DECREE of the Conseil of Martinique, which fixes the price for the capture of fugitive nègres, and establishes against them the penalty of having the hamstring cut

UPON the Remonstrance of the Procureur Général, that there were a great number of nègres marrons who committed many disorders and acts of violence, taking cattle, pulling up provisions, and even robbing travelers on the highways, and that he had learned that these nègres lived in common in the woods, where they had cleared plantations, built huts, and planted provisions, and that these disorders could cause great accidents if remedy continued to be neglected any longer; the Conseil orders that the capture of nègres marrons shall be paid for as follows: 1009 [?] livres of sugar for one who has been marron from one year up to three; 600 livres of sugar for one who has been marron from six months and over up to a year; 300 livres from two months up to six, and 150 livres from eight days up to two months; which shall be paid without delay by the enslavers of the said nègres, and before they can take them out of the guardhouse, where they shall be led by the captors, who shall have a special privilege over them by reason of their capture.