ron.

For kissing a woman in the Street, though but in way of Civil
Salute, Whipping or a Fine (Their way of Whipping Criminals is by
Tying them to a Gun at the Town House, and when so Ty'd whipping
them at the pleasure of the Magistrate and according to the
Nature of the Offence).

For Adultery they are put to Death, and so for Witchcraft, For
that, there are a great many Witches in this Country &c.

Scolds they gag and set them at their own Doors, for certain
hours together for all comers and goers to gaze at. Were this a
Law in England and well Executed it wou'd in a little Time prove
an Effectual Remedy to cure the Noise that is in many Women's
heads.

Stealing is punished with Restoring four-fold if able; if not,
they are sold for some years, and so are poor Debtors. I have not
heard of many Criminals of this sort. But for Lying and Cheating
they out-vye Judas and all the false other cheats in Hell. Nay,
they make a Sport of it: Looking upon Cheating as a commendable
Piece of Ingenuity, commending him that has the most skill to
commit a piece of Roguery; which in their Dialect (like those of
our Yea-and-Nay-Friends in England) they call by the genteel Name
of Out-Witting a Man and won't own it to be cheating.

After mentioning the case of a man in Boston who bought a horse of a
countryman who could not read and gave him a note payable at the "Day
of the Resurrection," etc. Dunton goes on to say: "In short, These
Bostonians enrich themselves by the ruine of Strangers, etc.... But
all these things pass under the Notion of Self-Preservation and
Christian Policy."

It would hardly be fair to quote all this from Dunton's letters unless
we added what he says of Boston in another place; namely, "And though
the Generality are what I have described them, yet is there as sincere
a Pious and truly Religious People among them as is any where in the
Whole World to be found."

-------------------------

It seems to have been quite common at one time to sell prisoners. At
the Supreme Judicial Court in Salem, in November, 1787, "Elizabeth
Leathe of Lynn, for harbouring thieves and receiving stolen goods, was
convicted and sentenced to be whipped twenty stripes and to be sold
for six months." Also at a session of the same Court, held in Boston
in September, 1791, six persons were convicted of theft and sentenced
to be whipped an