noise in a dungeon built underground in tbe fort for the purpose of
securing • villinous and desperat blacks.” Governor Johnson was a
remarkably early riser, and at daylight in tbe morning when he
came out in his “ gowne and slippers,” according to custom, to give
the keys to the sergeant of the guard, he was forcibly seized by
Jackson and several others well armed; doubtless they intended
putting him also into the dungeon alive, but, on the Governor
resisting,-three of the party fired at and hit him in the head,
mortally wounding him, but at the same time wounding Jackson in
the arm. Having so far succeeded, the determination and cruelty of
these ruffians became unbounded; they hurriedly disposed of the
wounded Governor by throwing him into the guard house, but m
order to quiet his wife, who had been aroused by the noise, they
permitted her, with the assistance of two negro women, to drag his
body upstairs to her own bedroom. The surgeon whom they had
taken from the dungeon to dress Jackson’s wound, was permitted by
them, after they were well assured of the impossibility of his
recovery, to visit the Governor, who died that night. The next act
of these murderers was to secure all the roadways by which intelligence
might penetrate to the country, all soldiers from the garrison
who came to the fort being cast into the dungeon where they already
had fifty prisoners ; others being sent to spike the guns overlooking
the anchorage, while the ringleaders went into the Governors closet
and brought away all the treasure,, the whole party proceeding with
it on board of a ship named Francis and Mary, then lying in the
roads, taking with them also the Lieutenant-Governor and several
others, who, with the master of the vessel, they retained as their
prisoners for the purpose of exchange, in order to procure the
necessary supplies for their intended voyage. They sent one of their
party on shore to intimate their intention of killing the prisoners
unless their demand was complied with, and so they obtained
provisions, exchanging their prisoners for them, at a spot half way
between the ship and the shore, where they were beyond the range
of the fort guns. Thus did these daring villains carry out their
carefully planned scheme and escape no one knew whither. On
shore a very chaos of excitement succeeded. The Lieutenant-
Governor, Captain Richard Keelinge, took the reins of Government;
but the success of this plot spread the spirit of insubordination
throughout the colony, and he had greatly to exercise his ability to
•keep it in check, not only amongst the European garrison but the
black slaves also. He saw the arrival of an era for decisive action,
and, like the saving of our West Indian possessions and the lives of
the white residents there, through Governor Eyre’s prompt measures,
he also no sooner became aware of a conspiracy on the part of the blacks
to massacre the Europeans, and follow Jackson’s steps, than, without
waiting to ask his honourable masters in England what he should do,
he stamped it out by securing the ringleaders, one of whom was
“ hanged alive in chains on Ladder Hill and starved to death,”
while the other two were also “ hanged but cut down alive, and
their quarters and heads put in some publique crossway for the
publique view of all negros.” Horrible as this was, we must
remember that it happened nearly two centuries ago, when punishments
were ten times as severe as they are now. Such is the change
brought about by civilization, that a man who worries and tears his
wife with a bull dog, is in England at the present time sentenced
by an English magistrate to a few months’ imprisonment only;
while in those days a poor creature who attempted to injure his
master by putting ground glass on the joint of meat served for his
supper, was condemned to be burnt in the presence of all the adult
blacks in the place, each one of them being compelled to bring in a
load of wood to help in burning him.
Governor Keelinge died, after a long illness, in 1697, and was
succeeded by Captain Stephen Poirier, whose government was
unmarked by any particular events. News of the war between
France and England reached them in due time, and defensive steps
were taken; nevertheless two of the Company’s ships were boarded
and cut out of the roadstead by two French two-deckers, which went
in under Dutch colours in broad daylight. As soon as they were
discovered, the Governor gave orders to fire upon them. But alas !
the powder was not at hand, neither would the sponges fit the guns;
and, as he had no Whitworth or Armstrong cannon, the French
ships with their prizes were soon beyond reach. To guard against
another occurrence of this kind, the Company directed th at all ships
approaching the harbour should communicate first by boat with
Bankses, and this was notified to them much in the same manner as
is now the Daily News, one penny, to the British public at the
Metropolitan railway stations; a huge board with large letters,
directing them to “ send a boat,” was placed on Buttermilk Point,