'Wednesday last came on at the Court-House, Martha Brae, before John Stogdon and James Lyon, Esqrs, the trial of a negro man named Brutus, formerly the property of Richard Smart Fisher, Esq. In April 1788 he was tried for, and found guilty of, practising Obeah, &c, and condemned to hard labour in the workhouse for life. Shortly after his sentence was put into execution, he found means to escape, since which, till the time of his being taken, he has been at the head of a band of runaway Negroes, who had settled on the Black Grounds, in this parish, with no good intention, and might have become formidable, had they not been crushed by the active and spirited exertions of the Militia of this parish, who apprehended him, and five others, from which it is supposed the rest will disperse. Brutus was tried agreeably to the slave act, passed in 1788, for having made his escape from the place of confinement after his condemnation: he was found guilty, and sentence passed that he should be executed at the Point, and his head was cut off, and placed on a pole, at Cross Path, Duncan's, as a warning to deter others from offending in like manner, which was put in execution the same day. The others remain in jail for trial.'