ho rewarded him with
freedom for these services.

Upon returning to St. Thomas the Royal Council secured the assistance
of Captain Meaux and his sixty men of the _Nevis_, a vessel lying in
harbor, but he failed to subdue the Negroes, losing two of his sons in
the conflict. The government then sent to Martinique for help. The
governor of that colony promptly despatched a force of 400 men who,
joined by all the available troops from St. Thomas, drove the Negroes
from the fort and, sending out detachments in various directions,
finally forced the insurgents to concentrate on the northeast side of
the island, where they were surrounded. After holding the island six
months, the blacks, finding all chances of escape cut off, resolved
upon self-destruction. "Three hundred," says an historian, "were,
after a few days from the time they were surrounded, found lying dead
at Brim's Bay, now Anna Burg. In a ravine, a short distance off, were
discovered seven others, who appeared to have been leaders in the
insurrection, who had shot each other. Seven guns broken to pieces,
save one, were found lying by their sides. Tradition reports that
three hundred had cast themselves from a high precipice on the rocks
below. The historian Hoest says they were shot and were found lying in
a circle. A few had been taken prisoners. Two of these had been
summarily executed in St. John and twenty-six in St. Thomas, some of
the latter having been made to undergo the severest torture."[374]

The disproportion of the white and black elements of the population
was then brought before the planters as a perplexing problem. In this
unstable state of affairs the islands could not prosper. Many planters
for fear of servile insurrection moved to other islands, as the
situation did not soon become inviting. Captain Peter Tamaryn, of the
Jaeger Corps (the night guard of the town), was ordered by Governor
Jens Kragh to take a census in 1772 of free colored people living in
St. Thomas. It was discovered that there were one hundred and six men
capable of bearing arms; forty-one Catholics, twenty-one Reformed
Dutch, and the rest Moravians and heathen. Among these were eleven
masons, twelve carpenters, ten captains of boats, twenty-nine sailors,
thirteen fishermen, eleven tailors, five shoemakers, one cigar-maker,
one washer, one goldsmith, one musician, two planters and the rest
without occupation. Belonging to the free group were 285 women and
children. In 1773,