From 1738 till 1795 Maroons gave little or no trouble. They remained dispersed in five settlements, three of them to windward, but the two of most importance to leeward, in Trelawney district. They lived in a state midway between civilisation and barbarism, retaining the religion--a religion without worship or ceremony--which their fathers had brought from Africa, cultivating their provision grounds regularly, if in rather a primitive fashion, breeding horses, cattle, and fowls, hunting wild swine and fugitive slaves, and conducting themselves generally in a harmless and not unprofitable manner. Their vices were those of the white man, drinking and gambling, which of course gave rise to quarrels; but they were ruled with a strong hand by their chiefs, and kept well within bounds. Owing to the climate in which they lived, some thousands of feet above the sea, and the free, active life which they led, they were physically a splendid race--tall and muscular, and far superior to the negro slaves whom, from this cause as well as in virtue of their own freedom, they held in great contempt. Moreover, the fact that they were employed to hunt down runaway slaves helped greatly to make them friendly to the whites and hostile to the blacks. In fact they held an untenable position, being bound to the whites by treaty, and fighting in alliance with them both against insurgent negroes, as in 1760, and white invaders, as in 1779–80, and yet bound by affinity of race and colour to the very negroes that they helped to keep in servitude. [Sidenote: 1795.] Meanwhile they grew rapidly in numbers and consideration. Certain restrictions to which they had been subjected by Acts of the Jamaica Assembly at the time of the treaty fell into disuse, and became a dead letter. They began to leave their own district and wander at large about the plantations, making love to the female slaves, becoming fathers of many children by them, and thus gradually breaking down the barrier between themselves and their fellow-blacks. Simultaneously the internal discipline of the Maroons became seriously relaxed. Cudjoe and his immediate successors had ruled them with a rod of iron; but at a distance of two generations the authority of the chiefs, though they still bore the titles of Colonel and Captain, had sunk to a mere name. For a time the Colonel’s power in Trelawney was transferred to one of the white residents, a Major James, who had been brought up among the Maroons, could beat the best of them at their feats of activity and skill, and was considered to be almost one of themselves. Of great physical strength and utterly fearless, he would interpose in the thick of a Maroon quarrel, heedless of the whirling cutlasses, knock down those that withstood him, and clap the rebellious in irons without a moment’s hesitation. Naturally so strong a man was a great favourite with the Maroons, who, while he remained among them, were kept well in hand. But it so happened that