For the last few years the inhabitants of Antigua had been very much harassed by a gang of runaway slaves, from various estates, who had taken up their abode in some of the mountains and rocky parts of the island, and who were in the practice of issuing out at night, and committing many and great depredations. The leaders of this gang of vagrants were three men, of the name of Africa, Papa Will, and Sharper; and, to insure their capture, a reward of twenty pounds was offered to any person who should place either of them, dead or alive, in the hands of the provost-marshal. If any one killed a slave who had been absent from their owner three months, while in pursuit of them, he was entitled to the sum of three pounds; and when such slave was taken alive, the reward was doubled, the owner of any slave so killed being paid his or her value from the treasury. If a slave concealed, afforded nourishment to, or comforted a runaway, he was to be publicly whipped on the bare back with any number of stripes the justice of the peace thought proper to order; and if any free person so offended, such freeman was to be fined not less than ten pounds for the first offence. No person was allowed to purchase goods of a slave, under a penalty of thirty pounds for the first offence, except such things as pigs, goats, fowls, fish, or ground provision, which slaves were allowed to sell; but ginger and cotton ranked among the prohibitory articles. For the better government of this sable race, it was thought proper by those in power to restrict their diversions, and publish a decree, that all owners of slaves should allow them three days at Christmas for play-days, _and no more_, under a penalty of twenty pounds. Many other regulations were made, which appear at this day very harsh—such as not allowing slaves to plant cotton, forbidding them to assemble in parties of more than ten, punished for carrying any kind of weapon, unless in company of a white person, &c.; but, at the same time, it was enacted that if any cruelly disposed person hurt, or killed a slave, they were liable to the same punishment as if the victim had been free; thus setting a bright example to the other island, where killing a slave was looked upon, in law, as a mere trifle.