The Sun.
London, England, 1816-10-26 00:00:00

TllitlJl': F 1 ~(I RED J.lL:i.

A few days ago we noticed the death, at Ja-
maica, of. John Reeder, so celebrated for his
conquest of Three-tinv,ered Jack, on the-27th of
January 17S1. For this exploit, Reeder received
the refit and of one hundred pound, offered by the
Proclamation of Major-General JOHN DALLtNG,
then Governor of the Island, and afterwards had
au annual stipend of twenty-five pounds, which
.was increased of late years to thirty pounds, and
paid tinder the Poll-Tax Law.
Though this subject has been dramatized, and
was well known in all its particulars at the time,
yet there is so much chivalrous interest in the
story, that it will bear repetition even to thoseof
our Readers to whom it dues not bear the charm
of novelty

" Formerly there was on revilar method Of
treating the yaws in the West indies• It was
ilintiOlt to be a disorder that would have its
course, and, if interrupted, that it would be dan-
s" gerous.. It was then the custom, whey a negro
was attacked with it, to separate him from the
rest, and send him to some lonely place by. the
sea-side, to bathe ; or into the mountains, to
• some Piorision-gromul, or Plantain-walk, where
, Ile could act as watchman, und.maintain himself,
without any expenee to the estate, until he was
; then he was brought back to the Sugar-:
work.
" But this rarely happened. A cold, damp,
Smoky hut, for his habitation ; snakes and lizards
his companions ; crude, viscid fond, gild had
water, his only tipport ; anti shunned as a leper;
he usually sunk from the. laud of the living.
" 'But some of these abandoned exiles lived, in
spite of the common- law of nature, und'survived
• general nintation of their muscles, ligaments,
and osteology ; became also hideously white its
the 4 woolly hair rood skin; with their limbs and,
- bodies twisted and turned,• by the force of the
distemper, lobo shocking grotesque figures, re-
. sembling woolly excrescences, or stumps of, trees ;
or old Elgyptian figures, that seem as if they had
. been mode of the ends of the human
flings of the brutal (pm ;* which figures are, by
some antiquaries, taken for gods,. and by others,
for devils..
.16 their banishment, their huts often became
the receptacles of robbers and fugitive negroes;
%Mil, as they had power.
nn to resist any who chose.
'to take shelter in their hovels, they had nothing
toloseolnd Were forsaken by the world ; a tyger
would hardly tnalest them'. Their desperate guests
never did. •

" The host of the hut, FIS he Frew more niis-
limpet', generally became more subtile ; this we
.f,bserve in England; in crooked scrltillinlons per-
; Rs if nature disliked people's being' both

cunning and strong. •
" Many of their wayward visitors were deeply
skilled in magic, and what sve•call the black art,
which they brought with ens front Attica ; and,
fin return for their accommodation,- they usually
-taught their landlOrd the mysteries of sigils,%pells,
and.sorcery ; and illuminated hint in all the oc7
telt science of Obi.*
" These ugly, loathsome creatures thus became
oracles of woods and ttnircytented places; and
,Were resorted to secretly by the wretched ;in
Joint!, and by the utaltelous fur. wicked pur-
,poses.
" Obi, and gambling are tile oniy.instances
have been able to dicover, among the natives of
the negro laud in Africa, in which any effort
:at combining ideas has ever been demonstrated.
"The science of Obi is very extensive.
• "'Obi, for the purposes of bewitching people,
or consuming' them by lingering illness, is made
of grave dirt, hair, teeth of sharks, and other crea-
ture's, blood, feathers; egg shells, images in wax,
the hearts of birds, and some potent roots, weeds,
anti bushes, of
_which Fatropeatis are at. this time
ignorant ; but which were knowo,..,,fur the saute
purposes, to the ancients. , ,
" Certain mixtures of these ingredients are
burnt, or buried very deep in the ground ; or
bung up a chimney ; or laid under the threshold of
the door of the party to suffer; with incantation
longs, or curses, performed at Midnight, regard-
...fug the espects of the 1310011. Th.: party, who
Wants to do the mischief, is also sent to burying-
grounds, or some secret place, which spit its are
aupposed to frequent, to invoke his dead parents
to assist him in the curse.
" A ,negro, who thinks himself betwitebed by
Obi, will apply to an Obi-man, or Obi-woman, for
Ore.
“. These magicians will interrogate the patient,
as to the part of the body most afflicted. This
part they will torture with pinching, drawitti
with gonrtis or calabashes, heatiug, dod pressing.
When the ptient is nearly exhauster! With this
Cough maglietising, Obi bringslott an old ;body
nail, or a piece of hone, or an atis's tooth, or the
jaw-hone of a rat, or a fragment of a (part bottle,
from the part ; and the patient is well the next
d4y.
Thc most wrinkled and molt defeemed Obian
magicians are most venerated. This Was the Case
among the Egytiaus. and Chaldrans.
genee,ll, Obi-inen are more sagacious than

