one boatful, which escaped to the Florida Keys and were taken up by a Providence man. Many were the victims destined to punishment; as I was one of the grand jury which sat fifteen days on this business, I had an opportunity of canvassing it well; but the accusations were of so small account that we found only five bills: one of these was against a man for maiming the above said Cutter, whom it seems they had pitched upon as the principal object of their resentment, _and curtailed his ear and two of his fingers_; another for shooting a cow, which, being a capital crime in England, the law making it such was here extended to this province; the others were against the leader and two more for the burglary committed on the provision store. The distress of the sufferers touched us so that we almost unanimously wished for some happy circumstances that might justify our rejecting all the bills, except that against the chief who was a villain. One man was brought before us three or four times, and, at last, was joined in one accusation with the person who maimed Cutter; yet, no evidence of weight appearing against him, I had an opportunity to remark, by the appearance of some faces in court, that he had been marked, and that the grand jury disappointed the expectations of more than one great man. Governor Grant pardoned two, and a third was obliged to be the executioner of the remaining two. On this occasion I saw one of the most moving scenes I ever experienced; long and obstinate was the struggle of this man’s mind, who repeatedly called out that he chose to die rather than be the executioner of his friends in distress; this not a little perplexed Mr. Woolridge, the sheriff, till at length the entreaties of the victims themselves put an end to the conflict in his breast, by encouraging him to act. Now we beheld a man thus compelled to mount the ladder, take leave of his friends in the most moving manner, kissing them the moment before he committed them to an ignominious death. Cutter some time after died a lingering death, having experienced besides his wounds the terrors of a coward in power overtaken by vengeance.”[26]