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These slaves are wholly in the power of their masters with, respect to any punishment that does not take away life; but if a slave dies in consequence of punishment, though his death should not appear to have been intended, the master is called to a severe account, and he is generally condemned: to suffer capitally. For this reason the master seldom inflicts punishment upon the slave himself, but applies to an officer called a Marineu, one of whom is stationed in every district. The duty of the Marineu is to quell riots, and take offenders into custody; but more particularly to apprehend runaway slaves, and punish them for such crimes as the master, supported by proper evidence, lays to their charge: the punishment however is not inflicted by the Marineu, in person, but by slaves who are bred up to the business. Men are punished publicly, before the door of their master’s house; but women within it. The punishment is by stripes, the number being proportioned to, the offence; and they are given with rods made of rattans, which are split into slender twigs for the purpose, and fetch blood at every stroke. A common punishment costs the master a rixdollar, and a severe one a ducatoon, about six shillings and eight pence. The master is also obliged to allow the slave three dubbelcheys, equal to about seven pence half-penny a week, as an encouragement, and to prevent his being under temptations to steal too strong to be resisted.
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© Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 763, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/763.html