Thinking that this insurrection might spread to St. Thomas, precaution was immediately taken. Ninety men were armed, sixty sailors from vessels in the harbor were impressed into service, and the large vessel on which the Governor had come from St. John was brought nearer the town. A detachment of thirty soldiers, some young burghers, and the Jaeger Corps, fully armed and equipped, then proceeded to St. John and drove the slaves from the fort. The Durlo estate was then relieved with much difficulty, so determined were the slaves to continue their work. In spite of these successes, however, the whites decided that it was impossible to suppress the insurrection with such a small body of troops and withdrew to St. Thomas. It was discovered that save those who had sought refuge on the Durlo estate only Dr. Cornelius F. Bodger had survived. He had been spared on the condition that he would give wounded Negroes medical aid. The whites learned too that the Creole Negroes had not taken a part in the uprising. In obtaining information the whites were assisted by a servant of Dr. Bodger, called Christian Sout,[373] who, having the confidence of both the whites and the blacks, became a useful spy for the former, who rewarded him with freedom for these services. Upon returning to St. Thomas the Royal Council secured the assistance of Captain Meaux and his sixty men of the _Nevis_, a vessel lying in harbor, but he failed to subdue the Negroes, losing two of his sons in the conflict. The government then sent to Martinique for help. The governor of that colony promptly despatched a force of 400 men who, joined by all the available troops from St. Thomas, drove the Negroes from the fort and, sending out detachments in various directions, finally forced the insurgents to concentrate on the northeast side of the island, where they were surrounded. After holding the island six months, the blacks, finding all chances of escape cut off, resolved upon self-destruction. "Three hundred," says an historian, "were, after a few days from the time they were surrounded, found lying dead at Brim's Bay, now Anna Burg. In a ravine, a short distance off, were discovered seven others, who appeared to have been leaders in the insurrection, who had shot each other. Seven guns broken to pieces, save one, were found lying by their sides. Tradition reports that three hundred had cast themselves from a high precipice on the rocks below. The historian Hoest says they were shot and were found lying in a circle. A few had been taken prisoners. Two of these had been summarily executed in St. John and twenty-six in St. Thomas, some of the latter having been made to undergo the severest torture."[374]