NARRATIVE OF THE MUTINY, &c. 241 



their power, all sorts of improvement and reforms ; anil would be 

 happy to see the old system revived of feeding themselves and 

 the inhabitants from the Company's stores ; as well as the return 

 of spirits to the island. 



"Par. 4. Your Honourable Court will perceive that the 

 measures I pursued, during the late mutinous combination, were 

 calculated to give time to reason with the troops upon the impro- 

 priety of their conduct; by which I did not despair of bringing 

 them back to a sense of duty ; for, by occupying Plantation-house 

 with a small but select number of men, I was prepared to give 

 a severe check at the first onset, and to repel the most formidable 

 attack that a mutinous body could make. Indeed when I took 

 up that position, I knew not but the combination was general, of 

 which I had but too much reason to suspect from the conduct of 

 the H'Ao/e garrison : this will appear from the General Orders of 

 the 23d December: nor was it until the execution of six of the 

 ringleaders, on the 25th, which happily met with no obstruction, 

 that the doubts entertained by myself and those around me, were 

 in some measure removed. 



" Par. 5. On that day I directed additional positions to be 

 occupied, which commanded the barracks, and the roads leading 

 to the country. The mutinous troops, in James's Town, were 

 then so completely in my power, (wlien I found the artillery un- 

 contaminated), that if they had been ten times more numerous 

 they could not have forced their way to the interior, nor have 

 committed any disturbance. The last execution took place on 

 the 27th, under the cannon of Ladder Hill and of those other 

 positions which kept the mutineers in awe, and restored them to 

 a sense of duty ; and from that moment, I am happy to say, the 

 peace of this settlement was etfectually re-established." 



I i 



