talk to those people, to persuade them to return to their work, and lay down their arms. I was conducted to the party assembled on the night, by some man, who promised nothing should occur to me; after conversing with that party, they accompanied me to the party assembled this side Bachelor's Adventure. The negroes spoke differently as to what they wanted; some wanted three days, and the Sunday to go to church; some wanted two days, and the Sunday to go to church; some said they wanted their freedom; and some wanted to

tie me up. I explained to them, that I would use my endeavours with General Murray, to get them part of Saturday, and to go to church, but that first they should lay down their arms. Farther, some of them said, that when they did ask leave to go to church on a Sunday, they got punished for it; got cotton to gin, and the middle paths to clear the grass away. That when they complained of it, they were told by Dr M'Turk that it was the governor's order; when to Mr Spencer, that it was the fiscal's order. I told them, of course, that they could not come into town, in consequence of martial law, but that I would tell the general of it, and hoped they would lay down their arms; Jack and Telemachus and Seaton and Tom Gibson promised to communicate to them what had been said, and I went up to my troops again. In half an hour afterwards, seeing that they were not inclined to lay down their arms, I went out again, and requested some of them to tell Telemachus and Tom Gibson, and some of those who were about me, to come; I wanted to know the reason why they did not lay down their arms, but the people who then came out to me, said they wanted to be free; in consequence of which I marched out the troops for the purpose of dispersing them.

Did you not make some memorandum or other of what the people told you?—I have, as near as I can recollect, made a memorandum, but have told, as near as I can, the substance to the Court; I have since destroyed it as useless.

Was there no other grievance stated by the negroes, except those you have already stated?-None that my memory can recollect.

Rev. W. S. Austin, Minister of the Established Church.

Do you remember the revolt which occurred in August last ?—Yes. Did you go up the coast on that occasion?—I did.

Did you see any of the revolted negroes? if yea, did they say anything particular?-I saw many of the revolted negroes with Lieutenant Peddie and his party. I met two or three on Monday night. On Wednesday morning, about six o'clock, I disembarked from a schooner on the coast opposite, or nearly opposite, plantation Lowlands. I was on my way to Haslington, and met with a great number of the insurgents on the road. They were induced to come to me principally from their ascertaining who I was. I reasoned with one or two of the more intelligent, and said I was shocked at what had occurred, and had come up with a view of saving the lives of my fellow-creatures. I was anxious to learn the cause of such extraordinary conduct, and was particular and minute in my inquiries. I had received an impression that the prisoner, Mr Smith, was highly instrumental in the insurrection, and proceeded to inquiries. A variety of reasons were given, which I do not consider necessary to recapitulate, farther than they apply to the prisoner. I must add, that in no one instance amongst my numerous inquiries did it appear, or

was it stated, that Mr Smith had been, in any degree, instrumental to the insurrection. A hardship of being restricted from attendance on his chapel, was, however, very generally the burthen of complaint.

Will you be pleased to state the other reasons, as you have said that the restriction upon attending Mr Smith's chapel was one? The inquiry was either made in my presence, or by me, of one of the insurgent party. It was in answer to some observation, that bloodshed had not marked the progress of the insurrection; the answer to that was, "It is contrary to the religion we profess; we cannot give life, and therefore we will not take it."

Do you remember any negroes, previous to the revolt, coming to you from the east coast ?-Yes, I do.

What was the object of their coming to you? To make a complaint, as they termed it, of the ill treatment they had received from an individual, whom I presume it will not be necessary to mention.

Will you state the nature of those complaints, and how many negroes there were? The nature of their complaint was put in the shape of an appeal to me as a minister, whether it was not a very great hardship that their religious duties should be interfered with; whether they ought to be prevented attending Mr Smith's chapel; whether their evening meetings on their estates for religious purposes were improper; whether their reading of the Bible was improper; an instance having been quoted by one of them of his bible having been taken from him. I first inquired why they had not gone to the governor or fiscal with their complaint; they stated some case which had occurred, I think, a short time before, of some complaints having been made, and not attended to. In hopes of settling

it in a quiet and amicable manner, I waited on Mr Harper, and stated all that had been said to me, requesting him to take it in his hand and arrange it; giving as my reason the probable indelicacy there might be in my interference between master and slave, that master being a stranger to me. Mr Harper declined doing so, giving me very satisfactory reasons. The complaints were uttered in a very extraordinary style and tone, and, after some consideration, I thought it necessary to report the circumstance to the governor; the number of negroes was considerable; I did not reckon them; the number was about twenty, men and women.

