Extract of a letter from Dominica, Sept. 6.

“This day week the most diabolical design that that ever was formed, was discovered in Martinico : It was an insurrection of the negroes, who were that night to have set fire to the large and beautiful town of St. Pierre ; while the white people were all in confusion, and striving to escape the flames, they were to be butchered indiscriminately, man woman, and child.–The combustibles were laid in upwards of 100 houses, consisting of hemp dipped in turpentine. The plot was not discovered till five o’clock in the evening, when a negro belonging to an old lady, stung with remorse on thinking that he must murder the woman who brought him up form a child, disclosed it to her. The Troops being thereupon assembled, 40 of the negroes were taken, armed with a hanger and a long knife, the insturments which were in a few hours to have put a period to the existence of upwards of 5000 people. All the inhabitants have been under arms ever since, as they are afraid the negroes will attemp to release the 40 who are in gaol.”

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Citation: Glasgow Advertiser (Glasgow, United Kingdom), 14 December 1789, available at the Scissors and Paste Database, http://www.scissorsandpaste.net/40.