Casse, the governor of that island, in person. Accordingly, on the 17th of June 1694, a fleet of three men of war and twenty privateers (having on board 1500 land forces) appeared off Cow-bay, where eight hundred of the soldiers were landed, with orders to desolate the country as far as Port Morant. These barbarians obeyed their instructions to the full extent. They not only set fire to every settlement they came to, but tortured their prisoners in the most shocking manner, and murdered great numbers in cold blood, after making them behold the violation of their wives by their own negroes. Such at least is the account transmitted by Sir William Beeston, the governor, to the secretary of state. Unfortunately, the militia of this part of the country had been drawn off to guard the capital; whereby the French continued their ravages without resistance, and having set fire to all the plantations within their reach, and seized about one thousand negroes, Du Casse sailed to leeward, and anchored in Carlisle Bay, in the parish of Vere. This place had no other fortification than an ill-contrived breast-work, manned by a detachment of two hundred men from the militia of St. Elizabeth and Clarendon, which Du Casse attacked with all his force. The English made a gallant resistance; but colonel Cleyborn, lieutenant colonel Smart, captain Vassal, and lieutenant Dawkins being killed, and many others dangerously wounded, they were compelled to retreat. Happily, at this moment, arrived five companies of militia, which the governor had sent to their assistance from Spanish Town. These, though they had marched thirty miles without refreshment, im mediately charged the enemy with such vigour, as entirely to change the fortune of the day. The French retreated to their ships, and Du Casse soon afterwards returned to Hispaniola with his ill-gotten booty. In 1712, on the 28th of August, and again on the same day of the same month in the year 1722, Jamaica was shaken to its foundations by a dreadful hurricane. This day, therefore, as well as the seventh of June, the colonial legislature has, by an act of assembly, piously set apart for fasting and humiliation, and I wish I could add, that its commemoration annually, is as exemplary among all ranks of people as the occasion was signal. The next important occurrence in the history of this island, was the pacification concluded in 1738, with the hostile negroes called Maroons; but the respite which this treaty afforded the inhabitants from intestine commotion was of short duration. In 1760, the very existence of the colony was endangered by a revolt of the enslaved negroes. As, however, some particulars of this affair will be given in a subsequent part of my work, when I come to treat generally of negro slavery, and of the condition and character of the newly imported Africans, it is unnecessary for me, in this place, to enlarge upon the subject. The co-operation of the people whom I have just mentioned, the Maroons, in suppressing the revolt of 1760, was considered, at the time, in a very favourable point of view; and the safety of the country was attributed in some degree to their services on that occasion; but the writer of this was convinced by his own observations on the spot, that no opinion could be more ill founded: he was persuaded that the Maroons were suspicious allies, and that, whenever they should come to feel their own strength, they would prove very formidable enemies. Recent events have unhappily confirmed the judgment he then formed of them. Soon after the publication of this work, these people began a most unprovoked war against the white inhabitants, which has ended in their total defeat, and the final expulsion of most of them from the island. The circumstances attending this revolt requiring particular discussion, I have accordingly given it full consideration, in a distinct narrative of its origin, progress and termination; to that therefore the reader is referred. The year 1744 was distinguished by another destructive conflict of the elements; and in 1780, after a long respite, began that dreadful succession of hurricanes, which, with the exception of 1782 and 1783, desolated this, and some of the neighbouring islands, for seven years together.* * 1780 hurricane 3d October. 1786.............zoth October. Of the whole series of these awful visitations, the first was undoubtedly the most destructive; but in Jamaica, the sphere of its activity was chiefly confined to the western parts of the island. The large and opulent districts of Westmoreland and Hanover presented, however, such extent and variety of desolation from its effects, as are scarcely to be equalled in the records of human calamity. Westmoreland alone sustained damage to the amount of £.700,000 sterling, and Hanover nearly as much. The sad fate of Savanna la Mar (a small sea-port in the former parish) can never be remembered without horror. The sea bursting its ancient limits, overwhelmed that unhappy town, and swept it to instant destruction, leaving not a vestige of man, beast, or habitation behind; so sudden and comprehensive was the stroke, that I think the catastrophe of Savanna la Mar was even more terrible, in many respects, than that of Port Royal. The latter however, was in its effects more lasting; for to this hour the ruins of that devoted town, though buried for upwards of a century beneath the waves, are visible in clear weather from the boats which sail over them, presenting an awful monument or memorial of the anger of Omnipotence! Dread end of human strength, and human skill, DYER. What has thus frequently happened, will probably happen again; and the insolence of wealth, and the confidence of power, may learn a lesson of humility from the contemplation.† ↑ Mr. Long, in the third volume of his History of Jamaica, has enumerated the following prognostics, as the usual precursors of a hurricane :-" Extraordinary continuance of extreme dry and hot weather. On the near approach of the storm, a turbulent appearance of the sky : the sun becomes unusually red, while the air is perfectly calm. The highest mountains are free of clouds, and are seen very distinctly. The sky towards the north looks black and foul. The sea rolls on the coast and into the harbours with a great swell, and emits, at the same time, a very strong and disagreeable odour. On the full moon, a haze is seen round her orb, and sometimes a halo round the sun." To this enumeration, I will add a remarkable circumstance which happened in Jamaica in 1780. Upwards of twenty hours before the commencement of the great storm in that year, a very uncommon noise, resembling the roar of distant thunder, was heard to issue from the bottom of all the wells in the neighbourhood of Kingston. There was, at that time, in Port Royal harbour, a fleet of merchant ships, which were to sail the next morning. The commander of one of these vessels was a witness to the circumstance I have mentioned; and having been informed that it was one of the prognostics of an approaching hurricane (though none had happened in Jamaica for near forty years) he hastened on board his ship, warped her that evening into the inner harbour into shoal water, and secured her with all the precautions he thought necessary. At day-break the hurricane began, and this ship was one of the very few that escaped destruction from its fury. |