Page images
PDF
EPUB

322

IN the year 1823 I was employed as overseer on a sugar plantation on the east coast of the river Demerary, in South America. Early in that year an insurrection broke out amongst the negroes, and the white servants on the estates were assembled at Stabroek, the capital of the colony, embodied into a corps of riflemen, and brigaded in different parts of the country with the regular troops. It so happened that I was stationed with a party of the -th regiment, commanded by Colonel close to the property on which I had for several years resided. I was thereby enabled to be of considerable use to the military authorities on several occasions, from my intimate knowledge of the localities of the neighbourhoo and of the character of the people by whom we were surrounded.

The communications between the plantations on the coast and the town of Stabroek, is kept up by means of small schooners, which carry thither weekly the produce ready for shipping on board the merchantmen in the river, and return laden with coals, provisions, and other necessary supplies. These droghers, as they are called, are manned and commanded by negroes: to be a boat-captain is a situation of great trust and emolument, which is always filled by the best man on each estate. These boat-captains contrive to pick up a good deal of money by carrying letters and passengers, the profits arising from which is their perquisite.

Whenever I had occasion to go to town, I generally gave the preference to a schooner belonging to Plantation Eugenia; she was the fastest boat on the coast, and her commander, Captain Jack, was a smart, active, well-behaved fellow, whose popularity with white and black stood him in good stead; for, whenever it was known that the Eugenia schooner was to sail, the other droghers had but small chance of passengers.

On one unlucky evening, soon after the insurrection broke out, Captain Jack returned from Stabroek, with his boat full of strange negroes, who were cordially welcomed in the negro yard of the Eugenia. That very night the dwelling-house of Mr. Forester, the proprietor of the estate, was attacked, and burnt to the ground, and he himself only escaped at the time, to die shortly afterwards of a fever brought on by the hardships he had been forced to undergo in concealing himself from his quick-sighted enemies. For two days he lay without food or shelter in the cane pieces, exposed to the scorching sun and heavy dews of a tropical climate, and at night waded along the sea-shore, up to his neck in mud and water, until he reached the house of a friend near town, where he expired in a few days. Colonel wished to send notice of this outrage to the officer commanding at Stabroek; and, as Captain Jack's character was above suspicion, he selected him to convey the express to town, and sent a serjeant on horseback to direct him to prepare to weigh immediately.

The man rode to the Eugenia, and went on board the schooner, which was lying high and dry on the sand. There was nobody in charge of her; her sails and rigging were cut to pieces, her rudder burnt, her anchor and chain gone. Captain Jack was nowhere to be found. The serjeant returned to Mahaica post, and made his report. Colonel sent for me. He told me that he was aware I was well acquainted with Jack; and that he was informed a sort of

From the Note-book of a Colonist.

friendship existed between us, if, indeed, in those days, a friendship could be said to exist between a negro and a white man; that I knew his haunts and connections; and that, if anybody could find him, I could. He said that he was now convinced that Jack was implicated in the crime committed on Plantation Eugenia, and that he would give me fifty joes to secure him, dead or alive, before night. At this period the very existence of the colony was in a most critical position: the numerical odds against the whites was as a hundred to one; the negroes equalled us in courage, and surpassed us in animal strength and endurance; on the other hand we were better armed, and possessed that confidence in each other, so essential in the hour of danger. We had also in the colony the regiment which Colonel commanded, and a small detachment of artillery. From circumstances which had occurred during my residence on the east coast, I had acquired such a regard for my friend Jack, that I declare I would sooner have been instrumental in arresting any white man in the colony, with the conviction which I had in this case, that his death would be the inevitable consequence of his apprehension. Still this was no time for a man to swerve from his duty, however painful it might be; horrible atrocities had been committed by the insurgent negroes, and signal must be the punishment inflicted on the perpetrators, whenever they could be discovered. I therefore shouldered my rifle, and sallied forth, determined to do my best to apprehend Jack; not without a hope, however, that his well-known sagacity and activity might render my exertions fruitless.

