Jamaica Papers.
The Times, 1824-12-28T00:00:00

E - -uuuac 01 nrtiemiroiy iaving imet oin Tuesday, agreeably to the proclamation at' his -race the Governor, Sir Ali- chael B. Clare and Al r. Lunan were appointed a committee to ac- quaint his Grace therewith. Soon after thieir return, a message was sent from his Grace, by the Provost Marshal, requiring the iitrnedi- ate attendance of the House in the Council Chamber; whereupon AIr. Speaker and the whole House went over, when his Grace was pleased to open the session with the tbllowing speech :_ " Gentlemen of the Council, Air. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Assembly,-The ur41imited con1fidence I have always reposed in the loyalty and fidelity of the lower classes of society in this island, ren. tiers it more painful to me to acquaint you, that since your last meet. irng partial disturbances have taken place amongst the slaves in several parishes, attended in some instances by acts of open rebelion. " It appears, from the declaration of'the principal offenders. miiade at a timc when there could be no reason to doubt their sincerity, that they had been led to believe His il ajesty mad made them free-a de- lusion which even his Majesty's Royal Proclamation, containing the mest distinct aud positive assurance to the contrary, seems not to have removed. Deeply as these events are to be lamnented, it is a eonsolation to reflect that the great mass of the slave population has continued to preserve that peaceable and orderly demeanour to wlhich I have so often borne testimony, and their good sensehastauglht them to avoid those tatal errors which have brought destruction on many unhappy indlividuals.- " I have received instruetions from his Majesty's Government, containilng some propositions for the improvement of the conditionr ol the slave poptilanon, which 1-shall make the subject of an &iarly cootmunicatnon to you. " I am also to acquaint vou, that His Majesty has been graciously pleased to appoint a Bishop for this island, to whom In to be in. trustet the control of the cergy of the Church of England within his diocess, and thie duty of reporting upon the state of the Ecclesi. astical establishment, particularly as it relatea to the slave-popula. tion, and upon the best means of diffusing the benefits of religious instruction to that Isart of the community. " In order to prove the deep interestwhich his Miajestv's Govern. ment feel in the encouragement of the religious and moral instruc. tion of the negroes, they have taken upon themselves the whole charge of putting the clergy under epi,copal control, and have placed funds at thle disposal of tbe Bishop oat the moore immediate supply of persona in holy orders within hia discess; and His la.. jesty confidently expects-to receive every assistance from you in pro. moting the establishment of a system calculated to producethe most belleficial effects. " The Lords Commissioners of His Alajesty's Treasury have had under consideration the heavy charges to which the navigation and commerce of the United Kingdonm are liable in His Mlajesty's co. lonies, with a view of reducing as much as possible all such charges ; and I expect to have it in my power to communicate to you more conclusive informnation on the subject in the course of the present month. " Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Asgexgbly,-I arapersuaded that you will cheerfully furnish such supplies as the public service may reqaire. " Gentlemen of the Council, Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Assembly,-I am not aware of any business tlsat can detain you longer than has been usual, and you will find me perfectly disposed to mneet ail your wishes as far as may be consistent with my duty." [From the Coruwall Coznrer of Nov. 3. ] In our last we bridfly noticed the disastrous issue of a small armed party, which hadl proceeded on the 25th ult. Into the back grounds of this parish, In pursuit of ruiThway negroes. The followinj are the authentic particulars wa have since been enabled to eollect from va- rious sources, of the total failure of the expeaItion:_ Early on Tuesday morning a party composed of tiwenty.fv.ur armed whites and confidential slaves, with ten baggage negroes, pro. ceeded from Pembroke estate, and at eleven o'clock reached the pro. visaon mountain belonging to that property, distant about 12 miles to she southward; aftet restiSg there ashort time,-the party pursued their route for the rendezvous of the banditti of runaways; suppased to he about six miles distant from the mountain, and had traversed nearly an hour over a inounteinous .nd rocky way, when in a nar. rowi pos, through which they coulld only advance in a single file, they were flred-o ft01riaois1ni Aih. StithWimid, the overseer of Pembroke cstaiewho tAd,lee pinmanidf,.and was'l'eidin the patty was -mortally onpde y AP ot q' d 'slot Jifid feU' fi'e remainder ierm panc.struct3, gria toolkiodflt s7 '-Galliioic,a book.keeper df aii W 'AX k'qwdindedf nnd,'asairintel. likehee has sinee been received ofihima, t-Iig conjectured, that he-has died of his wounds in the wois pr4flIeninso-ihe hands of the ruttaway negroeu. An armeP lneyro belonging to Good Hope estate was also wounded