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288 Flight to Freedom
members of the San Andrés palenque, who absconded from the settlement,
turned traitors and acted as guides to future expeditions (La Rosa Corzo
2003, 99–101). 22 The treachery of two of Pedro León’s men eventually led to
his death in 1841, after ten years of deadly assaults on the inhabitants of Lima
and the surrounding areas. One of these traitors, José Rayo, made commander
of the rural police by the authoritarian state, offered a reward of one
thousand pesos and a pardon for any Maroon who would kill the “implacable
enemy of public peace and security”. Responding to this offer, Felipe
Galdeano, one of the men in León’s palenque, assassinated him as he lay relaxing
in his home (cited in Aguirre 1993, 261).
A classic case of defection and betrayal with deadly consequences for the
particular Maroon community – a major one in the Bahoruco region –
occurred in the Dominican Republic in 1666. A Maroon had fled this
palenque because he had lost a scuffle over a woman with Pablo, the leader of
his settlement. The fugitive was eventually taken to Government House. The
governor treated him as a guest of honour, and he responded by divulging
information critical to the security of his settlement. This led to two major
expeditions, quite close together, against the Maroons (the first headed by
the governor), at the end of which they agreed to accept peace terms that
required them to quit the Bahoruco region in return for recognition of their
freedom (Esteban Deive 1989, 86–89).
An unusual event transpired among the Pajarito Maroons in Panama in
1768. A female whom they had abducted some time earlier managed to
escape, and guided a military expedition sent against the palenque. Most of
the occupants managed to escape initially, but not the leader. His captors prevailed
on him to take them to the escapees’ hideout, and as a result most of
the Maroons were either captured or killed. The captives were later sentenced
to death, and, since there was no official executioner, the authorities struck a
deal with the Maroon leader by which he agreed to perform the function of
that sad office in return for his freedom (La Guardia 1977, 104–5).
Interestingly, Campbell (1990, 60, 269n63) states, on the basis of Edward
Long’s unpublished manuscripts, that some planters in Jamaica made secret
deals with the Maroons, paying them a sort of retainer to ensure that they
did not attack their plantations and that they would protect the planter’s
property and person from assault by other Maroons. Long, himself a contemporary
planter on that island, was in a good position to know what was
going on, and so we must give serious consideration to his views. It is also