The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-11
The Aurfulk gost.
MONDAY, DECEMBER II, 1866.
THE BRUTALITIES IN JAMAICA
From the New York Post. !

We have at last the official report O
Governor Eyre, of jamaica, concerning
the recent proceedings i'm that island
All our information hitherto has come
from the party of which the Governor
Is the leader. This report is of course
rom the same side. Let us see, then
what the Governor can say to justify thu
summary execution of two Thousand
men and women, the fiogging of hun
dreds of women, as well as men and
boys, with the cat-of-nine tails the de.
stfuction Of villages and houses, and the
seizure and hanging of Mr.. George w.
Gordon, one of the most respectable
planters on the island, former Justice
of the Peace and member of the Legis-
lature.
The agricultural population of Jamai.
ca alone numbers over four hundred
thousand souls. Governor Eyre reports
ofncially that "a most serious and alarm
ing instruction of the negro population
has taken place, and has been attended
with great loss of life and destruction of
property" This is grave matter, and
we expect to read of battles fought with
insurgents and of bands of rebels pl.
Laying estates and destroying property
all over the island. But the Governors
report disapp0ints these expectations.
There is not word of fighting in the
whole dOcument-thOugh there is in all
| conscience enough of strategy to puzzle
the entire faculty of a military college.
1T isimpossible," he writes, "to narrate
all the various subordinate arrangements
or movements of the respective military
corps in the field or of The several de-
tachments sent out from them on spe-
cial service. 1t may suffice to state gen
orally that a large number of rebels have
been shot with arms in their hands,
that great many prisoners have been
tried and hung, shot or logged, and that
a considerable number of prisoners are
still on hand awaiting trial by court
martial" Surely here must have been
at least skrmish But no, the brave
Governor maintaining all the while that
the most fertileand populous parts of the
island have risen in revolt, and report
ing even on the authority of one Colonel
HObbs-commandng a battalion of
troops less than two hundred i'm num-
ber--that "there are still thousands of
rebels around him." has the audacity to
add in the very next sentence, mo
stand has ever been made against the
troops" And though they were scat
tered in squads of dozen and even half
dozen, and traversed woods as well as
plains, not "a single casualty has befalIen
any of our soldiers or sailors, and they
orn oil in, Sl,,r
the London DditX NepS, mmenting
on thisreport, this Is the very strangest
rebellion ever Scent" And so say we
One of Governor Eyre's first measures,
he reports, was ''to save the lives of the
ladies and children" But these appear
to have been as safe as the soldiers them
selves; for though the rebellion extend
ed, according to the Governor, over q
great part of the island, and though
many persons reported that they had
seen hundreds, and even thousands, of
rebels under arms" and though the gal
liant Colonel Hobbs asserted himself to
be surrounded by thousands of rebels"
the Governor is forced to admit, else
where, that mo ladies or children had
been injured" But 'many lives and
much property had been destroyed" he
positively asserts. He ought to have
specified the places and persons. He
gives a list of whites killed and wounded,
but they were all killed and wounded in
the first, and so far as anybody has yet
the only riot-that in the parish
of st. ThOmas-inth e-East. According
to this official report, as well as all other
reports from the same side, the soldiers,
acting "under the immediate and per-
sonal direction of the Governor" as he
says, have been the only de-
stroyers of life and property. They in
deed killed and burned indiscriminately
and most wantonly.
Governor Eyre recOunts the seizure
and execution of Mr.. Gordon-but it
seems Gordon was not seized at all, but
gave himself up; he was not
among the rioters, or "rebels,' but
quietly living at Kingston, where no
signs of rebellion were seen; he was
dragged out of the Jurisdiction of the |
civil courts into the district declared to
be rebellious, and was there condemned
and summariIy hanged by military |
court on the evidence of ''letters' which |
the Governor, strangely enough, fails to
produce! 1t appears certain from his
own account that there has been no
more scandalous murder committed in |
this century than that of Mr.. Gordon.
Finally Governor Eyre reports that
DR.. Underhill's letter and the Under |
hill meetings in the island were the |
moving causes of this remarkable rebell- |
ion, in which not sOldierha been hurt |
No doubt many will wonder why this |
dreadful DIR. Underhill waspot also ar
rested and hanged. The reason is, lie |
lives in England; and when the remain
der of the story is told, the full measure
of Governor Eyre's crimnality will be
seen. The Underhill letter we print
to call it seditious or exciting |
to rebellion is absurd. 1t was privately |
addressed to the British Colonial Score
tary; it was made public in Jamaica, not
by Underhill, but by Governor Eyre
himself! And the meetings to which |
he ascribes the rebellion were held in
of his instructions. The
London Daiiy Nesos justly observes that
thew ought to have been called Eyre
meetinps.u and not "Underhill meet
inps.,' But what shall be thought of a
high officer who thus shamelessly vio-
lates the truth p? IH 81
From the same journal we quote the
following, preferring that it shall be
read in the words of an Englishman:
aft is puerile to attempt, as the Gov
ernor- does, to make DR.. Underhill re,
sponsible for all the folly talked at all
the meetings which were held in Jamaica
after the announcement that the Colo
NAL Office was inquiring into the condi-
ton of the Island. Black men talk
nonsense Just as fiuently as white men;
nj thn,, con talk sense too. We have