another vessel, notwithstanding the fire from the batteries, which he returned, and dismounted some of their guns. In the space of sixteen months, ending in December this year, Commodore Moore's squadron, off Guadaloupe, took 53 privateers, carrying more than 400 guns, 2600 men, besides other privateers, which he obliged to run on shore, and destroyed. During the same time, he also retook 53 richly-laden merchant vessels. The exports from Essequibo and Demerary were suspended this year. "In the month of September, of the year 1759, a heavy gale of wind from the N.E. so greatly impeded the current of the Gulf stream, that the water, forced at the same time into the Gulf of Mexico by the trade-winds, rose to such a height, that not only the Tortugas and other islands disappeared, but the highest trees were covered on the peninsula of Larga; and at this time (William Gerard de Brahm, Esq. surveyor-general of the southern district of North America, states), the Litbury snow, John Lorrain, master, being caught in the gale, came to an anchor, as the master supposed, in Hawke Channel; but, to his great surprise, found his vessel, the next day, high and dry on Elliot's Island, and his anchor suspended in the boughs of a tree." In October, the Council at Jamaica published his Majesty's repeal of the act passed in that island in 1754, for removing the several records, books, papers, &c., from the town of St. Jago de la Vega to Kingston. In consequence of which, thirty wains, laden with the records, and escorted by a party of foot-soldiers, left Kingston at one o'clock on Wednesday morning: they arrived at Spanish town about nine, amidst the acclamations of a multitude of people. A grand entertainment was given on the occasion, an ox was roasted for the populace, and the town was illuminated. In October, an act was passed at Jamaica, for dividing the island into three counties, and for appointing justices of assize, and Oyer and Terminer, in two of the counties. Upon the 6th of March, at Antigua, his Excellency General Thomas issued a proclamation, declaring, that any persons who should be willing to send their slaves to Guadaloupe, should be paid for them, if such slaves should die or desert: and as a further encouragement for white volunteers, General Barrington promised that the private men of each company should have lands as well as the officers. The French are stated to have had ninety privateers belonging Annual Register, 1759, pp. 57. 93. 122. — 1760, p. 83. Bolinbroke's Voyage to Demerary, Appendix. Quarterly Review, Jan. 1816, p. 374. to Martinico, and since the capture of Guadaloupe to have taken 200 sail, valued at upwards of £600,000 sterling. 1760. The French computed that the number of their ships taken by the English this year, amounted to 944; and the number of English ships taken by them, at 2539. At St. Bartholomew's, the population consisted of 400 Whites and 500 Blacks. The Assembly at Jamaica caused 100,000 dollars to be stamped and issued at two-pence each advance on their former rate, in order to keep a fund for the internal circulation. The scarcity of money was attributed to the illicit traders sailing in ballast under Jamaica clearances, and carrying off money to buy French produce in St. Domingo. They past an act also, punishing Obeiah-men with death or transportation; and slaves, having gunpowder or military offensive arms without a licence, were to suffer death, or other punishment, at the discretion of the court. By sect. 3. no Negro to have two successive days as holyday, on penalty of £50. Persons suffering them to drum, to forfeit ₤100. A dangerous insurrection broke out among the Negroes in Jamaica, on Sunday the 25th of May: it began in St. Mary's, where the slaves belonging to Captain Forrest fell suddenly upon the overseer, as he was at supper with some friends, and massacred the whole company. They were immediately joined by their confederates, attacked the neighbouring plantations, and spread such alarm, that all business was suspended, martial law proclaimed, and every man armed. The insurgents declined any regular engagement, trusting to bush fighting. The free Blacks served as auxiliaries to the regulars; and the Maroons were called upon, according to treaty, to assist in their suppression. A party of them arrived at the scene of action, after the Whites had defeated the insurgents at Heywood Hall. The Maroons were ordered to pursue them. After rambling about for a day or two, they returned with a collection of human ears, which they pretended to have cut from the heads of the rebels. Their report was believed, and they were paid for them; but it was afterwards found that they had cut the ears they produced from the dead Negroes which had lain unburied at Heywood Hall. Some days after this, a detachment of the seventy-fourth regiment, with some Maroons, who were stationed at Down's Cove, a solitary place surrounded by deep woods, were attacked by the rebels in the night. The sentinels were shot, and the huts in which the soldiers were lodged set on fire: the light exposed the troops, who were fired at from all quarters. Major Forsyth, the commanding officer, formed his men into a square, and by keeping up a brisk fire from all sides, compelled the enemy to retire. During this affair the Maroons were not to be found, and Major Forsyth suspected that they were the assailants; but it was discovered, that immediately on the attack, the whole body had thrown themselves upon the ground, and continued in that position until the battle was over. A party of them afterwards killed Tackey, the rebel chief: he was a young Koromantyn, and was said to have been a chieftain in Africa. After cutting his head off, as a trophy, they roasted and ate the heart and entrails of their victim. The free Blacks attacked the insurgents in their own way, and slew so many, that the insurrection was supposed to be quelled about the beginning of May; but in June it broke out again with redoubled fury. The rebels were reinforced to a very formidable number. A camp was formed under Colonel Spragge, who killed and made prisoners of a considerable number, by sending out detachments: many, however, escaped to the