PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
487 
ments of that country, in which the refined cruelty of the Chinese is CHAP, 
exhibited in a variety of ways. By showing these to the Loo Choo 
people, and inquiring if the same were practised in their country. May, 
we found that many of their punishments were very similar. Those 
which they acknowledged were death by strangulation upon a cross, 
and sometimes under the most cruel torture ; and minor punishments, 
such as loading the body with iron chains ; or locking the neck into a 
heavy wooden frame ; enclosing a person in a case, with only his head 
out, shaved, and exposed to a scorching sun ; and binding the hands 
and feet, and throwing quicklime into the eyes. I was further assured 
that confession was sometimes extorted by the unheard-of cruelty of 
dividing the joints of the fingers alternately, and clipping the muscles 
of the legs and arms with scissars. Isaacha Sando took pains to explain 
the manner in which this cruelty was performed, putting his fingers 
to the muscles in imitation of a pair of sheers, so that I could not be 
mistaken : besides, other persons at Potsooiig told me in answer to my 
inquiry, for I was rather sceptical myself, that it was quite true, and that 
they had seen a person expire under this species of torture. However, 
lest it should be thought I may have erred in attaching such cruelties to 
a people apparently so mild and humane, I shall insert some questions 
that w^ere put to the Loo Chooans out of Dr. Morrison’s Dictionary, 
and their answers to them respectively. 
“ Do the Loo Choo people torture and interrogate with the lash ? ” 
“Yes.” — “Do they examine by torture?” “Yes.”— “Do they give 
false evidence through fear of torture?” “ Yes.” — “ Are great officers 
of the third degree of rank and upwards, who are degraded and seized 
to be tried, subjected to torture ?’' “ No.” — “ Is torture inflicted in an 
illegal and extreme degree?” “Not illegal.”. — “Do you torture to 
death the real offender ?” “ Yes, sometimes.” — “ What punishment do 
you inflict for murder?” “ Kill, hy hanging or strangulation* — “ For 
robbery?” “The same.” — “For adultery?” Banish to Patanjan” 
(probably Pat-chong-chan, an island to the south-west of Typingsan). — 
“ For seduction?” “The same.” Minor offences we were told were 
punished with a bambooing or a flagellation with a rod. Crimes are 
* The words in italics were implied by signs. 
