first,
until the roof gave way in two places and separated them. The middle
portion has a lofty arch, and might be formed into two spacious
apartments; its length is not many fathoms, but the third portion, though
less spacious, runs in a winding course of several hundred yards. From
being unprovided with torches we did not pass the whole length of this
third cavern; but at the two extremities, and as far within as could be
distinguished, the roof admitted of standing upright, and the breadth was
eight or ten yards from side to side.

About thirty years before, this part of the Plains de St. Pierre had been
covered with wood, and the caverns inhabited by a set of maroon negroes,
whose depredations and murders spread consternation in the neighbourhood.
Their main retreat in the third cavern was discovered by a man whom they
had left for dead; but having watched them to their haunt, he gave
information to the officers of justice, and troops were sent to take
them. After securing the further outlet, the soldiers crept to the
principal entrance, near which the maroons kept a sentinel with loaded
musket in the top of a tree; he was found nodding on his post, and having
shot him they rushed in a body to the mouth of the cavern. The poor
wretches within started from their beds, for they slept in the day time,
and flew to arms; a skirmish ensued, in which another of them was killed
and two soldiers wounded; but at length, finding their retreat cut off,
the sentinel, who happened to be their captain and chief instigator,
killed, and the force opposed to them too great to be overcome, they
yielded themselves prisoners to the number of fifty-one; and were marched
off, with their hands tied, to head quarters, to the great joy of the
district. Besides arms and a small quantity of ammunition, there was
little else found in the cavern than a bag of dollars, a case of wine,
some pieces of cloth, a slaughtered goat, and a small provision of maize
not more than enough for one day. The skull of their captain, who was
said to be possessed of much cunning and audacity, was at this time lying
upon a stone at the entrance of the cavern; and for narrowness of front
and large extent at the back part of the head, was the most singularly
formed cranium I ever saw. Little oblong inclosures, formed with small
stones by the sides of the cavern, once the sleeping places of these
wretches, also existed, nearly in the state they had been left; owing
a