an
1000 had suffered death, in consequence of the insurrection, and that
many of their heads had been fixed up on poles in various parts of the
country.
We might easily be more particular in regard to the circumstances of the
insurrection, but our object is chiefly to relate what concerns the
missionary who was accused of having a part in the scheme, and the other
missionaries in the colony. On these points we have to regret that the
information which has yet been received is very scanty and in many
respects indefinite.
The extract which follows is from the Missionary Chronicle, and was
published in the name of the Directors of the London Missionary Society.
The insurrection it should seem, manifested itself first in Mahaica, the
district to the east of that in which Mr. Smith resides. Its appearance
on the Le Ressouvenir estate, where Mr. Smith resides, was on Monday,
the 18th August, in consequence of an order to take into custody two
slaves belonging to an adjoining plantation, whom the negroes of the Le
Ressouvenir, as the prisoners had to pass over it, rose to rescue. Mr.
Smith was at home. He successfully used his endeavours, on perceiving
the tumult, to rescue the manager from the negroes, and continued his
exertions to induce them to return to their duty, till he himself was
driven with violence, and with a weapon held to his body, from the
estate.
Mr. Smith was taken into custody on the evening of the 21st August, and
all his papers seized. He is kept a prisoner in the Colony-house, and
has, since the 24th of August, had a guard stationed over him.
Mr. Elliot, another missionary, who laboured about 20 miles from Mr.
Smith, was also taken into custody, on the ground of disobedience of
orders, "which he had not understood to be such," in visiting Mr. Smith
in his confinement. He was kept about ten days, and then released. No
charge was preferred against him. The estates on which he labours had
been quiet, and none of the negroes under his instructions were
implicated in the rebellion.
In a letter to the Directors of the London Missionary Society, Mr Elliot
writes thus:
Numerous false reports have been sent forth against Mr. Smith, but
assure yourself and all the directors, that whatever reports you may
hear, the only crime the missionaries have committed is their zeal for
the conversion of the negroes. _They have neither been so weak nor so
wicked as to excite the negroes to rebellion._ The missio
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