Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-12-12
TUESDAY, DECEMBER Il, 1865.
Rar Fer an Morning Edition New


As daylight Is let in upon the recent
events in Jamaica, British misrule and
barbarity are more and more apparent.
According to the best information that
can be obtained, the British authorities
stand convicted Of the most a~trocious
%butcheries ever perpetreted upon an igno-
rant and down-trodden people. A careful
investigation of the case shows that the
rebellion Of which we have heard so
much existed only in the heated imagina-
ton of guilty and cowardly British off
Gers. There is no evidence Of conspiracy
no proof of any design to inaugurate
rebellion but, on the contrary, the out
break at Morant Bay, on the 18th of No
vember, seems to have originated in the
hasty and cruel action of the commander
Of a body of British troops, in ordering
his men to fire upon an assemblage of col
ored men, women and children, who, al
though somewhat boisterous, had not VIC
lated the law or committed any absolute
offence against the peace that this wanton
act caused a riot which was participated
in by some five hundred colored men,
which continued only half a day, and in
which only fifteen lives were destroyed,
and those members of the party who fired
upon the populace. The fight being over,
the rioters, for such they really were, dis
persed, with few exceptions, and the acts
of these were trivial, none of them result
ing in loss of life. For this offence, the
country was secured and indiscriminate
arrests made, and, after arrest, all manner
of torture was applied. Many were shot
down in attempting to escape from their
b%loodthirsty pursuers. Castigation was
resorted to when no proof of participation
in the outbreak could be obtained, and the
~unfortunates who exhibited dissatisfaction
with the proceeding were rewarded with
death on the spot. Two thousand were
executed within a few days, whilst it was
estimated another thousand persisted
at the hands of the military sent
in pursuit of the unfortunate fugitives.
Still the hellish work of vengeance
goes on. Each steamer brings
of blood shed without the slightest
of legal proceedings. All con-
%victions have been at the hands of drum
head courts martial. The Kingston ia
maica) Cleaner announces, in the follow
ing extract, the fact that the wild savages
Of the mountains, known as Maroons, a
race composed of the descendants of the
native Indians and the Africans who in
times past fed from slavery, have been
employed by the British authorities to
hunt down and kill all the fugitive Negroes
they can find:
"This wonderful and loyal people (the
aborigines of Jamaica) have, under Col.
A. G. Fyfe, who led them in the last re-
turned out for the Government to
the mountains of st. Thomas-in-the-
of the rebels who seek shelter in the
natural wildness of their strongholds.
"Their appearance, decorated with their
well-known 'war-paint,' covered with
bushes and twigs of the lignum vita,
struck terror into the hearts of the rebels
At Portland and st. Thomas-in-the-E East.
Where they lay down, nothing was dis
,ernible of the bodies-nothing but the
bush that covered them. In this
way they march without observation, and
n this way they spring like tigers upon
heir prey, who, seeing nothing but a for
st of bushes, imagine themselves secure.
"They are already securing the country
rebels, dragging them from their con-
,ealment, and exterminating thoaa mh-
they ara fnund-- over one hundred
'ebels are reported to have been shot by
he Maroons in this mission already.
AT an execution of the rebels, and
while the dead bodies were hanging as an
Example, the Maroons 1--WE are informed
" Colonel Hunt) assembled around the
where they had a war dance, the
wildness ofwhich was truly grand"
We see no reason why British officers in
shouldemploy the wild men of the
Mountains to destroy the weak victims of
heir wrath. The events of the last few
7eeks prove that British officers r capa-
lie of as savage deeds as even the paint
d Maroons of the mountains, who "spring
Ike tigers on their prey"