As the advancing mob drew near, the volunteers retired till they reached the steps of the court-house. The Custos then began to read the Riot Act. While he was in the act of reading it stones were thrown at the volunteers, and Captain Hitchins, who commanded them, was struck in the forehead. The captain, having received authority from the Custos, then gave the word to fire. The order was obeyed, and some of the rioters were seen to fall. The volunteers were soon overpowered, and the court-house, in which refuge was sought, was set on fire. Many people were barbarously murdered while trying to escape. Eighteen persons, including the Custos, two sons of the rector, the Island Curate of Bath, the Inspector of Police, the captain, two lieutenants, a sergeant, and three privates of volunteers were killed. Thirty-one persons were wounded.
After this the town remained in possession of the rioters. The gaolers were compelled to throw open the prison doors, and fifty-one prisoners who were there confined were released. Several stores were attacked, and from one of them a considerable quantity of gunpowder was taken. An attempt was made to force the door of the magazine, where about 300 stand of arms were stored. Fortunately the endeavour was not successful.
Major-General L.S. O'Connor, commanding the troops in Jamaica, was inspecting the left wing of the 1st West India Regiment, under Major Anton, at Up Park Camp, on the morning of the 11th of October, when the news of the riot at Stony Gut on the 10th arrived, with a requisition from Governor Eyre for 100 men in aid of the civil power. In less than an hour Captain Ross's company paraded and marched to Kingston, where they embarked in H.M.S. Wolverine. Unfortunately, it not being supposed that there was any necessity for urgency, the Wolverine did not leave Port Royal for Morant Bay until daybreak on the 12th. At about noon on the 12th the news of the massacre of the magistrates reached Port Royal, where Major-General O'Connor was inspecting the detachment of the 1st West India Regiment, under Captain Luke. In two hours from the receipt of the intelligence, the company embarked on board H.M.S. Onyx, and landed at Morant Bay on the morning of the 13th.
Captain Ross, on arriving at Morant Bay, had found the town deserted by all the Europeans, except Mr. Georges, who was severely wounded with three musket balls in his leg. The bodies of the unfortunate magistrates, many of which were barbarously mutilated, were buried by this company. This duty performed, the men patrolled the roads in the neighbourhood, and many ladies, whose husbands had been murdered or taken prisoners, and who had fled with their children, on the approach of the rioters, to bamboo thickets or other shelter, hearing the sound of the bugles, came in for protection. Numbers of them had passed the night in copses, from which, trembling with terror, they had seen their houses pillaged.
On the 12th of October, large parties of the rebels, armed with guns and cutlasses, marched in military order through Bath and other contiguous districts. Stores were pillaged, and property taken or destroyed. Blue Mountain Valley Estate, Amity Hall, Monklands, which is sixteen miles from Morant Bay, and Hordley Estate, were all attacked by the insurgents, the occupiers barely escaping with their lives. At Blue Mountain Valley and Amity Hall, barbarous murders were perpetrated.
On the 13th of October, martial law was proclaimed throughout the county of Surrey (except the county and city of Kingston), and Major-General O'Connor immediately took steps to hem in the disturbed districts. On the 15th of October, a detachment of the 1st West India Regiment was sent to Port Antonio; and at mid-day, Captain Hole, of the 6th Regiment, with 40 men of his own corps, and 60 of the 1st West India Regiment, under Ensign Cullen, marched from that place to Manchioneal, twenty miles eastward of Port Antonio. On the same day, 120 men of the 6th Regiment, under Colonel Hobbs, occupied (as head-quarters) Monklands, in the district of the Blue Mountain Valley, about sixteen miles from Morant Bay. Captain Strachan's company of the 1st West India Regiment proceeded to Spanish Town, whence Lieutenant Allinson, with 31 men, was sent on to Linstead, where a repetition of the Morant Bay massacre was apprehended. A detachment of the 6th was sent to Buff Bay to protect some valuable sugar estates.
On the 13th and two succeeding days the insurgents continued their course through Port Morant northward to Manchioneal, and on to Mulatto River and Elmwood; the last of which places is situated in the most northerly part of St. Thomas-in-the-East, where that parish abuts upon Portland. As they advanced with the cry of "colour for colour" they were joined by a considerable number of negroes, who readily assisted in the work of plundering. The houses and stores were sacked. The intention also of taking the lives of the whites was openly avowed, and diligent search was made for particular individuals. But in each case the imperilled person had timely notice, and sought safety in flight.
Elmwood was the point furthest from Morant Bay to which the disturbances extended; the arrival of the troops at Port Antonio, on the 15th, putting a stop to the further progress of the insurgents northwards. Thus in the course of four days the rebels had spread over a tract of country extending from White Horses, a few miles to the west of Morant Bay, to Elmwood, at a distance of upwards of thirty miles to the north-east of that place.
In the meantime, detachments of troops were rapidly converging upon the disturbed districts. As the rebels were reported to be occupying Stony Gut, an almost impregnable ravine three miles in length, a detachment of the 6th Regiment was sent to dislodge them. Captain Luke, 1st West India Regiment, by a rapid and judicious movement of his company towards Cuna Cuna Gap, rescued from the hands of the insurgents upwards of eighty Europeans and influential people of colour, who had, with their wives and children, been in hiding for three or four days in the woods and mountains, and conveyed them to a place of safety. Captain Hole moved towards Bath from Manchioneal, and, in a despatch to Brigadier-General Nelson, he mentions "a meritorious act of three privates of the 1st West India Regiment deserving commendation. The three men got separated from their party, and proceeded as far as the Plantain Garden River, where a great number of rebels are lurking. The soldiers encountering the rebels, shot several—among them three of the murderers of Mr. Hire—and brought back with them two cartloads of plunder, among which was some of Mr. Hire's clothing, and other property."
Kingston, as has been said, was exempted from martial law, and consequently became the refuge of the most disaffected people. Arrests were made hourly, and upwards of two hundred political prisoners were confined in the military custody of the 1st West India Regiment at Up Park Camp, which was under martial law. Threats were daily circulated that the city would be fired in various places, and the streets were patrolled by day and night. Sunday, the 22nd of October, was said to be fixed for a massacre of the loyal inhabitants while at church, and such universal panic prevailed, that every place of worship was on that day empty.