each received; and
having witnessed the last punished, with eyes sparkling with brutal
satisfaction at the tortures of the unfortunate sufferers, they went
away quite satisfied. The place where this disagreeable operation is
performed, is in the barrack yard, on Point William, between the
officers' house and the hospital. The culprit is tied up to a kind of
strong gallows, erected for the purpose. Two stout pieces of timber,
about seven or eight feet high, are driven perpendicularly into the
ground, about four feet apart from each other, a piece is secured
firmly across them at the top, and another at a short distance from
the ground. The hands of the man who is to be punished, are tied at
each end of the upright pieces, and his legs are secured to the same
on each side below, in which position he is exposed to the merciless
scourge of the drummer, which is a common cat-o-nine-tails. It is
painful even to think of such scenes as these, and when they take
place at the mere whim and caprice of the hardened slave merchant,
such a picture is revolting in the extreme. Here, however, severe as
it may appear, it must be looked upon in a different point of view.
The punishment is great, but with the certainty of receiving it, if
discovered, the negro will run the risk of incurring it, by what may
be termed the breach of the first law of civilized society. In
addition to the tendency it has to keep the free blacks in control,
such a proceeding convinces the natives of the island, that their
depredations are not sanctioned by the colony. Were some punishment
not instituted to curb the restless, pilfering propensities of these
people, no order could be maintained; they would return to a worse
condition, than that which they were in at first, and the colony
would no longer be secure; for the natives of the island, finding
their homes invaded, and their property carried off, unable to obtain
redress, would soon take the law into their own hands, and would
either murder the colonists, or drive them from the island.
Therefore, although a severe one, it is a salutary measure, and it
has no doubt done much towards keeping the natives themselves honest.
What punishment is adopted by the natives, the Landers were not able
to ascertain. The chiefs appear to possess considerable authority
over them, and it is not improbable that the custom of the settlement
is imitated in some shape or other.

The only weapon used by the natives, excepting