“Wonder Slave” Mystified British with Brilliant Strategy
By J. A. ROGERS
Noted Author and International Correspondent.
ON the island of Jamaica lives a people whose history is
as full of courage, daring and romance as any other
heroic group in history. Theirs is but drawn on a
smaller canvas, that is all.
Known as the Maroons, or hog
hunters, they were fugitive slaves,
often but newly brought from Africa.
For one hundred and forty-one years
they resisted all efforts at subjugation
and forced the government to make
terms with them and grant them
what was practically independence.
In their struggle for freedom, the
Maroons had a handicap that few,
if any, of the great heroic groups of
history, like the Spartans, the Swiss,
the Scotch Highlanders, or the
American Colonists, encountered.
They had to capture from the enemy
the weapons with which they fought.
Wholly illiterate, living in the moun
tains, there was no other w'ay to ob
tain arms and ammunition.
All they knew of the maufacture
of arms was the making of bullets,
and even then they were forced to
capture the lead.
Cudjoe Ugly and Misshapen
Of their many leaders, the greatest
was Captain Cudjoe, a wholly un
taught Coromantee. ragged, barefoot
ed into whose stumpy and unshapely
frame there burned the fire of almost
ine haustible energy and in whose
bullet heat there resided all the quali
ties of a great commander. He de
feated the English in every encount
er and there is good reason to believe
that had he been better able to get
supplies, he would have driven them
from the island like another Dessa
lines.
Origin or the Maroons
The incidents leading up to Cap
tain Cudjoe are briefly these:
When the English took Jamaica
from the Spaniards, the latter es
caped to Cuba, leaving their slaves
behind. These slaves fled to the
high mountains and tangled forests
in the interior. Here they were re
inforced by the runaway slaves of
the English.
A good many of these fugitives
were Coromantees, one of the most
war-like of all peoples. Spurning the
taming influence of the religion of
the white man, they held to the wor
ship of their own god, Obi. Later,
the Jamaican slaveholders were
forced to bar their importation.
At first they roved in bands, de
scending on the English settlements
when they needed clothes and ammu
nition, plundering and killing in true
Highlander fashion and dashing back
to their mountain fastnesses, almost
before the alarm could be given.
Head Sent to Governor
Their greatest chief at this period
was St. Juan de Bolas. But after
eight years of warfare, he finally
made terms with the British and was
given a large sum of money and
much land.
The others held out, rejecting all
offers. To each had been promised
a sum of money and 20 acres of land.
But were they not already in poses
sion of some of the finest land of the
island? Besides, they felt that the
word of the slaveholder could not be
trusted. Once yield and it was only
a matter of time when they would be.
slaves again. It may be added that
they had abundant cause for mis
trust.
Finally St. Juan da Bolas was in
duced to lead an expedition against
them, but his forces were cut to
pieces, and his own head sent as a
present to the governor.
After this, the Maroons became
more aggressive. It seemed that
nothing could be done to prevent
their attacks. Mixing with the slaves
in the markets and other places, they
would learn all the movements of the
masters and the best time to strike.
Descending in the dead of night,
and sometimes even in daylight, on
a plantation or a small town, they
would kill all the white persons and
faithful blacks, and after freeing the
others would burn the buildings and
the crops.
For more than twenty years this
went on. Then an incident occurred
that forced the government to make
a concentrated attack on them. The
slaves in one of the parishes had
risen en masse and after a massacre
♦-—
of the white population had joined
the Maroons with a great store of
arms and ammunition, including four
cannon.
It seemed as if the English were
about to be pushed off the island. If
the other slaves followed, nothing
could save them, for they were great
ly outnumbered by blacks.
Cud joe Unites Powerful Maroons .
A powerful expedition now marched
into the mountains, guided by In
dians and faithful slaves and ex
terminated several bands of Maroons.
It was then that they saw the need
for union and readily listened to Cud
joe, who forthwith united all fugitive
♦
THEY FOUGHT LIKE DEMONS
♦
“They Would Kill All the White Persons and Faithful Blacks"
slaves of whatever origin under his
command. As chief aides he had
his brothers, Johnny and Accompong.
They began, in the words of Dallas,
an English writer of those days (His
tory of the Maroons), “a regular and
connected system of warfare and in
their frequent skirmishes with the
troops sent against them, acquired an
art of attack and defense in the
difficult and inaccessible fortresses of
the interior of the island which has
so often foiled the best exertions of
disciplined bravery.
Description of the Maroons
“In their person and carriage,”
continues Dallas, “the Maroons were
erect and lofty, indicating a con
sciousness of superiority. Vigor ap
peared upon their muscles and their
motions displayed ability. Their eyes
“They were seldom surprised. They
communicated with one another by
means of horns, and when these
could scarcely be heaid by other
people, they distinguished the order
the sounds conveyed. It is very re
markable that the Maroons had a
particular call upon the horn for
each individual by which he was
summoned from a distance as easily
as he would have been spoken to had
he been near.”
Add to this the fact that they were
unerring marksmen, the lack of am
munition having made them so.
Cndjoe Wins Decisive Victory
With his band of mountaineers
now nearly a thousand strong, Cud
joe made raid after raid into the
white settlements. In fact, he~"w«
forced to do so, for as long as'li^
English hunted him be was compelled
Captain Lemelia was sent against
him.
