ing 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