I had hardly walked half a mile when, at an angle of the road, I came full on the very man of whom I had been sent in quest. I at once sprang forward, and seized him by the throat. His astonishment at this unfriendly greeting from me was so great, that he made no resistance whatever. My uniform showed that I was on duty, and his conscience probably apprized him of the cause of this hostile proceeding on my part.

"Colonel has sent for you, Jack," said I. "I trust you will be able to account for the state in which your boat was found, when he wished you to take his despatches to town."

Jack made no reply, but shook his head mournfully. I motioned to him to walk on before me towards the military post. He did so. Presently he stopped, and turned round. Seeing that I unslung and cocked my rifle, he said,

"Massa Edward, suppose Jack run away, you no shoot him? " "That I most certainly will, Jack. I have been ordered to convey you dead or alive to Mahaica, and dead or alive you shall go thither. I am sorry for you, from the bottom of my heart, for I am sure you have been unwillingly compelled to join in the destruction of Mr. Forester's property."

We soon reached the post, where I delivered over my prisoner to the guard. He was instantly taken before Colonel and several other officers, and I lingered in the guard-room, ostensibly for the purpose of reposing myself, but really to see how my poor friend Jack would fare. After some time had elapsed, I grew tired of waiting, and, shouldering my rifle, was walking out of the gate, when Colonel advanced to the front of the gallery before the officers' apartments, and exclaimed in an angry tone,

"Where the hell are you going to, sir? How dare you leave your prisoner without orders?"

"I thought, colonel, that my duty had been ended when I delivered my prisoner to the guard."

"Did you, by G-d, sir? Remain where you are, and I'll soon convince you of the contrary."

He then returned into the house for a moment, and reappeared followed by the other officers, and by Jack, who walked slowly down the steps towards me, while the colonel and his friends remained leaning over the front of the gallery.

"Now, Sergeant," continued Colonel," place your prisoner on his knees, with his face towards you."

Jack knelt down-not a muscle of his countenance quivered—he was entirely naked, and was a remarkably muscular and well-made He looked like a fine bronze statue. Both he and I knew perfectly well that his life was forfeited, and that he was about to die; but neither of us was prepared for what followed.

man.

"Fall back ten paces," roared Colonel

I obeyed.

"Now shoot your prisoner through the heart."

I was horror-stricken. Well aware that poor Jack's hours were numbered, I had never contemplated the possibility of being compelled myself to become his executioner in cold blood. I knew, moreover, that Colonel had no right to make me carry the sentence of the drum-head court-martial into effect. I was a civilian, a volunteer, aad a non-commissioned officer; and, from the various services which my local knowledge had enabled me to render him, I had no reason to expect such brutal treatment at his hands.

As soon as I could recover from my astonishment and horror, I advanced towards the gallery in order to remonstrate with the colonel. He turned away from me, and called to the officer of the guard to send two men forward. The men stepped out, and at his command cocked their pieces, and levelled them at me. Colonel then said to them,

"I am going to give my orders to that damned mutineer. If he does not obey them instantly, shoot him. Now, Sergeant, make ready-present-fire!"

Jack sprang to his feet, and fell dead on his face. My bullet had pierced his brain.

Colonel tossed the purse containing the reward offered for Jack's apprehension on the ground, close by his dead body, and walked coolly into the house, observing, that until the Volunteers and Bucks formed some idea of military discipline from experience, they would give more trouble than assistance to the regulars.

He lived to see the day when he gladly would have exchanged his whole regiment for a score of our good rifles; yet he lived not long,-for three days after the tragedy which I have here related, he attempted, against the advice of the colonists, to pursue a body of negroes into the bush, with the whole force at Mahaica, unaccompanied either by volunteers or Indians. His men, encumbered by their heavy clothing and accoutrements, exhausted by the heat, and bewildered by the tremendous torrents of rain which flooded the savannahs, fell an easy prey to their naked enemies. Not more than a dozen escaped to tell the tale of their defeat. Colonel K—— received a musketshot which broke his thigh. He fell alive into the hands of his enemies. They had been Captain Jack's comrades and friends, and horribly they avenged his death.

[blocks in formation]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »