The Sun. — 1865-12-14 (London, England)

THE EXECUTIONS AT MORANT BAY.  We (Manchester Examiner) have been favoured with the following letter from a youth serving as an engineer on board one of her Majesty's ships on the West India station :  " Port Royal, Nov. 8, 1865.  " My dear parents,—The mail has just come in, but brings me no news from you. I hear that two bags of letters have been left behind at the island of St. Thomas, so I expect that some of your letters are there, andl shall have them by next mail. I had not an opportunity of writing you last mail, for I was sent to do duty in one of our gunboats against the rebellion. I suppose you will hear before this of the rising throughout the island of the negroes against the white people. Our first trip was about 30 miles to Morant Bay, the place where they first broke out, and burned down the court-house, and murdered nearly all the inmates. We saw the blackened walls looking sadly down upon the quiet but beautiful landscapes. I went ashore, and found the prisoners under tents, guarded by soldiers, and waiting to be tried by the drumhead court-martial. Soldiers and volunteers were scouring the country, and bringing the prisoners by the dozen. Two courts were sitOing and trying the prisoners. Very few words were required—such as, Do you know the prisoner ? Yes. Where did you see him ?—Amongst the mob with a stick and bayonet. Death. Others were found with stolen property—death. Some foretelling the outbreak and sharpening their zutlasses— death ; others for entering houses and demanding powder—death ; and so they went on sending them off with a few minutes' trial, all pinioned and strongly guarded till sunset, when they were marched out and hanged in dozens together on the place of the late murders. I went ashore on Oct. 20, and saw 18 of them hanging together. I will try and give you as near as I can what I saw. At the back of the court-house there was a large space, such as you would see at the front of a market house or town hall. The soldiers were drawn up in two rows, with the supposed leader, George William Gordon, standing in the centre with his arms pinioned ; on the left were the prisoners, all pinioned, and headed by the provost-marshal, who held a bundle of papers in his hand—the death-warrants. In the centre of the ruins of the court-house a long tree was put horizontally and resting on tressels. There were 12 ropes hung dangling ready for their victims. On each side of this were two small archways, and over each hung three more ropes. When all had been arranged, the general gave the order to Commence ; the provost-marshal called over the names one by one, followed by the dreadful, ominous word— death. His assistants led each to the fatal rope a prisoner, and pinioned their hands behind their backs. They stood on a rough plank, supported on wooden blocks. Two carts were run under each archway, and three more victims were tied up there on each side, one of them a fine young woman, who had been found battering the head of a man after he was dead. The fatal nooses were all arranged, and silence was called for. About a minute and -all the blocks and carts were drawn out, and 18 distorted corpses hung dangling on the blackened walls of the building to which, only a fortnight before, fire was set, and all who came out murdered. After the execution they commenced flogging others that had been taken, and not being