open-mouthed and with sharp cutting points, those who underwent this
punishment (for they were made by the ropes at each side, fastened to
their arms, to hug the kelson of the vessel) were cut and scored all
over their body, as if with so many lancets, generally coming up
bleeding in every part, and with their faces, especially their noses, as
if they had been gnawed by the rats; but this was considered rather
advantageous than otherwise, as the loss of blood restored the patient
if he was not quite drowned, and the consequence was, that one out of
three, it is said, have been known to recover after their submarine
excursion. The Dutch have the credit, and we will not attempt to take
from them their undoubted right, of having invented this very agreeable
description of punishment. They are considered a heavy, phlegmatic sort
of people, but on every point in which the art of ingeniously tormenting
is in request, it must be admitted that they have taken the lead of much
more vivacious and otherwise more inventive nations.

[Footnote 2: The author has here explained keel-hauling as practised in
those times in small _fore and aft_ vessels. In large and square-rigged
vessels, the man was hauled up to one main-yard arm, and dropped into
the sea, and hauled under the bottom of the vessel to the other; but
this in small fore and aft vessels was not so easily effected, nor was
it considered sufficient punishment.]

And now the reader will perceive why Corporal Van Spitter was in a
dilemma. With all the good-will in the world, with every anxiety to
fulfil his duty, and to obey his superior officer, he was not a seaman,
and did not know how to commence operations. He knew nothing about
foddering a vessel's bottom, much less how to fodder it with the carcass
of one of his fellow-creatures. The corporal, as we said before, turned
round and round the compass to ascertain if he could compass his wishes;