Fresh-water shell mounds of the St. John's River, Florida / by Jeffries Wyman.

  • Wyman, Jeffries, 1814-1874.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fresh-water shell mounds of the St. John's River, Florida / by Jeffries Wyman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    87/120 (page 77)
    been killed under the direction of his drunken keeper. The nails were torn off with their teeth as soon as taken ; their fingers were cut off on the day of their execution, then the arms were tied together at the* wrists with a cord, and two men opposite to each other drew it as tight as possible, so that it cut the flesh and crushed the bones of these poor wretches, who groaned horribly. Having the hands thus disposed of they tied them to posts, and the girls and women gave presents to the men in order that they might push the torments of their poor victims to the utmost. I was not present at this execution, for I could not bear such diabolical cruelty, but those who were present told me, as soon as we arrived, that they had never seen anything like it. You could have seen these raging, shouting, howling women, like so many furies, apply fire to the most sensitive parts, pricking them with awls, biting them with their naked teeth, and slitting their flesh with knives, in short doing every- thing which rage could suggest to a woman. They threw upon them fire, burning ashes and heated sand, and when the victims uttered cries the others shouted still louder in order that the groans of the sufferers might not be heard nor the tormentors touched with compassion. They cut the top of the forehead with a knife, removed the skin, and threw hot sand on the naked head. Some of the savages, by way of bravado, wore these skins still covered with hair and moustaches; more than two hundred awl holes in these skins, in fine they practised upon them every cruelty which I have described in relating what I saw at Tadussac, and others which I do not now remember. When the Indians were told that their cruelties were horrible and unworthy of men, they replied, you do not dare to let your enemies live, when the Iroquois capture us they treat us still worse, and that is the reason why we treat them as badly as possible.” “They put to death an Iroquois chief, a strong and brave man; he sang during his tor- ments and when they told him he must die, he said joyfully, go on I am content, I have captured many mountaineers, my friends will take others and avenge my death. He then gave an account of his prowess, bid adieu to his parents, friends and the allies of his nation, and to Captain Flamand, who traded for skins in the country of the Iroquois near the North Sea. After they had cut off his fingers, broken the bones of his arms, torn the skin from his head and had burned and roasted him on all sides, they untied him, when this unfortu- nate creature ran directly to the river to assuage his pains; they recaptured him, subjected him to the fire again. He was wholly blackened, naked, broiled, the fat running from his body, and with all this he fled once more, but was again taken and burned a third time; he finally died amidst his torments.” (Paul le Jeune. Ibid, p. 11.) “ The enemy (Iroquois) landed their prisoners and seizing the body of the one they had killed, tore the heart from the chest, scalped him, cut off the lips and the fleshy parts of the thighs, and boiled and ate them in the presence of their companions.” (Relation de Barthe- lemy de Yimont. 1644, p. 41.) An Iroquois prisoner “stabbed with a knife his Huron captor, severely wounding the lung, a part of which protruded from the wound ; this the surgeon cut off, and having thrown it on the ground, strange to say a Huron picked it up, broiled it and gave it to the wounded man to eat, who swallowed it, singing at the same time.” (Relation de Barthelemy de Yimont. 1644, p. 47.) “ When they get possession of some of their enemies they treat them with all imaginable cruelty. Five or six days are sometimes consumed in glutting their rage, and in burning them with a slow fire; not being content to see their skin broiled they open the legs, the thighs, the arms and the most fleshy parts and thrust into them burning brands or hatchets heated red hot; sometimes in the midst of their torments they oblige them to sing, and those who have the courage do it, hurling thousands of imprecations against those who tor- ment them; on the day of his death the victim must endure still more if he has strength; sometimes, when the pot in which the poor wretch is to be boiled is on the fire, he must still sing with all his might. This inhumanity is wholly intolerable, and so some do not willingly join in these fatal feasts. Having at last murdered him, if he was brave, they tear out his heart, broil it on the coals and distribute it in pieces to the young, for they believe this will give them courage. Others make an incision in the neck and allow the blood to flow, which they say, has this virtue, that when mingled with their own, they can never be surprised by the enemy, but will always be aware of his approaches however secret they may be. They put [the flesh] in pieces into the boiler, and although at other feasts the head, whether of a bear, a dog, a deer, or a large fish, falls to the share of the chief; in this case