1827. 



PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. "[Ql 



Pere Gaubil, quoting Supao-Koang,* after enumerat- 

 ing several articles of trade, says " tout cela se vende 

 et s'achete, ou par echange ou en deniers de cuivres de May, 

 la Chine." 



Our countrymen were further led to believe, from 

 what they saw of the mild and gentle conduct of the 

 superior orders in Loo Choo towards their inferiors, 

 that the heaviest penalty attached to the commission 

 of a crime was a gentle tap of a fan. Our friend with 

 his bamboo cane, who was put on board to preserve 

 order among his countrymen, afforded the first and 

 most satisfactory evidence we could have had of this 

 being an error, and had we possessed no other means 

 of information, his conduct would have favoured the 

 presumption of more severe chastisement beine; occa- 

 sionally inflicted. It happened, however, fortunately 

 that I had purchased in China a book of the punish- 

 ments of that country, in which the refined cruelty of 

 the Chinese is exhibited in a variety of ways. By 

 showing these to the Loo Choo people, and inquiring 

 if the same were practised in their country, we found 

 that many of their punishments were very similar. 

 Those which they acknowledged were death by stran- 

 gulation upon a cross, and sometimes under the most 

 cruel torture ; and minor punishments, such as loading 

 the body with iron chains ; or locking the neck into a 

 heavy wooden frame ; enclosing a person in a case, 

 with only his head out, shaved, and exposed to a scorch- 

 ing sun ; and binding the hands and feet, and throw- 

 ing quicklime into the eyes. I was further assured 

 that confession was sometimes extorted by the un- 

 heard-of cruelty of dividing the joints of the fingers 



* Ibid, p. 4'02, Lettres Edifiantes. 



