Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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The Negroes Are Then Mustered
Before Them, And The Native Who Has Been Plundered, Is Allowed, If He
Can Do So, To Point Out The Thief.
If he should be successful, which
is frequently the case, he is allowed to witness the punishment,
which the offender is sentenced to receive, and generally gets some
recompense for his loss.
On the Sunday after the arrival of the
Landers at Clarence, a party of four Kroomen set off into the
interior, with the full determination of plunder, let the
consequences be what it might. They had not gone far before they met
with a goat belonging to a native, which they immediately shot, and
returned with it carefully concealed, that they might not be
discovered. Their precautions, however, were of little avail, for the
owner of the animal accompanied by a party of his friends, made his
appearance at Clarence the next morning, and preferred his complaint
in strong terms against the luckless Kroomen, whom, it appeared, he
knew perfectly well. The Kroomen were accordingly mustered, and the
very four, who had gone on this unfortunate expedition, were pointed
out with exultation by the natives. The law took its course, the
Kroomen each received one hundred and fifty lashes from the African
drummer, usually employed on these occasions, while the natives stood
by, to see that the punishment was duly performed. This they did to
admiration, by counting the number of lashes 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.
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