The faded and crumpled bit of worm-eaten parchment, which I value even more than the ancient coins so opportunely acquired at Anegada, is a fragment of the court records of St. Kitts in the good old days, and its scarcely legible writing relates the following:
An assize and generall Gaole delivrie held at St. Christophers Colonie from ye nineteenthe daye of Maye to ye 22n. daye off ye same Monthe 1701 Captaine Josias Pendringhame Magustrate &C. The Jurye of our Soveraigne Lord the Kinge Doe presente Antonio Mendoza of Hispaniola and a subjecte of ye Kinge of Spain for that ye said on or about ye 11 Daye of Apryl 1701 feloneousely delibyrately and malliciousley and encontrarye to ye laws off Almightie God and our Soveraigne Lord the Kinge did in his cuppes saucely and arrogantyly speak of the Governour and our Lord the Kinge and bye force and armes into ye tavernne of John Wilkes Esq. did entre and there did Horrible sware and cursse and did felonoslye use theattenninge words and did strike and cutte most murtherouslye severalle subjects of our Soveraigne Lord the Kinge. Of w’h Indictment he pleadeth not Guiltie butte onne presente Master Samuel Dunscombe mariner did [[143]]sware that said Antonio Mendoza was of his knowenge a Bloodthirste piratte and Guiltie of diabolicalle practises & ye Grande Inquest findinge yt a trewe bill to be tryd by God and ye Countrye w’h beinge a Jurie of 12 men sworne finde him Guiltie & for the same he be adjuged to be carryd to ye Fort Prison to haave both his earres cutt close by his head and be burnet throughe ye tongee with an Hot iron and to be caste chained in ye Dungon to awaitte ye plesyure of God and Our Soveraigne Lord the Kinge.
We cannot but pity the luckless Spaniard who under the spell of Kittefonian rum, or possibly palm toddy, did “Horrible sware and cursse” and who may very likely have been quite innocent of any piratical or “diabolicalle” past, for the British had no love for the Dons and even when nominally at peace with Spain thought little of putting an end to any subject of the Spanish king who came their way. No doubt the very fact that the prisoner was a Spaniard was his undoing; and that worthy mariner Samuel Dunscombe probably perjured himself for the satisfaction of seeing a Don tortured. At any rate, it seems as though having both ears “cutt close” and having one’s “tongee” perforated with a red-hot iron was pretty severe punishment for the alleged crimes. But it only goes to prove how times have changed, and how little we can judge, by present-day standards, of what in those days was cruelty or inhumanity. [[144]]
Also in St. Kitts, though on another visit, I came into possession of an equally interesting souvenir of olden times—a remarkable little volume bearing the rather cumbersome title of: “The True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captain John Smith, in Europe, Asia, Africa and America from Anno Domini 1593 to 1629; his accidents and sea fights in the straits; his service and stratagems of war in Hungaria, Transylvania, Wallachi, and Moldavia, against the Turks and Tartars; his description of the Tartars, their strange manners and customs of religions, diets, buildings, wars, feasts, ceremonies, and living; how he slew the Bashaw of Malbritz in Cambria, and escaped from the Turks and the Tartars; together with a continuation of his General History of Virginia, Summer Isles, New England and their proceedings since 1624 to this present 1629, published in Anno Domini 1630.”
ST. KITTS
Basseterre and Monkey Hill
ST. KITTS
The Circus, Basseterre