At the first outbreak the whole island was put under martial law, and the Governor himself, a veteran of the American war, went to the seat of war and took command—his headquarters being first at Vaughan’s Field and later at Montego Bay and Castle Wemyss—only leaving the scene of operations to meet the Assembly from time to time in Spanish Town. Of a nature prone to show his military prowess, and moved by fear of the influence of the rebellion taking place in Haiti hard by, and the presence of a number of questionable immigrants in Jamaica from that island, as well as by his prejudice against the _imperium in imperio_ which the Maroons possessed under the treaty of 1738, he gave the rebels, the Maroons of Trelawny Town (1660 in number all told) only four days in which to surrender. Thirty-eight did so; but on August 12 hostilities commenced by a detachment of dragoons falling into an ambuscade, five officers and thirty men being killed. It is said by some that the Maroons chose their time for rising when they did, as they knew that with the departure of the July fleet but few troops would be left in the island; and it was only by the prompt action on the part of the Governor in stopping the _Halifax_ packet for three weeks and in detaining a convoy of troops on its way from England to St. Domingo (where it was sadly needed), which had actually sailed from Port Royal, that forces were available to meet the rebels. These forces numbered some four hundred men of the 13th, 14th, 17th, and 18th Light Dragoons, the 83rd Foot, and the recently raised 130th Foot. A tiresome campaign then followed, in which twenty actions were fought, the seat of the struggle being the wild Cockpit country. By another ambuscade Colonel Fitch and two other officers lost their lives. At the time of the meeting of the Assembly in September the rebellion was not so near quelled as the Governor had hoped. Lieutenant-Colonel Walpole, of the 13th Light Dragoons, who on the death of Colonel Fitch had succeeded to the command of the forces, and was made a major-general by Balcarres and given very full powers, altered the whole plan of campaign, teaching the troopers of the 17th Light Dragoons, who had had experience in colonial warfare with Tarleton in America, to fight on foot and to work in twos, so that each could hold the arms of the other while climbing had to be done—and by fighting the Maroons in their own way paved the way for their surrender. But the difficulty of the operation may be judged by the fact that Walpole, after months of experience, wrote to Balcarres that there was “little chance of any but a Maroon discovering a Maroon.”