English had become the friends, the protectors of the Pope; thus men without probity, and without virtue, deplored the decay of religion, and the cry of impiety was raifed by thofe whofe days were numbered only by the crimes they had committed, and by the immoral actions which difgraced them. Ye ministers of religion! the conftitution fécures to you the freedom of worship; the government refpects thofe who profefs the doctrines of the gofpel; and the confciences of citizens are a facred afylum into which the eye of its agents does not penetrate: but those who would preach difcord in the name of the God of peace; thofe who would abufe the facred miniftry which they are called to fill, and who would corrupt public opinion by the poifon of fanaticifm; fuch are men to whom the rigour of republican laws extends its feveral punishments-a rigour enjoined both by policy and by respect for religion. Ye numerous patriots, who during three years have groaned under the rod of thofe proud mafters to whom you were fold, while your fighed for the moment in which you might take up arms to vindicate your rights; and above all, ye who, to fecure the happiness of your country, have preferred exile to the fhame of obeying a king; whofe generous devotion to the fervice of your country has overcome all obftacles, has endured all wants, and has braved all dangers-it is your's to give the first example of civic virtue. At the approach of the arms of the Republic, thofe traitors, who had been moft guilty, disappeared; no longer would they tread the ground they had fought to difhonour, without finding death at hand; and fhould any be found to remain in the country, the law will fpeedily overtake them; but in others it behoves you to see mistaken brethren, who, returning to their right reafon, will merit by republican conduct your virtue and your esteem. Be united; forget your divifions, and unanimoufly fwear on the altar of your country, and by the manes of your companions in danger and in glory, who died in battle in defence of the Republic, eternal hatred to royalty. Given at Baftia, the 24th of November, 5th year of the Republic, one and indivifible. SALICETTI BLOOD BLOOD HOUNDS. The following Letters from Earl Balcarras to C. Yorke, Efq. on the Subject of General McLeod's Motion in the House of Commons, relative to the Maroon War, appeared in a Supplement to the Royal Jamaica Gazette. DEAR SIR, To CHARLES YORKE, Esq. No. I. GENERAL M'LEOD, on the authority of a low private letter, has arrogated to himself the right to call me to the bar of the House of Lords. If I ftand charged at the bar of that august tribunal, I prefume it will be at the inftance of all the Commons of Great Britain, not at the pleasure of General M'Leod, who feems to have forgot the primary principles of the British Conftitution. My public character is never prominent; but when contrasted with that of the hon. general, I think it is, at least, a matter of doubt which of us may first appear as a culprit at the bar of that right hon. house. The general has honoured me with the endearing names of friend and fellow-foldier. I dined twice in company with him during my whole life. I am gratified by being claffed as his fellow-foldier; but I lament I never had the good fortune to serve one hour with him in any country. The only circumftance the general, in his kindness and friend fhip, has omitted, is the calling me fellow-citizen. I have the honour to be, &c. &c. BALCARRAS. A Copy of a Letter from the Hon. Major-General Walpole to the Earl Balcarras, dated January 11, 1796, (being the day appointed to carry into execution the Treaty with the Maroons). MY DEAR LORD, I NOW give the matter up; only Smith, Williams, and two boys, are here; I fhall fend them to Falmonth to-morrow. I fuppofe that your lordship will admit them to the terms of the treaty on which they have furrendered. I fear that our baggage negroes will not be here in time for me to move after thefe rafcals in the morning, and that I muft poftpone it till Sunday; in this cafe I fhall endeavour to feduce the Maroons ftill to keep near us. Your lordship fhall hear the refult as foon as poffible; fhould hould any future parley proceed from them, I fhall refer them to your lordship. I have the honour to be, &c. &c. &c. Extract of a Letter from the Hon. Major-general Walpole to the Earl of Balcarras, dated January 5, 1796. THE Spaniards are, I fear, a little out of temper. If they cannot be kept, it would be better to avail ourselves of the breach of the treaty by the Maroons themselves, and move on, as nothing can be clearer than that all treaty would foon terminate, were they off the island. Copy of a Letter from the Right Hon. Earl Balcarras to Major general Campbell, dated Castle Wemyss, January 26, 1796. I HAVE great fatisfaction in announcing to you, that in confequence of orders which I iffued to Major-general Walpole, he moved forwards with a ftrong column of regulars, accompanied by the Spaniards and the dogs. He had only advanced fome hundred yards, when a Maroon delivered a mellage from Johnftone. As we experienced much trifling evafions and infincerity, it was judged expedient to move flowly on, merely taking the precaution of keeping the dogs in the rear of the column. In confequence of this arrangement of the line of march, which I conceive was both firm and temperate, the Maroons, to the number of 260, have furrendered. I have in my poffeffion of Trelaway Maroons upwards of four hundred perfons, of whom I count above 130 men. Some of the young Maroons are still out, but I think we