158 IMPRISONMENT. — THE STOMBS. [l^94- 



Guilty/ to an obscure Prison which I may well call a 

 Dungeon, and there laid in Stombs} These Stonihs are a sort 

 of Stocks compos'd of two thick Beams of Wood, which 

 having two Semicircular Holes made in them, were let 

 down upon our Ancles ; moreover, we were to lie upon the 

 Ground with our Heels higher than our Heads, which is a 

 Posture you may conceive not very easie. The difference 

 between us Three, and our two Comrades that had own'd 

 their Crime, was, that they had tlie next day Irons of thirty 

 Pound weight added to their Misery. We continu'd in this 

 bad Condition two Days and two Nights, at the end of which 

 we Three that were Innocent were set at Liberty. We were 

 immediately carry'd to the Governor as before, who declar'd 

 to us anew, that our Innocence was well known to him, and 

 that we had been entirely clear'd both by the Accuser and 

 the Accused. He added moreover Treacherously,^ that he 

 should always have a kindness for us, and that we should 

 find our Treatment answerable to his Promise at our first 



1 In orig. ; " pretendus coupables." 



^ In orig. : Ces Stomhs sont composez de deux pieces de bois assez 

 grosses, dontl'une s'abaisse sur I'autre ; & qui ayaiit chacune une double 

 echancrure faite en demi rond I'une vis-a-vis de I'autre, sont ensemble, 

 quand elles sont approchees, deux trous ou les jambes se trouvent pass^es 

 & prises si au juste, qu'il n'est pas possible de les retirer." The 

 word '■^Stombs" given in the French edition, as well as in the English 

 version, is not recognisable as a Dutch term ; indeed, the Dutch trans- 

 lator of the book in Leguat's own time renders the word balk or 

 balken, i.e., clamp or clamps, which are simply pieces of wood like the old- 

 fashioned English stocks, celebrated in HmUbras. The French word 

 bloc (or estrapade) is the nearest French equivalent. In the frontis- 

 piece of a curiously illustrated work on the Dutch criminal jurisprudence 

 — Practijcke in Criminele saccken ghcmaeckt, by Joost de Damhouder 

 (Rotterdam, 1642) — there is a representation of the Dutch halken, in 

 which the wooden blocks are broader, taller, and more square than those 

 of the old English stocks. 



3 In orig. : '' ce Dieu-donne indigne,'' omitted by the translator. A 

 play upon the name " Diodati", evidently derived from the Latin ; 

 indeed, Misson may here intend a covert allusion to the Pope Adeodatus, 

 the successor of Vitalianus, a.d. 672-67G. {Vide t>nj)ra, p. G5.) 



