9-th, 2004 - 14: 1   (Posted By: Webmaster)
Captain Cudjoe

Previous Page Guthrie with a mission to offer Cudjoe independence and a tract of land.

R. C. Dallas, a British commander, describes the meeting thus:

Colonel Guthrie advanced unmolested with his troops through situations in which the Maroons might have greatly annoyed him even with the large force he then had under him. Making, however, the best disposition of his troops that the nature of the ground would permit, he marched on with confidence, and judging of the distance he was from the Maroons by the sound of their horns, he continued advancing till he thought he could make them hear his voice that he was come by the governor's orders to make them an offer of peace which the white people sincerely desired. An answer was returned declaring that the Maroons wished the same and requesting that the troops might be kept back. Several Maroons now descended, and among them it was difficult to discover the chief himself. Cudjoe was rather a short man, uncommonly stout, with very strong African features and a peculiar wildness in his manners. He had a very large lump of flesh upon his back which was partly covered by the tattered remains of an old blue coat of which the skirts and sleeves below the elbow were wanting... Around his head was tied a scanty piece of white cloth so very dirty that its original color might have been doubted. He wore no shirt. and his clothes, such as they were, as well as the part of his skin that was exposed, were covered with the red dirt resembling ochre. He had on a pair of loose drawers that did not reach to his knees and a small round hat with the rims pared so close to the crown that it might have been taken for a calabash. Such was the chief, and his men were as ragged and as dirty as himself: all were armed with guns and cutlasses. Cudjoe constantly cast his eyes toward the troops under Colonel Guthrie. He appeared very suspicious and asked Dr. Russell man questions before he ventured within reach. At last, Dr. Russell offered to change hats with him as a token of friendship, to which he consented and was beginning to converse more freely when Colonel Guthrie called aloud to him, assuring him of a faithful compliance with whatever Dr. Russell promised. He said that he wished to come unarmed to hint with a few of the principal gentlemen of the island, who should witness the oath he would solemnly make to them of peace on his part with liberty and security to the Maroons on their acceding to it.

And so peace was made. Cudjoe and his men were given a large grant of land free from all taxation in perpetuity, and permission to hunt anywhere on the island, except within three miles of a white settlement.

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