The Express.
London, England, 1866-03-30 00:00:00

g 4

deface meat
which was given by his mother, was that hit was
going to bathe, or was bathing, and that siDeing 1
the withers be ran either towards or into the sea
—(the evidense upon this point was not very clear),
—but was fired upon and killed. This seems to
be the same ease as that mentioned by Lieutenant
Errington, in which a young man was shot while
swimming out to a boat in which some jewellery
was afterwards found. The presence of the jewel-
lery could hardly have justified the killing of the
lad, as it was entirely unknown to those who fired
at him. The most entirely unjustifiable, or, at all
events, unexplained acts of violence, appear to
have been committed by men who either were, or
ought to have been, under the command of
Captain Hole. There was no evidence that
that officer was himself present on any
of the occasions which were spoken to by the wit-
names, and as when under examination be admitted
that on more than one occasion men broke away
from the ranks and ranged through the country
without order or control, some of these things
may well have happened without his knowledge.
Mr. Christopher Codrington, who was at the time
of the disturbance a magistrate, but whose name
has since been removed from the commission of the
peace in consequence of excesses which be then
committed, stated that while he was with Captain
Hole's detachment two rebels were shot on the road
in his presence, and he saw the bodies of four other
men who bad been killed by the advanced guard.
Every house was burned in which it was reported
that stolen goods had been found. On one am-
nion, while a man named Johnson Speed was
being flogged the oat broke, and a soldier who
was present immediately shot him. He saw about
25 women' flogged. The most extraordinary case of
all was one which I think I mentioned in one of
my previous letters, but which at that time I could
hardly believe had really occurred. Now, however,
it seems to be established beyond dispute. Thomas
WlC.sy, a constable who was examined before Mr.
Gurney, stated that he and two other constables
named John Richardson and Evan Bryan, were
by the orders of Mr. James Codrington taking
four prisoners to Manchioneal, when a black sol-
dier, who had previously killed a bullupon the road
met them, and shot the four men right
off, The witness was naturally asked by
Mr. Gurney, why he and his fellow officers
permitted the soldier to commit this murder, and
his reply was a good indication of the terror in
which the black troops were held by the inhabitants
of the district through which they passed. " Sir,"
said he, " if you had been there you could not
have stopped the soldier shooting you." Evan
Bryan was the man who first mentioned this story,
not omitting the death of the bull, to which, as it
was an unusually fine one, he seemed to attach
more importance than to the murder of the pri-
soners ; but the contradictions in which he involved
himself in order to conceal that he wasPrimeelf one
of the officers who was responsible for their safety
cast considerable doubt upon the truth of
the tale which he was telling. Not satisfied
with what he bad already done, this sol-
dier, who must, I suppose, have been one of
Colonel Hole's stragglers, further distinguished
himself by a similar murder of five other persons
at Long Bay. Mr. David Mein, a storekeeper at
that place, stated at Marehmount that about the
18th October a black soldier—no doubt the one
already mentioned, for some hints of this occur-
rence too were originally dropped by Bryan—
shot Joseph Berry, James Williams, James Minott,
and two others, in front of his shop. There were
plenty of constables there, and Mr. James Cod-
rington, a magistrate, was also present In-
deed, he told the soldier that he should
have some constables to help him to take
these prisoners to Port Antonio, but the man
replied, "lam to take no prisoners there. lam I
ordered to shoot all I see." Mr. James Cod-
rington himself was examined, and admitted the ,
truth of this statement. This is certainly the most
hideous case that has been brought to the notice of
the commissioners, and after hearing or reading the
details of this horrid butchery, one can feel but a
trivial interest in the further statement made by
Mr. Codrington, significant as it was in itself, that
although Captain Hole ordered the soldiers only to
burn houses in which stolen goods were found, they
went mad and burned all.

The officers who were principally responsible for,
or most actively concerned in, the measures adopted
for the suppression of the disturbances have been
examined since I wrote hat, and I shall endeavour
to give you a fair representation of their account of
their several proceedings.
. . .

Major-General O'Connor described the receipt of
the intelligence of the disturbances at Morant Bay,
and the arrangements which he made in conse-
quence of the requisitions for troops which were ad-
dressed to him by the Governor. For some days
there were various alarming reports current in
Kingston. On the 15th October it was said that
the town was to be fired, and on the 17th, that all
the white inhabitants were to be murdered. In
order to show his otter contempt for the rumours
which were afloat he, on the 15th, went to church
in state, and found that the usually large congre-
gation had shrunk to one of only about twenty per-
sons. On Saturday, the 14th, volunteers and
pensioners were, at his instance, enrolled for the
protection of Kingston. The military force at
his disposal on that dsy was :—At Kingston
none ; at Up Park Camp, 160 men ; at
Newcastle, 89 ; and at Port Royal, 20; total,
269. His reasons for selecting Colonel Nelson, de-
puty adjutant-general, to accompany the Governor
to Morant Bay, were that he was a very expe-
rienced officer, who had been 30 years in the ser
vice, bad served under men of some distinction, as
Sir William Nott, Lord Gough, and Sir Charles
Napier, and was a man of cool and calm judgment,
who was competent to advise and assist his Ex-
cellency. He gave no instructions to Colonel
Nelson, but left him to conduct the field operations
according to his own judgment and the circum-
stances which might arise. He gave no instruc-
tions to any other officer, except to Colonel Hobbs,
to whom he wrote on the 20th October :
I instructed Elkington, acting deputy.
aijatant-general to order you to make timidity& your
headquarters fee some time--seediog out parties in various
directions to scour the adjacent country, and capture any
rebels they may discover. lam muck pleased by your
adopting a decided course with regard to captured rebels
the men you %hare sent into camp as mere suspicion or
vague charges have caused some embarrassment. One of
two courses glens, to me under martial law to be the rule
hr your conduct, if on careful iaveatigatlos the captured
peewee are taneeset (always give them the advantage of a
dna%) than release therm ; but if guilty, and taken " red.
hutted." summary jostles and executios of the mestere°.
On the 16th October he bad given General Nelson
the following memorandum as to the burning of
houses :
lba inajorreeral would like you Is •to.torotal &boat
ineisTsllooot, and sot to dos
,wilhoute is elm the
bore joisod lasursesia.' IS" =krises.
seethe you so burtrodisnis; sad I,ves al; is 'varied&
Jens, Iddridier; gx ,
* ire, saw the proeseilingr YE Ay. tat.' the
eisetwasztioil, escape tied if Gesilow,