The Columbus journal., 1885-04-15
THE CAILETS.
How Prisoners Were Formerly Tor m ed n
til L. ..cI. taIieys

til f.""ci. ALLEYS
We suppose h. ''~isn,!a'Or tempori:
eri' Ii never entirely disappear.
Thee Wi always lie found those who
VIII ma nta;a III t the former days were
better than shs prcsen'. and tat the
affairs o Ia 5 world do not move so
smoothly Il, n Old tnn"s.
Undoubt dly tn r. msv be reason in
such assertions, as n some instances
our days sh-w a deg-na at on from
those of oar fore:ather !; tn. b-lief in
the overruiing prov.d nee and good
ness of God. The respect of youth to-
ward old age, he sentiment o. OBJ
dience to t e commands OF law, We fear
have 20 Il SON WHAT OF their influence
over the actual generation.
But without stopping to enumerate
the manr points Il wnicl u W age
has m de : decid d advance over those
that have prec Did It. let u merely re-
fleet on the pc it:on of prisoners and
sailors of the present day As compared
with thOse when men were condemned
and not aiwi"s for crimes committed
to tie living death of the galleys:
Baras de la p ure. who served forty
years as al Officer in a galley, thus
writes in l7l3 Of them:
Those who enter a galley for the
first time are surprised to see so many
souls on board. There are. in fact. in
Europe an iniinity of villages which
do not cOnta n so many inhabitants.
But that which cause still more aston
ishment is to find SO many men in so
small a space. 1t is true that the
greater part have not the liberty to lie
down at full length. Seven men are
put on each bench; that is. in a space
of about four feet wide by ten in length.
At the prov are to be seen even thirty
sailors, who have no other lodging
place than the plans des rambadeS.
which are two spaces of two feet in
length by eighteen wide. From stern
to PROV one can see moth ng but heads.
The captain and officers are hardly
any better lodged. their only refuge is
the poop. which. considering its size.
one is tempted to compare with the
tubof Diogenes. When the pitiless wind
from Lydia, sweeping across the Ro-
man beaches, surprised the galleys on
the sea: when the ;mpetuOus Aguilon
assailed them, or the Gulf of Lyons do
livered them to the humid wind OF
SYRIA, the gallcys must have been an
image Of hell itself. The mournful Ia
m%entations and frightful cries Of the
crew, the horrible howlings of the
chain-gang. the grOaning of the vessels
frame. mingled with the no Sc Of chains
- <la ,>,n~ Of thu. fannnnsf nlIst
have produced a sentiment OF
terror in the most intrepid heart.
Rain. hail. lightning. the hab tual
Accomplishments of these violent
storms. the waves washing over the
decks, added to the horror of the situa-
ton. Although people are not gener-
allv very deyout in the galleys, some
would then b. seen praying to God.
while others were Offering vows to all
the saints. Some even. IN spite OF the
rocking of the vessel. would try to
make p;lgrimages on board! Much
better would it have been for them not
TO forget God and his saints as soon as
the danger WAS past
Calm wcathcrit>e!f hasits %incoaven-
fences: Bad Sm lis are then so offen-
sIve that the. can not be escaped from.
in spite Of the snuff w tn which you
are obliged to fill your nOse from morn
ing to night. There are always on a
galley certain little pests which are the
torment of the inhabitants. Flies exer-
else their empire by day, bugs by
night. fleas and lice day and night.
Whatever precautions may be taken.
one can not succeed in getting free
from these annoyances. The frightful
vermin do not respect even cardinals,
ambassadors. or crowned heads
With respect to the size of the gal
leys, the largest of those in the six
teenth and seventeenth centuries had a
length of about forty-seven to fifty-fve
meters, by not quite six meters in
width. They were of very light draft.
and consequently shallow, were moved
by fifty oar of twelve meters in length.
and carried a crew in all of about four
hundred in that circumscribed space.
Here is the testimony of Jean Mar
seille dc Bergerac. who in l7Ol was
condemned to serve in the French gal
leys for the crime of being a Protest
ant. and therefore speaks from a bitter
experience of many years:
..All the cOnvictS are chained to
benches. six to each. These are four
feet from each other. and are covered
with Il sack stuffed with wool, over
which is thrown a sheepskin that de-
scends to the fOOtrest. The cOmite,
that is, the matter of the chain-gang.
stands at the stern, near the captain,
TO receive his orders. There are two
sous comites-One in the middle. the
other at the prov. Each is armed with
q whip, which is applied to the naked
bodies of the slaves. When the cap
tain gives orders to weigh, the comite
gives the signal with a silver whistle
that hangs from his neck. This signal
is repeated by the ~sous-cOmites. and
Immediately the slaves beat the water
with their oars together; you would
saw that the fifty oars were but one.
Imagine six men chained to bench.
naked as when they were born. one foot
on the rest, the other on the bench in
front, holding in their hands al oar of
enormous weight, stretching their bod
les toward the stern of the galley, their
arms extended so as to push their oar
above the backs of the rOwcrs before
them. who themselves take the same
attitude. The oar being thus advanced.
they raise the end they hold so as to
plunge the other in the sea-; this done.
they throw themselves back and fall on
their seat, which bends beneath their
weight. The galley slave thus rows
sometimes ten, twelve, and eve twenty
hours in succession without a single
stop. On such occasions the comite
would thrust a piece of bread soaked in
wine into the mouths of the poor oars
men to prevent their fainting. Then
the Captain would command the cOmite
to redouble his blows. If n Of the
poor wretches fell exhausted over his
oar, which frequently happened, he
was fogged until he was supposed to
be dead, and then cast into the sea
without CEREMONY
What an idea of human misery and
suffering does the foregoing picture
conveY!-BostOn Transcript.
Growth Of Mormonism.