1806.
May.
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 apparently to the superstition of the black, and the policy and disgust of the white visitants to these excavations.
The stone here is mostly of an iron-grey colour, heavy, and porous; and there were marks upon the sides of the middle cavern which might have arisen either from a sulphureous substance yielded by the stone when in a state of ignition, or from an impregnated water draining through the roof during a succession of time; upon the whole, though it seemed probable that these caverns owe their origin to the same cause as the subterraneous canal at Ménil, the marks of fire in them were neither distinct nor unequivocal. The position of these long, winding excavations, in a country nearly level and of small elevation, appeared to be the most extraordinary circumstance attending them; but in this island they are commonly so