In 1842 there was an insurrection in Martiaro, and it was with difficulty suppressed. Then evidence began to be seen everywhere of a systematic propaganda among the slaves on plantations scattered in widely separated parts of the island. A negro mason accidentally dropped an incendiary proclamation from his pocket, and it finally reached the hands of the captain of the district. The negro was tortured, but would not divulge the source of the paper. An itinerant monk went through the country ostensibly begging alms for the church, but in reality prophesying to the blacks that in July, 1842, they would, on St. John's Day, rise and obtain their freedom. The wholesale insurrection did not occur, but there were uprisings in July in various parts of the island, and the slaves of an estate near Bemba murdered their master and a neighbor, and were only subdued when the militia had been called. In January, 1843, an official of the government was murdered by the blacks. A colored man secretly gave evidence against the slayers and in some manner fell under their suspicion, and soon after was assassinated by one of his own people, who afterward was tried for the crime, but committed suicide in jail, before he could pay the death penalty. In March, 1843, near Bemba five hundred negroes rose against their white masters, and it was only after considerable bloodshed that they were subdued. No sooner was this trouble quieted than there was another uprising on a plantation in the neighborhood, and still a third one the same year, the exact details of which are lacking. Then followed, at the close of 1843, the most serious trouble of all, when, in November, the negroes near Matanzas revolted and went on an orgy of murder and rape, ravishing and killing women, and murdering white men. Turnbull was accused of being the brains behind these troubles, but it was impossible to fix the guilt on him. If he was guilty he was not a good organizer, for none of the revolts had any national effect. They were all local in character, and all unsuccessful in attaining any lasting results. After the insurrection of November, 1843, a meeting of planters was called in Matanzas, and the government was asked to take steps to make further revolts impossible. But in 1844, near Matanzas, occurred another serious insurrection, and it was reported that the negroes on all the plantations in the neighborhood were organized and were planning a wholesale revolt, which would bring about the realizations of Turnbull's dreams. It was then that the government decided to act ruthlessly, and methods which would have done credit to the old Spanish Inquisition were promptly introduced.