Obi-women in giving or taking aw-ny diseases,
and in the application of poisons. ft is in their
department to blind pigs:and poultry, and lame
C10:1 le.
" It, is the provilice of the Obi-women to dis-
pose of the passions. They sell foul winds for in-
constant ma-doers ; dreams and pliantisies for
icalmisy vexation, • and pen in the heart, for
perfitliontlove; and for the perturbed, impatient,

* " 11113 Obi, or, as is pronounced in the English We-4 In-
dies; ()beak, hail its on like many ciistoms among the
Africans, from the ancient Egyptians.
44 Oh is a demon, a spirit of divination and ntagi::. When,
'4aul wanted to raise up Samuel }roux the deati, he said to his
servants, Seek me is woman (eminent for Oh) that, bath a
familiar spirit.'
His servants replied to him,, 'There is a woman (mis-
tress in the. art of pki Lb it bath a fo tiliar spirit, at Erohir.'
" When tilt \slid) Y.ridoirlantetsi Saul, lie wait, t; her.
• Divine unto pie thy thy witchcraft Oh) by the Is siliar spi-
rit, and bring me him up whom I shalt same MAO thee.'---
Samuel, cbap. V. 7 and 8."

and wretcted; at the tardv acts of time, to turn
in prophetic fury to a futme page 64 the book of
Fate, and amaze the ravished setise of the tempest-
tossed querent.
'' Laws have been made in the West Indies to
punish this Ohian practice with death ; but they
have bad no effect. Laws, constructed in the
West Indies, crick never suppress the effect of ideas,
the origin of which is in the centre of Africa.
" I am; the Ohi of, the famous negro rubber,
Three-fingered Jack, the terror of Jamaica in
1780 and 1781. The Maroons who slew him
brought it to tue.
" His Obi consisted of the end of a goat's
horn, filled with a compound of grave dirt, ashes,
the blood of a black cat, and human fat ; all
mixed into a kind of paste. A black cat's foot,
a dried toad, a pig's tail, a slip of parchment of
kid'a skin, with characters marked in bloOd on it,
wire also in his Obian bag.
" These, with a keen sabre, and two guns,
like Robinson Crusoe, were all his Obi; with
which, and his courage in descending into the
plain's and plundering to snuply his ‘vants, and his
skill in retreating into difficult faitnesses, coin-
imniding the only access to them, where none
dared to follow them, he terrified the inhabitants,
and set the civil power, and the neighbouring mi-
litia of that island, at defiance for two years.
" He had neither accomplice nor associate.—
There were a few runaway negroes in the woods
near Mount Libanus, the place of his rvtevat ;
but he had crossed their foreheads with some of
the magic in his horn, and they could not betray
Out he trusted no one. Ile scorned as-
sistance. He ascended above Spartacus. He
rubbed alone ; fought all his battles alone ; and
always killed his pursuers.
" By his magic, he was not only the dread of
the negroes, but there were many white people
till() believed he was possessed of some superna-
, tura) famer.
" In hot climates,. females marry very young ;
and often with great disparity of age. 'Here Jack
was the author of many troubles; for several
matches proved unhappy.
" Give a dug an ill name, and hang him."

Clamours rose on ciamours. against the cruel
sorcerer ; and every conjugal mishap was laid at
t door of Jnek!sr malitio spell of tying the point
on the wedding day.
'' God knows poor Jack had sins enonh of his
own to carry, Without loading him with the sins
of others. lie would ,goner have made a Metlean
cauldron for the whole island, than disturb one
Lailyschappiness: He had many opportnnitics ;
and, though he had a mortal hatred to white-men,
he was never known to hurt a child, or oboe a
Woman.

" But even Jack himself was born to die.
" Allured by the rewards offeted by Governor
palling, in a Proclamation, dated the 12th of
December, 1780, and by a. resolution which fol-
lowed }loose of, Assembly *, twune-
groeg, named Quashes, and Sala, of Scot's
Hall Maroon-Town, with a party of their towns-
men,. went search of him.
Qoasbee, before be set out on the: expedition,.
got him3elf christened, and changed- his name to
James [John) Reeder.
:14 The expedition commenced ; -and the whole
party had been creeping about in the woods for
three weeks,. and blockading, as it were, the
deepest recesses of the most inneeessible part•ot
the island, where Jark, tar remote from all human
sOciety, resided; but in vain.
" Itceder and Sam, tired with his mode of war,
resolved on proceeding in scald) of his retreat, and
taking him, by storming•it, or perishing in the
attempt.
"They took with them a little buy, a prOper
sphit, and a good shot,, and left the rest of the
party:
" These three, whom I well knew, had not
been long .separated, before their conning eyei
discovered, by impressions among the %reeds and
bushes, that sonic person !Mist have lately been
that way.
" They softly followed these impressions,
making not 'the least noise. Presently they dis-
covered *smoke. •

" They •preriret: for war. They came upon
Jack before he perceived them. Ile 'wits roasting
plautaiiA by a little tire on the ground at the
mouth of a cave.

rd This was a scene, not where ordinary actors
hsd a common part to play.

