Balcarres:--"The
Maroons wishes nothing else from the country but battle, and they
desires not to see Mr. Craskell up here at all. So they are waiting
every moment for the above on Monday. Mr. David Schaw will see you on
Sunday morning for an answer. They will wait till Monday, nine o'clock,
and if they don't come up, they will come down themselves." Signed,
"Colonel Montagu and all the rest."

It turned out, at last, that only two or three of the Maroons were
concerned in this remarkable defiance; but meanwhile it had its effect.
Several ambassadors were sent among the insurgents, and were so
favorably impressed by their reception as to make up a subscription of
money for their hosts, on departing; only the "gallant Colonel
Gallimore," a Jamaica Camillus, gave iron instead of gold, by throwing
some bullets into the contribution-box. And it was probably in
accordance with his view of the subject, that, when the Maroons sent
ambassadors in return, they were at once imprisoned, most injudiciously
and unjustly; and when Old Montagu himself and thirty-seven others,
following, were seized and imprisoned also, it is not strange that the
Maroons, joined by many slaves, were soon in open insurrection.

Martial law was instantly proclaimed throughout the island. The
fighting-men among the insurgents were not, perhaps, more than five
hundred; against whom the government could bring nearly fifteen hundred
regular troops and several thousand militia-men. Lord Balcarres himself
took the command, and, eager to crush the affair, promptly marched a
large force up to Trelawney Town, and was glad to march back again as
expeditiously as possible. In his very first attack, he was miserably
defeated, and had to fly for his life, amid a perfect panic of the
troops, in which some forty or fifty were killed,--including Colonel
Sandford, commanding the regulars, and the bullet-loving Colonel
Gallimore, in command of the militia,--while not a single Maroon was
even wounded, so far as could be ascertained.

After this a good deal of bush-fighting took place. The troops gradually
got possession of several Maroon villages, but not till every hut had
been burnt by its owner. It was in the height of the rainy season, and,
between fire and water, the discomfort of the soldiers was enormous.
Meanwhile the Maroons hovered close around them in the woods, heard all
their orders, picked off their sentinels, and, penetrating through their
lines at night