jo2 HISTORY OF THE [book iv. 
to justice, but it is reasonable to believe that a far 
greater number have escaped with impunity. In 
regard to the other and more common tricks of Obi , 
such as hanging up feathers, bottles, egg-shells, &c. 
&c. in order to intimidate negroes of a thievish dis¬ 
position from plundering huts, hog-styes, or provi¬ 
sion grounds, these were laughed at by the white 
inhabitants as harmless stratagems, contrived by the 
more sagacious, for deterring the more simple and 
superstitious blacks, and serving for much the same 
purpose, as the scare-crows which are in general 
used among our English farmers and gardeners. 
But in the year 1760 , when a very formidable in¬ 
surrection of the Koromantyn or Gold coast ne¬ 
groes broke out in the parish of St. Mary, ana 
spread through almost every other district of the 
island, an old Koromantyn negro, the chief instiga¬ 
tor and oracle of the insurgents in that parish, who 
had administered the fetish or solemn oath to the 
conspirators, and furnished them with a magical 
preparation which was to render them invulnerable, 
was fortunately apprehended, convicted, and hung 
up with all his feathers and trumperies about him; 
and his execution struck the insurgents with a ge¬ 
neral panic, from which they never afterwards re¬ 
covered. The examinations which were taken at 
that period, first opened the eyes of the public to 
the very dangerous tendency of the Obeah practi¬ 
ces, and gave birth to the law which was then enact¬ 
ed for their suppression and punishment. But, 
neither the terror of this law, the strict investiga¬ 
tion which has ever since been made after the pro- 
