THE REGULATORS. 107 



The punishment by castigation is performed in the following manner. 

 The individual convicted of an offence is led to some remote part of the 

 woods, under the escort of sometimes forty or fifty Regulators. When 

 arrived at the chosen spot, the criminal is made fast to a tree, and a few 

 of the Regulators remain with him, whilst the rest scour the forest, to as- 

 sure themselves that no strangers are within reach, after which they form 

 an extensive ring, arranging themselves on their horses, well armed with 

 rifles and pistols, at equal distances and in each other's sight. At a given 

 signal that "all's ready," those about the culprit, having provided them- 

 .selves with young twigs of hickory, administer the number of lashes pre- 

 scribed by the sentence, untie the sufFerer, and order him to leave the 

 country immediately. 



One of these castigations which took place more within my immediate 

 knowledge, was performed on a fellow who was neither a thief nor a mur- 

 derer, but who had misbehaved otherwise sufficiently to bring himself un- 

 der the sentence with mitigation. He was taken to a place where nettles 

 were known to grow in great luxuriance, completely stripped, and so 

 lashed with them, that although not materially hurt, he took it as a hint 

 not to be neglected, left the country, and was never again heard of by 

 any of the party concerned. 



Probably at the moment when I am copying these notes respecting 

 the early laws of our frontier people, few or no Regulating Parties exist, 

 the terrible examples that were made having impressed upon the new set- 

 tlers a salutary dread, which restrains them from the commission of fla- 

 grant crimes. 



