chap, iii.] WEST INDIES. 269 
Having collected themselves into a body about one 
o’clock in the morning, they proceeded to the fort 
at Port Maria; killed the centinel, and provided 
themselves with as great a quantity of arms and 
ammunition as they could conveniently dispose of. 
Being by this time joined by a number of their 
countrymen from the neighbouring plantations, they 
marched up the high road that led to the interior 
parts of the country, carrying death and desolation 
as they went. At Ballard’s valley they surrounded 
cloathing and knives, little apprehending the bloody business in which 
these knives were soon afterwards employed. He slept at Ballard’s 
valley, a plantation of Mr. Cruikshank, a few miles distant; and 
was awoke by his servant at day-break, with the information that his 
Trinity negroes had revolted. The intelligence was brought by some 
of his own people, who had fled in search of their master, and report¬ 
ed that the insurgents' were close at their heels. No time there¬ 
fore being to be lost, Mr. Bayly recommended to Mr. Cruikshank, 
and some other gentlemen who were with him, to proceed forthwith, 
with such arms as they could collect, to an estate in the neighbour¬ 
hood, which having a defensible house, was fixed on as a proper place 
of rendezvous; promising to join them in a few hours. He then 
mounted his horse, and proceeded himself in search of the rebels, con¬ 
ceiving (as he knew they had no reason to complain of ill treatment) 
that his presence and persuasions would reduce them to obedience. As 
he descended the hill on which Mr. Cruikshank’s house was situated, 
he heard the Korosnantyn yell of war, and saw the whole body of re¬ 
bel negroes in full march for the habitation of the overseer; a smaller 
house situated within half a mile of the other. He approached them 
notwithstanding, and waving his hat, endeavoured to obtain a hearing, 
but was answered by a discharge of musquetry, by which his ser¬ 
vant’s horse was shot under him, and both himself and the servant 
very narrowly escaped with life. The Savages then proceeded to the 
piassacre cf the white people in the overseer’s house ; and Mr. Bayly 