woods and mountains. The prisoners were found guilty of rebellion, and put to death by a variety of torments-some burned, some fixed alive upon gibbets: one of these last lived eight days and eighteen hours, suspended under a vertical sun, without any sustenance, or even water! Mr. Long says, "Two of the St. Mary's ringleaders, Fortune and Kingston, were hung up alive in irons, on a gibbet erected in the parade of the town of Kingston. Fortune lived seven days, but Kingston survived till the ninth. The morning before the latter expired, he appeared to be convulsed from head to foot, and upon being opened after his decease, his lungs were found adhering to the back so tightly, that it required some force to disengage them. They behaved, all the time, with a degree of hardened insolence and brutal insensibility." About 60 white persons were killed. Of the rebels between 300 and 400 some destroyed themselves, and about 600 were transported to the bay of Honduras. The loss to the island was Edwards, vol. i. p. 543. Smollett, vol. xv. p. 7. estimated at £100,000. Captain Hynes was paid £562 for his disbursements, and as a reward for his services. Regulations were established for preventing such insurrections in future. No Negro slave was allowed to quit his plantation without a ticket of leave: every Negro playing at any sort of game was to be scourged through the public streets, and every publican suffering such gaming in his house, was to forfeit £2. Every proprietor that should suffer his Negroes to beat a drum, blow a horn, or make any other noise in his plantation, was to be fined £10; and every overseer allowing these irregularities, half the sum. Every free Negro and Mulatto was to wear a blue cross on his right shoulder, on pain of imprisonment; and none allowed to hawk or sell any thing, except fish and milk. The nocturnal irruptions of the rebels from the mountains into the nearest plantations, kept the inhabitants in constant alarm. Upon the 16th of October, five large frigates and three merchant vessels sailed from Cape François, in Española, for Europe. They were chased, the next day, by his Majesty's ships Hampshire, Lively, and Boreas. At midnight the Boreas came up with the Sirenne, and engaged her twenty-five minutes; the Frenchman shot ahead, and the Boreas was unable to close again with her till two P.M. the next day, when the action was renewed off the east end of Cuba, and continued till forty minutes past four, when M. M'Cartie struck. In the meantime, the Hampshire and Lively chaced the other four frigates, who stood to the southward. On the 18th, with the help of her sweeps, the Lively came up with the Valeur, and she struck, after an action of an hour and a half. The Hampshire ran up between the Duc de Choiseul and Prince Edward, about four P.M., and engaged both at the same time. The former escaped into Port-au-Paix; the other ran ashore, two leagues to leeward, and was blown up by her crew, as was the Fleur-de-lis, which had run into Fresh-water Bay. Captains O'Brien and Taylor, in his Majesty's ships Temple and Griffin, at Grenada, destroyed several batteries, retook his Majesty's sloop Virgin, and captured three other vessels laden with provisions for Martinico; and, on their return to Antigua, fell in with a convoy of thirteen sail, bound to Martinico with provisions, the whole of whom they captured. "A State of the Trade carried on with the French in Española, by the Merchants of North America, under colour of flags of truce. By a Merchant of London." This merchant states, "That, on a moderate computation, not so little as £400,000 sterling's worth of commodities, of British Smollett, vol. xv. pp. 8, 9, 10. Beatson's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 374.' manufacture, or the produce of our colonies, have, during this war, been sent to the French islands from North America, which must bring back into this kingdom the enormous profit of £3,200,000." He adds, "We may with truth affirm, that Española, thus circumstanced, is equally valuable to the British nation, in the hands of the French, with any of our own islands, and much more so than Guadaloupe. The trade," he continues, "has been carried on with at least the implied consent and approbation of the government; for it cannot be supposed that his Majesty's governors in North America, who granted flags of truce to private merchants, to carry French prisoners to Española and bring back others in return, at their own expence, were ignorant, that in so doing they had a view to their own private advantage; nor could they be ignorant how that advantage arose, when the flags returned to the ports from whence they first proceeded, and then made regular entries at the several custom-houses of the respective cargoes of foreign sugars with which they were loaded." the This is a curious proof of traffic with the West Indies without expence of an establishment. Mr. Nathaniel Gilbert, a methodist, and Speaker of the House of Assembly in Antigua, collected a few persons in his own house for exhortation and prayer, and afterwards publicly preached the gospel to the slaves. "Amidst torrents of reproach he persevered till he had formed a society of nearly 200." This was the first methodist society formed in the West Indies. Mr. Gilbert continued to labour among the Negroes until his death. After his death, two black women continued praying and meeting with those who attended every night, until the arrival of Mr. Baxter in 1778. The malversation of the officers of " the Company of Cuba" ruined the Company, and forced them to give up all further operations. In Jamaica, from the year 1739 to 1760, no less than 55,937 acres of land were forfeited by default of the proprietors, in not opening five acres per annum, as the law directs, and for nonpayment of quit-rents; and about 50,000 acres were in that time patented. Three hundred and nine barrels of gunpowder, each of 100 lbs. weight, were received at Fort Charles—“which makes the tonnage of that year, of the ships that came to Kingston harbour, 30,900 tons." Dr. Coke's History of the West Indies, vol. i. p. 213.; vol. ii. pp. 427, 428. Long's Jamaica, vol. i. p. 406.; vol. ii. p. 149. |