Did you ever see any of those negroes afterwards?-Not one of the party, except on the Thursday or Friday of the insurrection, when I saw two of the men on their own estate.

Did they state whether they made their complaint to the prisoner ?—I remember asking them the question, and whether he had sent them to me. I cannot charge my memory; but I believe in neither case did they admit that they had referred their complaints to him, or that he had sent them to me. I believe I recommended them to speak to the prisoner on the subject, thinking, that as they were members of his congregation, he might have more influence in regulating their conduct than I could.

Did their complaints, and the manner of these negroes, give rise to any suspicion that anything might ensue?

I must say I did feel serious apprehensions from that, combined with other circumstances, and communicated them to the governor.

What were those other circumstances?-A variety of little circumstances between the negroes and masters: several reported differences

between Mr Smith and the manager and the burgher captains. Several instances of the exercise of undue authority by the masters over their negroes, and particularly that of punishing them for attending divine worship; these, I must observe, were reports to me, not circumstances for the truth or validity of which I can vouch; one particular occurs to my re collection-Stopped by the Court. The examination of witnesses to prove the facts stated in the four several heads of charges enumerated on the first day, and of those on the part of the prisoner, lasted till Friday, the 14th of November, when Mr Smith made his defence, of which the following are the most important pas

sages:

"The first division of the first charge requires no evidence. The second, that I have endeavoured to mislead the negroes, by misinterpreting the Scriptures, is disproved by Romeo, Bristol, Azor, Jason, Mary Chisholm, and London in particular. The third, that of taking money and presents from the negroes, it is true, has been proved; but they were given voluntarily, of their own free will and accord, as many of the witnesses have proved. The money collected for the sacrament was applied, as Jason has proved, in the purchasing bread and wine, and candles. The money collected for the Missionary Society, was regularly remitted. The planters knew of the collection, and not only allowed it, but some were themselves contributors, as proved by H. Van Cooten, John Stewart, and John Hamilton. Fourthly, It has been established that the sale of the Bibles was ordered by the Bible Society; and Mr Davis has proved, that he charged at the same rate for those he sold. Fifthly, That I have interfered with the treatment of the negroes.

VOL. XVII. PART II.

Not a single instance of interference has been produced; but evidence to the contrary has been brought forward by me in my Journal, and by Mr Austin, independently of Bristol's evidence on this head. Sixthly, That I have taught them (the negroes) it was sinful to work, or go to market on a Sunday. Upon this head I think it has been satisfactorily shewn by the evidence of Romeo, Jason, Bristol, and Manuel, that though I taught the negroes, in obedience to the commandment of God, to keep holy the Sabbath, yet, I invariably advised them to a dutiful submission in performing their work, if assigned them even on Sundays. Seventhly, That I have taught them to disobey their masters. This is disproved by Bristol, Romeo, Jason, Mars, and Mary Chisholm, herself an owner of slaves.

"It is evident from the evidence, that I have always acted with the greatest uprightness and integrity; that I have gone farther, and conducted myself with prudence and caution, from the time of my arrival in the colony to the revolt; nay, Hamilton proves, that, even in the very midst of the attack on his house, I hastened to his assistance, and used all the means I possessed in his favour, that I exhorted the negroes to be quiet; it was all I could do.

pro

"All the negroes, both for the secution and defence, who were questioned on this point, agree, that I always taught them to be obedient to their masters, and to submit themselves to all in authority over them; not an individual exception is there to this train of evidence. My journal, read from page to page, will not disclose one single passage emanating from bad feeling towards any individual. The vices and follies of some may have therein been reprobated, but even the reprobation of those per

G

sons was confined to myself. I did not commit, in many instances, even their names to paper.

"It has been attempted, and in fact the whole drift of the prosecution of the charges, and of the questions of the prosecutor, was, to shew, that the religious negroes were the most refractory and rebellious. What do the certificates of baptism say? that only they were recommended by their own ers, managers, or overseers, who behaved well, who were well disposed, and who were thought worthy of reward. Do not all these proofs, from even interested parties, clearly demonstrate, that the effect of religious instruction was beneficial? Independently of this, the witnesses, H. Van Cooten, himself a proprietor of one, and attorney of another large estate; and John Stewart, unwilling as he was to answer any questions, have sworn, that the religious negroes were the most obedient in general. Every planter, every master, can tell how very intractable and unruly is a dissatisfied negro-he will not be obedient. The series of written evidence proves, that those negroes who were allowed to attend the chapel, conducted themselves in a dutiful manner. Should any object that the certificates relate to the characters of negroes previous to their becoming Christians, Mr Haig's note will be a satisfactory answer. I quote from memory:-He says, I have hitherto refused to give such and such negroes a certificate of character in consequence of some that were baptised by Mr Wray behaving amiss; but as they now behave better, I comply with their request, and recommend them to you as well-disposed people.' Thus I think the very reverse of the first charge is manifested.

