182 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[February/ 
It has been observed by an intelligent traveller, whom we are 
proud to claim as a highly valued friend, that the proas of th© 
Malays are, in form, construction, rigging, and even to the most 
minute particular as respects the hull, precisely similar to the 
vessels of the Mediterranean which are represented in the paint- 
ings of Salvator Rosa, in the Pitti Palace at Florence. This 
artist, we believe, flourished in the fifteenth century. 
The punishment of crimes has ever been severe and rigorous 
in this country ; and there is no commutation admitted, as we 
have seen to be the case among the natives farther south. Petty 
thefts are punished by tor-turing the culprit in various ways, such as 
maiming, amputating, and other kinds of mutilation. Highway 
robbery and burglary, by drowning, and afterward suspending the 
body on a stake for a few days ; but if the robbery has been 
committed on a priest, the criminal is burnt alive ! The adulterer 
is cut to pieces by a mob of the injured husband's friends, and the 
mutilated corpse refused the rights of sepulture. 
At Quallah-Battoo, one of the nominal dependances of Acheen, 
the same rigour is exerciseld towards offenders. A highly intellect 
tual friend has related to us an instance of this severity and cold- 
blooded cruelty, which fell under his own observation, and was 
also witnessed by several other Americans present. A slave, who 
had been condemned to death for a trifling offence, was bound to 
a stake driven in the ground, as a mark for sportsmen to shoot at 
for several hours. The whole village was assembled to witness the 
sport; laughing, shouting, joking, and betting, on the chances, of 
every shot ! The instinctive shrinking of the poor wretch, when 
a musket was levelled at him, and his agonizing supplications for 
mercy, were either unheeded or mocked and ridiculed ! He was 
eventually, after receiving sundry wounds, thrown into the sea, 
where his sufferings were terminated in a watery grave ! 
Such are the pastimes of the inhabitants of Quallah-Battoo ! 
the just punishment of whose outrage on our own flag, and the lives 
of our fellow-citizens, called forth the premature and misplaced 
sympathies of philanthropists, who only erred in permitting their 
feelings to outrun their knowledge of facts, being not fully ac- 
quainted with those peculiar circumstances which imperiously 
demanded the prompt interference of a protecting government. 
The government of Acheen is an hereditary monarchy, and 