"-Jack's logics- woe fierce and terrible. He
told them be would kill them.

" Reeder, instead of !booting Jack, replied,
that bi 3 Obi had no po►ti•er to hurt him ; for he
was christened ; and that Ids name was no longer
Qiiast►ee. _ e _ _ _

" Jack knew Reedet ; and, as if paralyzed,
he let his two guns remain on the ground, And
took up only his cutlass.
" These two had a desperate engagement se-
veral years before, in the woods; iu which con-
flict Jack lost the two fingers, which was the
origin of his present name; but Jack then beat
Reeder, and almost killed hint, with several others
wko'asisied him, and they fled front Jack. •
" To do Three-fingered Jack justice, hi would
now have-kilied both Reeder and Sam ; for, at
first, they were frightened at the sight of him,
and the dreadful tc,ne of his voice; and well they
might ; they had besides no retreat, anti were to
grapple with the bravest and strongest man in the
world. -

" But Jack was cowed ,for be had prophesied,
that white Obi would get the better of him and,
from experience, he knew the charm would lose
none of its strength in the hands of Reeder.
" Without fill her paricy, Jack, with Isis cutlass

t tr House of Aaseu►bi,)', 49th December, 1780.

" Resolved, That over and above the reward of one hun-
dred.pounds-oliered by his Alajesly's Proclamation, fur taking
or Lilting the rehelliuus aegru called Three-angered Jack,
the further reward of VI eedom shall be given to any slave
thatt shall take or kill the said Three-fingered Jack, and that
the House will wake good the calm: ut such blare to the pro-
prietor thereof. And if any one of his accomplices will:kill
the said Threc-fingereddack, and bring in his brad and hand
wanting the Angers, such accomplice shall be ,entitled to
hi 6 free Pardon, and ihis_ Freedom as alne, upon due proof
being made of their being the head and hand of the said
Tiirce-fingered jack.
iiy the House,
" SAMUEL HOWELL, Cl. ASSM"

in his hand, ihTCW himself down a precipice at
the hack of the cave.
" Reeder's gnu missed fire. Sam shot him in
the shoulder. Iteedel. anE,lglish
never looked, but, with his cutlass in his baud,
plunged headlong down after Jack. The descent
was about thirty yards, and almost perßendienkr.
'Both of theta had preserved their cutlasses in the
fall.
'' Here Was the stage, on .whiclt two of the
stoutest hearts that , were ever hooped with ribs
began -their bloody struggle.
" The little boy, who was ordered to keep
back, out of harm's way, now reached the top of
the precipice, and, during the tight, shot Jack in
the belly.
" Sam was crafty, and coolly took a round
about way to get to the field of action. When he
arrived at the spot where it began, Jack and
Reeder had closed, and tumbled together down an-
other precipice, on the side of the mountain, in
which fall they both lost their weapons.
" Sam descended after them, who also lost his
cutlass among the trees anti bushes in getting
clown.
" When he came to them, though i bout
weapons, •they were 'not idle ; and, luckily for
Reeder, Jack's wounds were deep and tlcapeume,
and he was in great agony.
" Sam came up just time enough to sarelti.eder,
for Jack had caught him by the throat, with -his
giuto's grasp. !leerier then was, with his right
hand almost cut off, hn.l Jack streaming with
blood' from his shoulder anti belly ; both covered
with gore and gashes.
" In this state Sato was umpire, and decided
the fate of the battle. lie knocked Jack down
with a piece of a rock.
" When the lion fell, the two titers got upon
hint, and beat his, brains out with stones.-
" The little boy soon alter found his' way to
them, He hod a ctulass, with which they cut off
Jack's head and three-fingered hand, and took
them in triumph to Moraot-Bay.
" There they put, their trophies into a pail of
rum ; and, followed by a vast enticoarsa of ue-
groca, itow no longer afraid of Jack's Old, they
carried them to .Kingsion, and Spanish-Town';
and claimed the reward of the King's Proclama-
tion, and the Bouse.of AF.sembly,`•