34
ROCK DUNGEON.
masters who thought thirty-nine lashes* too mild a punishment for such crimes : they would rather take the law into their own hands, and flog their slaves by the hour. They liked to see mangled bodies,—to hear heart-rending groans, and have the supreme felicity of ordering them back to their dungeons, garnished, perhaps, with chains, as in the case of Mr. . I have laid before my readers, or at least endeavoured to do so, slaves' crimes and slaves' punishments ; and it is for them to say whether they deserved such severe discipline. In another part I shall have to enlarge upon the vices of negroes, and their perverseness of disposition; but it now remains for me to give one or two more instances of cruelty ; and I will then banish from these pages the melancholy subject. A gentleman of this island, as I have been made to understand, had a female mustee slave belonging to him. This slave committed some misdemeanor, whether great or small I am unable to say ; but at all events, her master had her locked up for the night in à place of horrors, called the “ Rock Dungeon." The woman was in the last stage of pregnancy ; in that place, removed from all assistance, she was confined during the night ; and when the morning came, and that den of misery was opened, her poor baby was found to be devoured by the rats ! This deed was done by one of our great men, an honourable too. It may be said, he could not foresee the catastrophe, and the woman might have given him great provocation, which no doubt she did ; but still, would any humane master have shut up a female in such a condition in such a place ? By the advice of the magis* By the Mosaic law, criminals were not to receive more than forty stripes at one time, and for one offence ; but that there might be no fear of breaking the commandment, the Jews were in the habit of giving one less than the allowed number. Their whips were made with three thongs, or tails, and with this instrument the criminals received thirteen stripes, making the number of blows thirty-nine. Now the implement used for whipping negroes was a cat, with nine tails ; and as thirty-nine lashes were given with it, the poor slaves received altogether 351 stripes at one time—a humane punishment, it must be allowed ! f See Chapter XLIII.