Pointe Coupee Democrat. [volume] (False River [i.e. New Roads], Parish of Pointe Coupee [La.]) 1858-1862, 1858-05-29
THE EXECUTION GROUND At
CANTON.

Threading our way under the guidance
of some experienced friend, (says a cor
respondent of the London Times, we
come to a carpenters shop fronting the
entrance to a small Potter's field. 1t is
a road in an area, Of an irregular shape,
resembling most an obiong. A row of
cottages open into it on one side there
is q wall on the other. The ground is
covered with half baked pottery. There
are two wooden crosses, formed Of I'M
barked wood. standing in an angle with
- shred Of rotten rope hanging from one
Of them. There is nothing to fix the
attention in this small enclosure, except
that you stumble against a human skull
now and then, as you walk along 1t.
This is the Aceldama--the field of blood
the cxecution-ground ofCanton. The
upper part of that carpenters shop is
the place where nearly all the European
residents have, at the price OF a dollar
each witnessed the wholesale massacres
@ (which Europe has heard with a hcslta-
ting s~kepticism. 80.
It is within this yard that the monster
Yal has, within two years destroyed the
lives of seventy thousand fellow-beings.
These crosses are the instruments to
which those victims were tied who We're
condemned to the special torture OF
being sliced to death. Upon one OF
these the wife of q rebel general was
stretched, and by Yeh's order her flesh
was cut from her body.
After the battle of Whampoa the re-
bel leader escaped, but his wife fell IN
to- the hands of Yeh-that was how he
treated his prisoner. Her breasts We're
first cut off, then her forehead slashed
and the, skin torn down over her face,
then the feshy parts of the body We're
sliced away There are Englislmen yet
alive who saw this done but at what
period of the butchery sensation ceased
and death came to this poor innocent
woman none cantell. The fragment of
rope (which now hangs to n of the
crosses, was used tobind q woman who
was cut up for numbering her husband.
The sickening details of the massacres
perpetrated on this spot have been re-
lated to me by those who have seen
them, and who take shame 10 themselves
while they confess that, after witnessing
one execution by cutting on the cross,
tile rapidity and dexterity with which
the mere befleading Wastdone, deprived
the execution Of loo men of half its hor-
ror.3 The criminals were brought down
in gangs, if theyconld walk. or brought
down i'm chairs. and shot out into the
yard.
The executioners then arranged them
in rows, giving. them q blow behind
which forced'out the head and neck, and
laidIthem convenient for the blow.
Then came the warrant of death. 1t is
abanner. As soon as it wavedin sight,
without verbal order given, the work
began. There was o rapid succession
Of duh sounds--chop, chop, chop, chop,
No second blow was ever dealt, Tor the
: dexterous man-slayers are educated TO
! their work. Until they can with their
d heavy swords slice agreatbuibous veg
. etable as thin as we slice cucumbers,
. theycare not eligible for their office. In
one minute five executioners clear OH
Zone hundred lives. Ittakes rather longer
; for the assistants to cram the bodies into
rough collins, especially as you might
see them examining two into n shell,
that they might embezzle the spare
wooden box. The heads were carried
off in boxes. The saturated earth was
of value as manure. f'z.' f's' zs'-
nl~The WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT OF