dangerousl. The' shatsiefhl flight of the party put into the ptissesiston of the runawvays about 15 stand of arns, -and a quantity-of ammunition, wbich werethrown away toaccelerate their retreat, wa 'It Is much te be regretted ihat the degree of caution and secrecy so essentiaUy reqiiisite in ulindritaking of thits nature was not ob. - scrvd,-and from the iant- of which-its failure is, no doubt, to be at. tributed: the whole of' the arrangeinents were made at least a week previous to -the party Setting out, and with which, the melancholy re- stlt too plainly shows, the runaways were duly apprized. There is reason to belIeve that the shots fired by the party in am- bush did not exceed -10 or 12; but no idea can be formed of the number of the banditti, as notone of sheni was seen. On }Wednesday last a meeting of the magistrates was held in this town, when a reward of 150 tlollers each was ofrered for the ap- prehension of certain. slaves; and an express was sent to Captain Smith, of Accompon Town, requiring the assistance of the Ma- roone. On Friday, six comnpanieo of the Trelawny militia assetu- bled at Dromilly estate, fromn which 120 effective men, rank and file, weredraughted,andproceeded on Sunday Ymorning into the woods,un- der the commiand of Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, who took up his post for that day at flampden motintain, about six miles to the southward of Drornilly, where he was jbined in the afternoon by Captain Smith with, 65 M1aroons. At day-light on Mlonday, theforce, consting of nearly 270 men, Including baggage negroes and pioneers, tnoved in- to thle Woods. Our latest intelligence from Hamapden.inountain Is up to five o'clock yesterday atternoon, at which time no accounts had been heardof the party, rince it had left that post at day-light on Monday. [From the Cornrwall Gazette.] The following ie a brief narrative by one of the party that proceed- ed under tihe charge oftlr. Sutherland, to the back grottnds in search of the runaway neprroea, belonging to Pembroke and other estates:- " Mir. Sutherland, overseer, left Pembroke-estate, with a arty of It whites, overseers and bookkeepers of adjoining propertie,--ac. companied by about 12black shots, a little after day-light on Tueb- day morning.- After reaching the Covey.estate watchman's hut, the botses were returned to the respective estates to which thej'belonged. Here they loaded theirguni, and Alr. Sutlierland put himself at the head of the party, andi tahing the man Sambo (the runawayguide) immediately after him, he gave directions that every white shiould Placehimself behind one of the black shot, In w[itch manner ye ad- vanced to the Pembroke negrogrounds and there took refreskment. After whichl we.-re.ssFnb_ed, and Alr. Stitherland expressed a wish - to lbavesoane oflsthe best.ilack shoiis next hitself, when the narrator oftered te act near him, but thig was opposed by two brown men, who seemed teilacious of their posts, and the narrator retired to his former .statioia. MTe ,party then proceedle(l, in the greatest re- gularity and ilence,tbr;, nearly three niiils, when a negro said, 'SofiJy 5-Ifass, p igagement da conic!' Immediately after which, .e- vera) o?tbe negroes saitl they. sinelire, or smoke, which was strongly -ind:cntine<f-their ambush being~ at]band. At this mtoment tle party Was at the- bqttani a gratj,si arceuit, quit9- Ceat of bush or under- woodj -uvhickiy ro^ks. The party as- cended [n listliafee b of twogoing abreast, 'and the first-had. nearly regihed the summit wheniniddenly a ' hur- rah vas heard, and (very distinctly) 'edolamatlons ot"' We Hlave gun -as well ar, Bukra,' Immuediatel aftei. tiis fihe' fiked, when our party-fell bark in confusion; 4ntiihoe behide found it difficult to Ceep their footing. P9Qt an Individualoftlie runaways, in close am- busn, wasseen by the djarra:or.; bdt It is evident from theirelevated hituation to that of the iiariy, 'that had further teinerity been dis- played on the occasion, not a soul would have been- left to tell the tale. A galling fire couild haive beeikept up without the amallest hope of retallation, or of taking one'of them: to add to the strength of this oruinion, ~nnr:unately, several of the negroes of the party wrere totalUy unacquainted with thse ie oftire.arms. Mr. Sutherland had -been mortally wrounded by the first shot previous to the confu- sion, and a negro belongirg to-the Good liope estate waswounded. Nr. tallimore is nos missing, and It is ecarcely probable that he can (From the.Kinsiton Chroniele of Nov. 15.) ST. JAG.O DE LA VEGA, Nov. 13. The honouiable the House of Assembly adjourned to Tuesgay. Its proceedinga generally will be found under its own head. On Thursday, a message from his Grace, accompanied -by the Trinidad order in. council, was sent ever to the house,_both documents, no doubt, framed in England. Candd 'aad plain as the first is, we lhardly expected that thie sentimenta we publishied two weeks ago would have been there)y so eompletely justifted. We then said, i that Government expects in some slapt or other? they (the Assem- bly) will in fature legislate witbh a view to the ultimate extinction of the property of thei 'constituents ;" the hiessage observes,- that " en