"It is a bold assertion, but not more bold than true, that there is not a

single negro witness upon any material point, either in support of the second, and third, and fourth charges, or in support of the defence, who is not either contradicted by himself or by some other witness."

Here he proceeded to compare the evidence, and pointed out many contradictions.

"Is this evidence," he asked, "sufficient to convict any individual of an offence; much more one of so high a nature as that with which I am charged? It is true, that it would seem as though these various tales had some foundation. I have stated clearly in the defence the simple facts from which all these various tales have sprung. Men who cannot remember simple facts, such as knowing whether any one was present during a conversation, or whether they left a house alone, or in company with another, are not likely to be very accurate in the narration of a conversation. Which of these witnesses is the one to be believed? they are all alike; they are all at variance with each other; and whether one is to be selected in preference to the rest, or all are to be discredited, is a matter to be determined solely by the court. I think I have shown, that it will require at least some discrimination to discover the one worthy of any credit. They cannot all be believed; not two of them can be believed together.

"Seaton and Bristol state they were standing in the back gallery, and I was in the hall, at some distance from them, when Quamina made his communication; this renders it highly improbable that the conversation with Quamina should produce any effect on my mind; for it was certainly a strange mode of making so important a communication, to be standing at a distance, which would necessarily require a louder tone of voice than ordinary. It appears also highly im

probable, that a communication of so serious a nature should be made in the hearing of Mrs Smith, and four men who were standing near him. If he said anything about driving the managers or white people to town, it was not in my hearing. What passed between me and Quamina was in a loud tone of voice, and heard, though not heeded, by Mrs Smith, she being at the time attending to other concerns. I have already, in my defence, stated all that passed relative to the matter in question. How far the evidence, divested of its inconsistencies and contradictions, bears me out, I must leave to the judgment of the court. The evidence, in fact, is such as to render it impossible for any one to say, that from it alone the real truth can be ascertained. That negroes are not verbally accurate in general, is, not only well known and proverbial, but has been proved by H. Van Cooten, a resident among them for fifty years; he swears he would not intrust even a common message to the memory of any one of them, for ten to one if they'd carry it correctly, though some might do so. I need not tell this court, that positive assertions alone are evidence in a case of this kind. Negroes may speak to facts, but in their notions of time and in verbal accuracy, they are miserably deficient ; and even had there been no positive evidence on this point, it would have been apparent from the evidence of the whole of them on this trial. The whole conversation occupied but two or three minutes; and I had no conception that even negroes were so ridiculous as to have chosen such a time, and such a manner, to have given information upon any serious subject. I did not consider it as information, or I should have acted accordingly.

"I must observe, that it is impossible to come to a conclusion upon any one

of the charges, without taking the whole of the evidence into consideration; if this be done, it is manifest that neither myself nor my doctrines were the cause of the revolt; that my name was never mentioned by any of the negroes as being connected with the revolt. Mr Austin declares, he went up among the revolted negroes,

prejudiced against me; yet, in his examination says, I must add, that in no one instance among my nume rous inquiries, did it appear that Mr Smith had been in any degree instrumental in the insurrection.' Lieutenant-Colonel Leahey, who was in command of the whole coast, who was amidst the negroes on every occasion, and who had every circumstance worthy of notice conveyed to him, says, I do not recollect hearing the prisoner's name mentioned till I came to town.'

Take, then, Hamilton's evidence, that of Stewart, Elliot, and Davies, and the certificates; and what will not their testimony weigh against a number of ignorant negroes, under the influence of their masters; under the fear of punishment for their conduct; and, therefore, glad to throw the blame upon any one rather than allow it to remain with themselves, as it really does? Contradicting themselves, contradicting each other, no two of them agree upon any material point. One would think that Quamina's motive for driving the white people, would have been remembered by four persons, in whose presence he is said to have asserted it, yet Bristol says, It was because the negroes' freedom had come out;' Peter, to see the court, to get the new law;' Shute, to get something good for the negroes,' and

a day or two for themselves;' and Seaton remains silent on that point, assigning a direct falsehood, that he was not present.

"Bristol and Jason, witnesses called