uddenly upon the overseer while he was at
supper with some friends, and massacred the whole company. They were
immediately joined by others, and commenced a career of plundering and
burning all the plantations in the neighbourhood. Business in the island
was at once suspended, martial law proclaimed, and every white man
called out to assist in putting down the revolt. The negroes, however,
tried to avoid an open conflict, trusting to hide in the forest, where,
however, a large body was discovered and defeated. The maroons had been
sent for, but did not arrive until this action had taken place, when
they were sent in pursuit of the flying rebels. This they pretended to
do, and in a few days returned with a collection of ears which they said
had been taken from those whom they had slain, and for which they were
paid. The story was found out afterwards to have been a falsehood, as
instead of pursuing the fugitives they had simply cut off the ears of
those who had been slain before they arrived. This led the authorities
to think the maroons in league with the revolted slaves and afterwards
to look upon them with distrust. However, by the aid of a body of free
negroes, the rebels were at last captured, to be punished in the cruel
manner so characteristic of the time. Some were burnt, some hung alive
on gibbets, and about six hundred transported to the Bay of Honduras.
Two were hung alive on the parade at Kingston, one to linger for seven
days and the other for nine, during which time it was said "they behaved
with a degree of hardened insolence and brutal insensibility." In the
course of the whole insurrection about sixty whites and four hundred
negroes were killed, and damage done to the amount of one hundred
thousand pounds.

In 1736 a slave revolt took place at Antigua, or rather it was
discovered and anticipated. Five negroes were broken on the wheel, six
hung in chains and starved to death, one of whom lived for nine days and
eight nights, fifty-eight were burnt at the stake, and about a hundred
and thirty imprisoned. These horrible punishments were intended as a
warning to the others, and no doubt they had such an effect on that
generation.

Few of the early insurrections met with any success, notwithstanding
that the negroes largely outnumbered the whites in every colony. At the
most the blacks had a few days' liberty to murder, burn, and pillage,
after which came the terrible retribution. There was, however, one
co