24* 



♦Wei ordered ftates, would have been pimiflied 

 with death. Many have murdered white in- 

 habitants, rnaffacred their mafters, or revolted 

 in combination, plotting the deftru&ion of the 

 planters, in order to take the colony into their 

 own poffeflion ; but being fruftrated in their 

 defigns* have faved themfelves from punith- 

 menr, by flying into the hidden recefles of the 

 foreft ; from whence they ifftie only to ravage 

 and plunden 



They had fubje&ed themfelves to a fort 

 Of regular difcipline under their captains and 

 lieutenants, and the lower orders of them (for 

 there are diftinctions even among run-away 

 flaves) were compelled to toil in the night, by 

 going out of the woods, in plundering par- 

 ties, to fteal plantains and other provifions 

 from the eftates ; but the labour to which they 

 were expofed, by this night- duty, was fo much 

 more fevere than that required of them, in 

 their common duty, as flaves upon the plan- 

 tations, that fome of them have been known 

 to defert back from the woods, and return to 

 a ftate of flavery, after having run away from 

 their mafters to live in idlenefs, as they had 

 expected, with their brethren in " the Bu£h, 5 * 



VOL, II. & 



