ly the arbitrariness was necessary to control the
turbulent community, but the cruelty shocked Dale's successor, Governor
Yeardly, who proclaimed that the "cruel laws by which the Ancient
Planters had been governed" should be abolished. Under the laws
proclaimed by Dale, absence from church was a capital offense. One man
was broken on the wheel, one of the few instances known in the colonies.
Blasphemy was punished by boring the tongue with a red hot bodkin; one
offender was thus punished and chained to a tree to die. A Mr. Barnes of
Bermuda Hundred, for uttering detracting words against another Virginia
gentleman, was condemned to have his tongue bored through with an awl,
to pass through a guard of forty men, and be butted by every one of
them. At the end to be knocked down and footed out of the fort, which
must have effectively finished Mr. Barnes of Virginia. Yet Dale was an
ardent Christian, beloved by his pastor, who said he was "a man of great
knowledge in divinity and a good conscience in all things." He is an
interesting figure in Virginia history--a sturdy watch-dog--tearing and
rending with a cruelty equal to his zeal every offender against the
common-weal.

In Maryland blasphemy was similarly punished. For the first offense the
tongue was to be bored, and a fine paid of twenty pounds. For the second
offense the blasphemer was to be stigmatized in the forehead with the
letter B and the fine was doubled. For the third offense the penalty was
death. Until the reign of Queen Anne the punishment of an English
officer for blasphemy was boring the tongue with a hot iron.

A curious punishment for swearing was ordered by the President of the
pioneer expedition into Virginia as told by Captain John Smith. The
English gallants who came to the colony for adventure or to escape
punishment were very tender-handed. They were sent into the woods to cut
down trees for clapboard, but their hands soon blistered under the heavy
axe helves, and the pain caused them to frequently cry out in great
oaths. The President ordered that every oath should be noted, and for
each a can of water was poured down the sleeve of the person who had
been guilty of uttering it. In Haddon, Derbyshire, England, is a relic
of a similar punishment, an iron handcuff fastened to the woodwork of
the banqueting hall. A sneak-cup who "balked his liquor" or any one who
committed any violation of the convivial customs of that day and place,
had his wrist p