WEST INDIAN BRUTALITY. 7 



they had in their houses, and they, finding no masters to keep them, betook themselves 

 to the woods and fields to hunt for food to preserve their lives; thus by degrees they 

 became unacquainted with houses, and grew wild. This is the truest account I can give 

 of the multitudes of wild dogs in these parts. 



" But besides these wild mastiffs, here are also great numbers of wild horses everywhere 

 all over the island ; they are but low of stature, short-bodied, with great heads, long necks, 

 and big or thick legs : in a word, they have nothing handsome in their shape. They run 

 up and down commonly in troops of 200 or 300 together, one going always before to 

 lead the multitude. When they meet a*ny person travelling through the woods or fields, 

 they stand still, suffering him to approach until he can almost touch them, and then, 

 sudddenly starting, they betake themselves to flight, running away as fast as they can. 

 The hunters catch them only for their skins, though sometimes they preserve their flesh 

 likewise, which they harden with smoke, using it for provisions when they go to sea. 



" Here would be also wild bulls and cows in great number, if by continual hunting 

 they were not much diminished ; yet considerable profit is made to this day by such as 

 make it their business to kill them. The wild bulls are of a vast bigness of body, and 

 yet they hurt not any one except they be exasperated. Their bodies are from eleven to 

 thirteen feet long." 



The cruelty of many of the planters to their slaves, some of whom were kidnapped 

 Europeans, was revolting. A terrible case is that of one of them who had behaved so brutally 

 to a servant that the latter ran away ; after having taken refuge in the woods for some days, 

 he was captured, and brought back to the wicked Pharaoh. No sooner had he get him 

 than he commanded him to be tied to a tree, where he gave him so many lashes on his 

 back that his body ran with an entire stream of blood. Then, to make the smart of his 

 wounds the greater, he anointed him with lemon-juice mixed with salt and pepper. In 

 this miserable posture he left him tied to the tree for four-and- twenty hours, after which 

 lie began his punishment again, lashing him again so cruelly that the miserable wretch gave up 

 the ghost, with these dying words : " I beseech the Almighty God, creator of heaven and 

 earth, that He permit the wicked spirit to make thee feel as many torments before thy 

 death as thou hast caused me to feel before mine!" The sequel is worthy the attention of 

 those who believe in earthly retribution. " Scarce three or four days were past after this horrible 

 fact when the Almighty Judge, who had heard the cries of that tormented wretch, suffered 

 the evil one suddenly to possess this barbarous and inhuman homicide, so that those cruel 

 bonds which had punished to death his innocent servant were the tormentors of his own body ; 

 for he beat himself and tore his own flesh after a miserable manner till he lost the very 

 shape of a man, not ceasing to howl and cry without any rest by day or night. Thus he 

 continued raving mad till he died. Many other examples of this kind I could rehearse. The 

 planters of the Caribbee Islands are rather worse and more cruel to their servants than the 

 former. In the Isle of St. Christopher a planter was known to have killed above a hundred 

 of his slaves with blows and stripes." And, if Esquemeling is to be believed, the English 

 planters of the period were little better. 



The first pirate of Tortuga was Pierre le Grand, or Peter the Great. He was born at 

 Dieppe, in Normandy. The action which rendered him famous was his taking the vice- 