Cudjoe Outwits English
Cudjoe, who had heard all about
the proposed attack from his spies
among the slaves, laid plans to out
wit his foes. He sent one of his
most trusted men into the enemy
camp with a false tale of his location.
This information was so plausibly
conveyed to the British commander
that he never suspected the slightest
treachery and gave his men the or
der to march into the mountains,
feeling sure that he would not come
upon Cudjoe until after a certain
date.
But Cudjoe, instead of staying
where Lemelia expected to find him,
came steathily down the mountain to
meet him and took up his position
in a narrow pass flanked by steep
(precipices through which the enemy
I was bound to come.
[Ragged and Misshapen, Cudjoe, Commander of a Stalwart Tribe, Defied
England’s “Crack” Troops to Win Independence for His People.
were quick, wild and fiery, the whites^
of them appearing a little red, owing,
perhaps, to the greenness of the wood
they burned. They possessed most,
if not all, of the senses in a superior
degree. They were accustomed to
discover from habit in the woods
objects which white people of the
best sight could not distinguish, and
their hearing was so wonderfully
quick that it enabled them to elude
their most active pursuers.
“In character, language and man
ners they resembled those Negroes
on the estates of the planters that
were descended from the same race
of Africans, but on closer inspection
displayed a striking distinction in
their personal appearance, being j
blacker, taller, and in every respect, i
handsomer.
►to attack them in order to get the
wherewithal to resist them.
At last, in 1730, the government
made a supreme effort to defeat him.
Settlers were being frightened away
and few could be induced to come
out, all because of a comparative
handful of runaway blacks, which,
once driven into the open, could be
shot down with ease, badly armed
as they were.
It began by building forts and out
posts near the Maroon settlements,
during which time the builders were
ceaselessly harassed by Cudjoe.
Indians from Central America were
brought over in large numbers to
track them down, and a force of
nearly a thousand white and black
soldiers with field pieces under
_____♦
► Here he divided his men into four
parts, and placed one at each point
of the compass, overlooking the pass.
This done, he lay quietly down and
waited for the British to come up.
At last the soldiers came up, drag
ging their cannon, and tired from the
climb. Patiently Cudjoe waited un
til they got into the narrow pass,
then he signalled his men at the en
trance to fire.
A hundred rifles spoke and as many
soldiers fell. Now the enemy turned
quickly in the direction of the shots.
Again Captain Cudjoe gave another
signal and again another volley struck
them down in the rear. And so on,
until they were being attacked from
all sides.
The survivors scurried for shelter,
but all they could see were the puffs
ot smoke bearing death warrants,
and at last abandoning everything
they fled down the mountains in ut
ter rout, leaving the majority of
their companions dead or wounded.
Maroons Leap to Death
Several other expeditions sent
against Cudjoe met with the same
fate. But in spite of these successes,
he was weakening because of his in
ability to get ammunition. In 1734
the English, under Captain Stoddart,
led by a renegade Maroon, surprised
a Maroon camp on one of the high
est peaks of the island, killing near
ly every one. Many of them leaped
to their death from the precipices
rather than surrender.
Upon this Cudjoe decided to re
move his entire following, which in
cluded many women and children,
to another and more populous part
of the island. To cover his retreat,
he posted lone sentinels at the old
camp, whose duty was to discharge
guns and blow horns in order to give
the impression of its being still oc
cupied.
It was several months before the
settlers knew that Captain Cudjoe
was in their vicinity, and they were
to know it in a startling manner for
descending on them he made one of
his biggest raids, returning heavily
laden with loot.
Settlement after settlement was
wiped out. One feature of Maroon
warfare was its ferocity. Indeed this
was characteristic of all combats be
tween whites and blacks in the West
Indies. No .mercy was shown on
either side and the most fiendish
methods of torture were practiced.
Nine years more of ravaged plan
tations and once more the govern
ment decided to make a last des
perate effort to defeat the invinci
ble black leader, and penetrate the
Maroon stronghold at all costs.
Every able-bodied man on the is
land wTas ordered to assemble for the
attack. But the expedition was des
tined not to start. At the height of
the preparations it was asked who
would protect the women and chil
dren if the men went off. The Ja
maican slave could not be trusted
and was ever ready for revolt, while
the faithful slave, as was said, was
the especial object of Maroon hatred
and ferocity.
•>ffcr Peace Terms to Cudjoe
The governor, Sir Edward Trelaw
ney, s*.w that there was but one way
out: to ask Cudjoe to come to terms.
Accordingly, he sent a peace mission
under Colonel Guthrie to offer him
his independence and a large tract of
land.
Cudjoe, on his part, signified his
willingness, and assembling his men
at a s]>ot where, by the rolling down
of rocks it would be easy to wipe out
Guthrie's force, bade the peacemakers
come on.
It is in this manner that Dallas
describes the meeting:
“At this solemn juncture, Col
Guthrie advanced unmolested with
hL troops through situations in which
the Maroons might have greatly
annoyed him even with the large
force he then had under him. Mak
ing, however, the best disposition
of his troop, that the nature of the
ground would permit, he marched
on with confidence, and judging of
the distance he was from the Ma
roons by the sound ot their horns,
he continued advancing til! he
th night he could make them hear
his voice, he then halted, and, ob
Ontlnued on Pare Four