have a clear and happy profpect of extinguishing the embers of this rebellion. DEAR SIR, (Signed) To CHARLES YORKE, Efq. No. I. BALCARRAS. DO the above papers prove thofe crimes and cruelties imputed to me by the hon. general? Do they prove any forwardnefs, on my part, to use these dogs as a dreadful inftrument of war? Is it of any weight, that not a drop of blood was fhed by thofe animals? Thofe Thofe dogs were brought here at the inftance of the General Affembly of Jamaica, who fent one of their own members to procure them, one of their own fhips to convey them, and were at the fole expence. It is moft ftrange that the ufe which the Spaniards made of blood hounds against the Indian inhabitants of the western world, fhould be deemed by the hon. general a cafe parallel to our's; the Spaniards fent them for attack and robbery, against the peaceful proprietors of these countries. This ifland has brought dogs, not blood hounds, for their own defence, and for their own protection, against a banditti who had entered into a most dangerous and ungrateful rebellion. Thefe Maroon favages poffeffed a country the most tremendous, into which no European had ever dared to penetrate. I ferved laft war with eleven nations of Indian favages. Their drefs is not more wild and fantastic than that of the Maroon favage; but the one is a real character-the other an affumed one. . In war a Maroon favage goes through his exercise with his hair plaited, his face befmeared, and his body painted the colour of the ground or foliage. He conceals himfelf; when difcovered, he twifts and turns to avoid his enemy's fire; he throws his arms in the air with wonderful agility; and when a reprefented victim falls, the children rufh forward, and with their knives close the fcene. As it fuits their views, all this is reverfed-They change with their drefs their ferocity-they affume the most mild and most infinuating manners-they defcend from the mountains to the plains, and mix with civilized fociety; the proprietors of estates dare not however refufe them any thing they afk. Looking at the country in a military view, it is this: thofe Maroons poffeffed a diftrict, in the rear of their town, of amazing ftrength; and their policy was fuch as to deter all Europeans from approaching it. This country is in the centre of the island, and is furrounded by plains, which, in the value of their produce and confequential effects, employ forty millions of British capital. To reduce my argument, as I would do a chart by a pentegraph, the power of thofe Maroons was that of a fort on an eminence, which commands the plains below it: that the Maroons understood this, is evident; and the bolder fifter of a bold and noted Maroon, on the first day of the rebellion, took the title of Queen of Montego Bay. In attacking the Maroons in their district, my line of operation was more than twenty miles long, the laft fix miles of which was through tracks and glades, of which the military term defile can give no adequate idea; and, notwithstanding our unremitted exertions, at no time could we bring up a force nearly equal in in number to our enemy. Delay, in my opinion, would have produced as fatal effects, and was as much to be dreaded by us as a defeat. Their skill and ability in planting ambushes made it impoffible to reduce them by ordinary means: our fkill and ability ftarted those ambushes by extraordinary meafures; measures juftified in the eyes of God and man. An inftrument of war is in one cafe fair, and in another unfair. Why do the laws and cuftoms of war authorise a fort to fire red-hot fhot, and deny it to a ship of war? The reafon is obvious; the one is defence, and the other aggreffion. It is upon that principle that I ufed the inftrument in queftion in Jamaica. It is upon that principle that I have refused it in St. Domingo, who offered to reimburse to the island the expence, provided they could get the dogs. I refufed them in the one cafe, becaufe territory was to be acquired. I employed them in the other cafe, becaufe territory is to be maintained by every poffible means that refource can fuggeft. I must be judged by my actions; I défire no fcreen, no fhelter, but the honour of my own mind; but I publicly avow, in the face of the world, that if neceffity had obliged me to ufe thefe dogs, I fhould have had exactly that compunction which you yourfelf might have felt if a murderer had entered your gates, and was torn by your house dog. Let Britain fhed her tears, let the ftrong nerves of Englishmen be unftrung, when I relate, that the decollated head of the brave and gallant Colonel Fitch was found entombed in his own person, and both denied the rites of fepulchre. One of the Moon chiefs, in his civilized ftate, was overfeer on the property of a Mr. Gowdie, who had always been an affectionate and indulgent mafter to him; he came to the house of his benefactor, murdered his nephew, murdered himself, and gave as his reafon, that all the Maroons had taken an oath to kill every white perfon. All our evidence establishes that the Maroons had entered into this obligation. Let this affecting narrative clofe with a melancholy truth, that all the prifoners who fell into their hands were murdered in cold blood, and the fhrieks of fome of the miferable victims were diftinctly heard by their fellowfoldiers; but let this ifland and the empire rejoice, that no barbarity, no act of retaliation, has difgraced the national character of virtue and humanity. I have the honour to remain, very faithfully and fincerely, Jamaica, May 2, 1796. BALCARRAS. VOL. V. In Gg |