The Sun.
London, England, 1824-01-02 00:00:00

DEIVERARA.

The Directors have at length the satisfaction of informing the
Members of the Society, that they have received a letter from
Mr. Elliot, dated October 18, enclosing a copy of one written
to the Treasurer on the 2.:ith of Septembei, but detained in the
colony; besides communications from other persons.
The letters of Mr. Elliot assert the innocence of the Mis-
sionaries of all participation whatvirlit the crime of the insur-
rection ; and the Directors entertaii tro aPprehension of ad-
vancing that which they shall have to retract, in saying they
give full credit to the declaration. They will quote the terns
in which the assurances are made to' themselves, convinced
that the manly feelings of conscious integrity which shine
through them, will carry to the bosom of every impartial reader
a conviction of the veracity by which they are dictated.
" Numerous false reports have been sent forth against :lir.
Smith,"—(Mr. Elliot might have added against himself also)—
'` but assure yourself and all the Directors, that whatever
reports you may hear, the only crime that the Missionaries
hays committed is their zeal for the conversion of the Negroes.
They have neither been so weak nor so wicked as to excite the
Negroes to rebellion. The missionaries want justice only ;
they have no favour to ask ; they have nothing to fear. The
missionaries have not degraded their holy calling, nor dis-
honoured the society of which they are members, by sowing the
seeds of rebellion instead of the word of life. The real causes
of the rebellion are far, very far, from being the instructions
given by the missionaries." He adds, " We are not cast down ;
the Lord our God supports us ; and we are persuaded that He
who protected Daniel in the lion's den, will support and pro-
tect us."

The Directors are persuaded that the friends of the Society
will approve of their not making larger quotations from these
communications at present, and that they will accept the brief
statement which they are about to offer, in the confidence
that they will be enabled, ere long,' to present to them a cir-
cumstantial justification of the character and conduct of their
greatly calumniated missionaries.

The statement, brief as it is, will be sufficient to show the
falsehood of the almost innumerable reports which have been
industriously circulated through the kingdom, and indeed
through the World.

Tbe colony of Demerara is divided into the East and West
Coasts by the Demerara river, the former, including Mahaica,
being on its right bank. Mr. Elliot is stationed on the West,
Mr. smith on the East Coast, about 20 miles distant from each
other.

It appears that the instruction: was entirely confined to the
East Coast, so that no commotion whatever took place on the
estates on which Mr. Elliot labours, and not one of the Negroes
under his instruction was implicated in the rebellion.
Mr. Elliot's being taken into custody was therefore owing
only (though he had threatenings given him) to an alleged
c, disobedience of orders," which he had not understood to be
such, in visiting Mr. Smith• at the Colony-house the day
after he was sent thither. After a detention of about 10 days,
during which his papers were all taken from his house, he was
allowed to return home, under an injunction not to interfere
with the trials. No charge was preferred against him ; and
thus are the vehement accusations against all the missionaries
of the. Society within the colony, circulated for several weeks
past throughout the country, reduced to that only against Mr.
smith.

IThe insurrection, it should seem, manifested itself first at
Mahaica, the district to the eastward of that in which Mr.
Smith resides. Its appearance on Le Ressouvenir estate, where
Mr. Smith resides, was on Monday, the 18th August, in conse-
quence of an order to take into custody two slaves belonging
to an adjoiningplantation, whom the Negroes of Le Ressouvenir,
as the prisoners had to pass over it, rose to rescue. Mr. Smith
was at home. He successfully used his endeavours, on per-
ceiving the tumult, to rescue the manager from the Negroes,
and continued his exertions to induce them to return to their
duty, till he himself was driven off with violence, and with a
weapon held to his body, from the estate.
Mr. Smith was taken into custody on the evening of the 21st
of August, and all his papers seized. He is kept a prisoner in
the Colony-house, and has, since the 24th of August, had a
guard stationed over him. Mrs. Smith is not detained as a
prisoner, but does not avail herself of her liberty, lest, on leav-
ing her husband, she might be refused access w him again. After
the 22d of August, Mr. Elliot had no communication with him.
Mr. Smith was on. Monday, the 13th of October, brought to
trial before a Court-martial, the legality of which proceeding is
greatly doubted in this country. The public papers have stated
four charges as forming the indictment against him, but of their
accuracy the Directors are not enabled to judge. They trust
that, under the direction of Divine PrOvidence, he has been
able to prove himself Oldest: of th'em all.
It is not, however. to be concealed, that he will have had
much to contend with from the violence of public prejudice in
the colony, and it is to be feared from the false assertions of
some of the unhappy Negroes, whom the hope of favour towards
themselves may have led to bring against him " things that he
knew not." Indeed the Directors are informed, upon autho-
rity on which they can rely, that some of the condemned
Negroes, finding the hone of lice taken away, had in the most
solemn manner declarer that they had been induced so to act,
and that others, on -ming questioned whether they had not
been incited to rebellion by Mr. Smith, had in the strongest
terms which their b-,oken language could supply, denied the
imputation. It is stated by the writer of one letter, that he his
often heard charges circulated against the Missionaries, as if
spoken by the Ne ;roes at the time of their execution, which he
knew (for he was' a near spectator) that they never had uttered.
The issue of Mr. Smith's trial is not yet known in England ;
but it is stated in the public papers, that by a vessel arrived at
one of the out-ports, letters have been received of the date of
the 27th of October, which mention that, the evidence for the
prosecution closed on the 25th October, and that the Court
would meet on the Ist November to proceed on the defence.
While waiting for the decision, the Directors are much griev-
ed in knowing that the health of Mr. S. has for some time been
in a dangerous state, and that his physician had just before the
insurrection broke out, advised him to take a voyage to England,
as the best means of recovery. The Directors have written
to him, recommending his compliance with this advice as soon
circumstances will allow him so to do, which it may be hoped
will be the case ere long.
The Directors have received letters from Mr. Davies, dated
the 15th and 18th October. He arrived with his family in
Demerara on the 11th of that month, through the divine good-
ness, in health and safety. Under the shock which the state
of affairs occasioned, he had the happiness to find his own con-
gregation enjoying tranquility, and that not one of the Negroes
who attend his ministry took any part in the insurrection. He
speaks of the kindness with which the Governor received him,
and states that he was allowed to preach as before.,