Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1865-12-19
From the New York Pos
Brutalities I'm Jamaica.

we nave at lhbJ Inc Ouicldi ISpOtb VI
I Governor Eyre, of Jamaica, concerning
the recent proceedings in that island.
All our information hitherto has come
from the party Of which the Governor
i, il the leader. This report is OF course
from the same side Let US see, then,
what the Governor can say to justify the
10. summary execution of two thousand
'Hl men and women, the fogging of hum
. drads of women. as well as men and
boys, with the tails; the de-
: struction of villages aid 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.
lsture. 2G& 8
The agricultural population of ia
msica alone numbers over four hundred
= thousand souls. Governor Eyre reports
officially thai most serious and alarm
ing Instruction Of the negro population
20 has taken place, and has been attended
With great loss of life and destruction
Z & of property This is grave matter,
and we expect to hear of battles fought
l. with Insurgents, and bands of rebels
pillaging estates and destroying proper
ty all over the island But the Govern
+ or's report disappoints these expecta.
~ tons There is not word on fighting
in the whole document, though there is,
in ell conscience, enough of strategy to
puzzle the entire faculty of military
college. IS" 1t is impossible" he writes,
TO narrate all the various subordinate
s arrangements or movements of the re-
spective military corps in the field, or of
the several detachments sent out from
u them on special service. 1t may suffice
to state generally that large number
I of rebels have been shot with arms in
their hands; that great many prison
ers have been tried and hung, shot, or
logged, and that q considerable number
of prisoners are still on hand awaiting
trial by court martial" l.3
Surely, here must have been at least
"a skirmishl But no. the brave Governor
maintaining all the while that the most
fertile and populous parts of the island
have risen in revolt, and,reporting even
2. a on the authority of one Colonel Hobbs
commanding one battalion of troops less
than two hundred in number - that
there are still thousands of rebels around
him" has the simplicity to add in the
very next sentence, mo stand has ever
been made against the troops" And
~ though they were scattered in squads OF
a dozen and even. half dozen, and
traversed woods as well as plains, not
a single casualty has befallen any oil
our soldiers or sailors, and they are all
in good healthP' Surely, says the London
Daily NeCs, commenting on this report,
"this is the very strangest rebellion ever
Scent And so say we.
e., One of Governor Eyre's first meas
ures, he reports, was "to save the lives
"@ of the ladies and children" But these
appear to have been as safe as the sol
diers themselves; for though the rebel
- lion extended, according to the Govern
or, overia great part of the Island, and
Il though "many persons reported thai
they had seen hundreds, and even thou
sands, of rebels under arms" and though
- the gallant Colonel Hobbs asserted him
Y, self to be surrounded by thousands oil
rebels" the Governor is forced to sd-
NIT. elsswhere. thof mo ladies or chill
-,o dren had been injured" But i'imany
lives and much property have been de
stroyed," he positively asserts. He
ousht to have specified the places and
"a persons. He gives list of whites kill
ed and wounded, but they were all kill
ed and wounded In the FIRST, and, so fsl
as anybody has yet reported. the only
riot--that in the parish OF st. Thomas
in.the-East. According to this oficia
report, as we'll as all other reports from
the same side, the soldiers, acting sun
der the immediate and personal direc
ton of the Governor" as he expressly
saws. have been the only destroyers Of
az life and property They indeed killed
and burned indiscriminately and most
wantonly,- asre 'arrf.,e,rI
Governor Eyre recounts the seizure
and execution of Mr. Gordon-but il
voluntarily gave himself up; he was not
among the rioters, or rebels, but
40 quietly living at Kingston, where nc
signs of rebellion were. SEEM he was
: = dragged out of the jurisdiction of the
civil courts into the district declared &c
bersbeiiious, and was there condemned
3 and summarily hanged cbyl militar5
court on the evidence of letters, which
the Governor, strangely enough, fails tc
produce. 1t appears certain from his
= own account that there has been nc
mora scaudaious murder committed il
this century than that OF Mr. Gordon;
Finally, Governor Eyre reports tina
DIR. Underhilf letter and the underhil
meetings in the island were the moving
causes of this remarkable rebellion, II
- which not soldier has been hurt. Nc
doubt many will wonder why this dread
full DIR. Underhill was not also ARRESTED
and banged. The reason is, ne ilves IL
England, and when, the remainder o
the story is told, the full measure 0
N Governor Eyre's criminality g will bt
Id in
nia aiaewhere: to call it seditious or excit
ing to rebellion is absurd, Il wal
privately, addressed to the British Co
:. 9ionial Secretary; 1t was made public II
Jamaica, not by Underhlll, but by Gov
ernor Eyre himself And the meeting
to which he aseribes the ,repenlon wer'
held in consequence OF his lnsToeuons
e. The London Daily Nea0s Justly oDseTye
4-l that they ought to have been caIeS
.hai eyre meetings" and not ondernii
meetings" But what shall be though
of high officer who thus shamelessil
violates the truth? H.
uofs From the same journal We quote the
following, preferring that it shall be read
in the words Of an Englishman:
sit is puerile to attempt, as the Gov
{ ernor does, to make DR.. Underhll re
sponsible for all the folly talked at all
.Tagtbe meetings which were held in Janai.
Ga after the announcement that the Col
onial Office was inquiring into the con
,dition Of the Island. Black men tall
nonsense just as Huently as white men;
but they can talk sense too. we nave
d report Of one-we believe the hrst-at
thsse meetings to which Governor Eyre
refers. 1t was held at Kingston on tne
Sd Of May last, in the new court house