immediately behind him, he was thus deterred 

 from puttuig his design in execution. 



