INSURRECTION IN JAMAICA.

While the British commanders exerted themselves by sea and land with the most laudable spirit of vigilance and courage against the foreign adversaries of their country, the colonists of Jamaica ran the most imminent hazard of being extirpated by a domestic enemy. The negro slaves of that island, grown insolent in the contemplation of their own formidable numbers, or by observing the supine indolence of their masters, or stimulated by that appetite for liberty so natural to the mind of man, began, in the course of this year, to entertain thoughts of shaking off the yoke by means of a general insurrection. Assemblies were held and plans resolved for this purpose. At length they concerted a scheme for rising in arms all at once in different parts of the island, in order to massacre all the white men, and take possession of the government. They agreed that this design should be put in execution immediately after the departure of the fleet for Europe; but their plan was defeated by their ignorance and impatience. Those of the conspirators that belonged to captain Forest’s estate, being impelled by the fumes of intoxication, fell suddenly upon the overseer, while he sat at supper with some friends, and butchered the whole company. Being immediately joined by some of their confederates, they attacked the neighbouring plantations, where they repeated the same barbarities; and, seizing all the arms and ammunition that fell in their way, began to grow formidable to the colony. The governor no sooner received intimation of this disturbance, than he, by proclamation, subjected the colonists to martial law. All other business was interrupted, and every man took to his arms. The regular troops, joined by the troop of militia, and a considerable number of volunteers, marched from Spanish Town to Saint Mary’s, where the insurrection began, and skirmished with the insurgents; but as they declined standing any regular engagement, and trusted chiefly to bush-fighting, the governor employed against them the free blacks, commonly known by the name of the wild negroes, now peaceably settled under the protection of the government. These auxiliaries, in consideration of a price set upon the heads of the rebels, attacked them in their own way, slew them by surprise, until their strength was broken, and numbers made away with themselves in despair; so that the insurrection was supposed to be quelled about the beginning of May, but in June it broke out again with redoubled fury, and the rebels were reinforced to a very considerable number. The regular troops and the militia, joined by a body of sailors, formed a camp under the command of colonel Spragge, who sent out detachments against the negroes, a great number of whom were killed, and some taken; but the rest, instead of submitting, took shelter in the woods and mountains. The prisoners, being tried and found guilty of rebellion, were put to death by a variety of tortures. Some were hanged, some beheaded, some burned, and some fixed alive upon gibbets. One of these last lived eight days and eighteen hours, suspended under a vertical sun, without being refreshed by one drop of water, or receiving any manner of sustenance. In order to prevent such insurrections for the future, the justices assembled at the sessions of the peace established regulations, importing, that no negro-slave should be allowed to quit his plantation without a white conductor, or a ticket of leave; that every negro playing at any sort of game should be scourged through the public streets; that every publican suffering such gaming in his house should forfeit forty shillings; that every proprietor suffering his negroes to beat a drum, blow a horn, or make any other noise in his plantation, should be fined ten pounds; and every overseer allowing these irregularities should pay half that sum, to be demanded, or distrained for, by any civil or military officer; that every free negro, or mulatto, should wear a blue cross on his right shoulder, on pain of imprisonment; that no mulatto, Indian, or negro, should hawk or sell any thing, except fresh fish or milk, on pain of being scourged; that rum and punch houses should be shut up during divine service on Sundays, under the penalty of twenty shillings; and that those who had petit licenses should shut up their houses on other nights at nine o’clock.