attenttvely.corisidering the provisions of the order in eouncil, &c., and -by - -incorpotating in tihe cous'olidated slave-act those additional- provisioni, which as yet are not to- be found in that statute, a foundation vwill be laid-''for suci a sYstera of gradual - improvement," - &c. So that, should our Assembly adopt every iota of thi's abrurd and impracticable order, a foundation only will be laid for what is to come, and if-our readers will only alter the wordl improvement into emancipation, they will then know vrhat Is intended for them. Under such circumstances, we nust consider that the most important duty our Assembly hat to perform is to frame.such regulations as may be bdst calculated te preserve' the lives and -properties of their constituents, and, that, from this mo- ment, they should never cease in their applications to the throne for indemniiication, until they obtain that 'great national act of justice. Our reprecentatives will, we have no doubt, act- with temper and firmness during tfsia momentous crisis of our fate; and while they decidedly reject- every proposal that may be attended with danger, they viltl cheerfully and proa,ptly adopt such measures as may ap- pear to be safe ant salutary. [Prom the Coa-rant of November 9.] The following was received by express yesterday from the norLh side :-We have this moment received the pleasinzg intelligence that a skirmish has taken plaee between Lhe Mlilitia an Xlaroons and the runaways, and that twoof the latter have been killed: one of them fsupposed to be their chief: their township consisted of fifteen com- fortable lhouses. SAINT JAGO, Nov. 6. By the Fan Fan we haye received letters and newspapers to the 18th ult. On the 6tlh ult. fourteen vessels arrived fromn Guayaquil at Panae. ma, to transpart the five thousand men which compose the divisions of Venezuela and Magdalena. The same day they sailed from Guayaquil, news arrived that the Spanisht mnan of war Asia, andl brig AIeYicuk, had entered the port of Callao from Cadiz. This tardy and inconsequent assistance has arrived out of time, as the greatest part of Peru is In possession of the Colombians. A Bogota paper, of the 7tb of October ( Thte (Conistitulional), re- ceived by the Jamaica mall, contains an accaunt of the reception at Begota of the Comnmissioner from the King of the Netherlands,a M. de Quartel, whose address to the Vice-President was marked by the most liberal and friendly language towards the Colombian Republic. M. de Quartel stated, that the object of his minission was "to remove all doubts, sheuld any exist, of his (Sovereign's) anxiety to be on the same footing vith this republic as Great Britain-a nation in every respect worthy of our esteem." He added the following expres.- aions :-" Your Excellency will allow me, in virtue of thecharacter with which I am Invested, (o intrude on yoRr politeness so far as to request you will assure his Excellency the President of the Republic of Colomnbia, the hero of thle Southern Contintent of Amcrica, of my high esteem for his person, and that I arm in hopes of one day seeing him. It is always a sourtce of pleasure to a mnilitarv mran to becomc acquainted vwith the manar who by his taclents and valour has broken I thle chains ot his couatrymen, and tauglht them the sacred righte of nwan. "Your Excellency may feel assured that I shall give a faitlful detail of what I have seen here to my Government; wlhich cannot fiail to be productive of an increae of confidence on their part In your priciples, and a positive proof to thena that anarchy its far distant from these re6ions." M. do Quartel added a hope that Colombia may poon enjoy a trantquilliy "equal to thau.t of Palestine, under the refgn of the wise The Vice-President replied, that he felt the liveliest satisfaction at receiving the assurances ofthe good dispositions of his Bfajesty the King of the Low Countries, &e. &c., the worthy descendant of a Prince who had given the hrst practical example in modern history of resistance to 5panish tyranny and oppressien, towards the Govern. mernt and people of Colombia; that the spirit and desire of Colombia w7as to maintain friendly and mercantile relations with all the nations of the earth." The Condiitional also publishes the following official letter, presented to the Government by Colone l Hamilten : (Translation from the Spanish). " Foreigsp Office, Oct. 10, 1824.G " Sir,-His Mlajesty the King of the United :Iindom of Great isitain and Ireland having determined to ndopt such measurea as may eventually lead io the establishment of ftlendly relationo witn the Government of Colombia, has appointed Colonel Hamilton, Lieut.-Colonel Campbell, and James Henderson, his confidentiai agents to execute thisimpoitant mission. " Colonel Hamilton, who In at the head of the commission, will deliver to your Excellency this letter; auid I have to requeat that credit mav be given by the Govemment of Colombia to what he may represent in the name of His Majesty. " I have the honour to be. Sir, "Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant " GEORGE CANN?NG. "To his Excelleney the Secretary of the Government of Colombia." * This Is evidently a mistake for 1823. JAMAICA PAPERS. SAINT JAGO DE LA VEGA, Nov. 6.