298 NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP, however, fhould be ofFended with this fliocking exhibi- 

 XXVII. tion, and my dwelling {o long on this unpleafant fubjedt, 

 let it be fome relief to his refledlion, to confider this pii- 

 nifhment not inflicted as a wanton and unprovoked adl of 

 cruelty, but as the extreme feverity of the Surinam laws, 

 on a defperate wretch, fufFering as an example to others 

 for complicated crimes ; while at the fame time it cannot 

 but give me, and I hope many others, fome confolatioii 

 to refled; that the above barbarous mode of punifhment 

 was hitherto never put in pra6lice in the Britifh colonies. 



I mull now relate an incident, which, as it had a mo- 

 mentary efFedl on my imagination, might have had a laft- 

 ing one on fome who had not inveftigated the real caufe of 

 it, and which it gave me no fmall fatisfa6lion to difcover. 

 About three in the afternoon, walking towards the place 

 of execution, with my thoughts full of the affe£ling fcene, 

 and the image of the fufferer frefh in my mind, the firft 

 objecSl I faw was his head at fome diftance, placed on a 

 ftake, nodding to me backwards and forwards, as if he 

 had really been alive. I inftantly flopped fhort, and 

 feeing no perfon in the favannah, nor a breath of wind 

 fufficient to move a leaf or a feather, I acknowledge that I 

 was rivetted to the ground, where I ilood without having 

 the refolution of advancing one ftep for fome time ; till 

 refie6ling that I muft be weak indeed not to approach this 

 dead fkull, and find out the wonderful phaenomenon, if 

 poffible, I boldly walked up, and inftantly difcovered the 

 natural caufe, by the return of a vulture to the gallows, 

 § who 



