The Kentucky Gazette

LANCASTER, November 25.

Extract of a letter from a gentleman at Nassau, (New Providence) to his friend at Wilmington, (North Carolina,) dated September 26, 1797

"We have lately very providentially escaped a most hellish plot. A parcel of French negroes who have been captured and sold here, and who ran away from their owners, entered into a conspiracy (about thirty in number) to burn the town, and make a general massacre of the whites. They had the promise of a great many slaves to join them, immediately on their beginning the horrid business. Their scheme could not have been better planned by any set of men and would undoubtedly have occasioned immense blood shed, had they carried it into effect, but, one of them, who had been compelled to take the oath, divulged the secret to his master, a few hours before the massacre was to have began. A party of men were immediately collected and sent after the villains; only a few had yet assembled; five of them were taken the principal ring leaders made two of that number; they were all condemned, and three executed; the other two will share the same fate in a day or two. The principal ring leader was a notorious fellow in the dreadful business of St. Domingo. He met his fate with a great deal of composure and resignation, saying, as he approached the place of execution, that he was content to die, as he had murdered many a white man in his time."