{"id":"01KG8AKXAXT4HQRV4A1W8ZDF7T","cid":"bafkreiek5k77l3koi7y5khl4uj33fduigtyry6jkv7qgvndbj7xdpywrum","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":10898,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":10847,"text":"building, we were almost stunned. About five hundred natives were\r\npresent; each apparently having something to say and determined to say\r\nit. His Honour—a handsome, benevolent-looking old man—sat cross-legged\r\non a little platform, seemingly resigned, with all Christian\r\nsubmission, to the uproar. He was an hereditary chief in this quarter\r\nof the island, and judge for life in the district of Partoowye.\r\n\r\nThere were several cases coming on; but the captain and girl were first\r\ntried together. They were mixing freely with the crowd; and as it\r\nafterwards turned out that everyone—no matter who—had a right to\r\naddress the court, for aught we knew they might have been arguing their\r\nown case. At what precise moment the trial began it would be hard to\r\nsay. There was no swearing of witnesses, and no regular jury. Now and\r\nthen somebody leaped up and shouted out something which might have been\r\nevidence; the rest, meanwhile, keeping up an incessant jabbering.\r\nPresently the old judge himself began to get excited; and springing to\r\nhis feet, ran in among the crowd, wagging his tongue as hard as\r\nanybody.\r\n\r\nThe tumult lasted about twenty minutes; and toward the end of it,\r\nCaptain Crash might have been seen, tranquilly regarding, from his\r\nHonour’s platform, the judicial uproar, in which his fate was about\r\nbeing decided.\r\n\r\nThe result of all this was that both he and the girl were found guilty.\r\nThe latter was adjudged to make six mats for the queen; and the former,\r\nin consideration of his manifold offences, being deemed incorrigible,\r\nwas sentenced to eternal banishment from the island. Both these decrees\r\nseemed to originate in the general hubbub. His Honour, however,\r\nappeared to have considerable authority, and it was quite plain that\r\nthe decision received his approval.\r\n\r\nThe above penalties were by no means indiscriminately inflicted. The\r\nmissionaries have prepared a sort of penal tariff to facilitate\r\njudicial proceedings. It costs so many days’ labour on the Broom Road\r\nto indulge in the pleasures of the calabash; so many fathoms of stone\r\nwall to steal a musket; and so on to the end of the catalogue. The\r\njudge being provided with a book in which all these matters are\r\ncunningly arranged, the thing is vastly convenient. For instance: a\r\ncrime is proved,—say bigamy; turn to letter B—and there you have it.\r\nBigamy:—forty days on the Broom Road, and twenty mats for the queen.\r\nRead the passage aloud, and sentence is pronounced.\r\n\r\nAfter taking part in the first trial, the other delinquents present\r\nwere put upon their own; in which, also, the convicted culprits seemed\r\nto have quite as much to say as the rest. A rather strange proceeding;\r\nbut strictly in accordance with the glorious English principle, that\r\nevery man should be tried by his peers. They were all found guilty.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJNJB4TTVM38AAA62BEH5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKXAJ2PTPF85JESZF069C","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.805Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:32.659Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}