| Title | flat edged truncheons also of wood about a yard long |
| Origtitle | "How sentinels are punished for sleeping at their posts" |
| Variants | Plate 32 |
| Caption | "When a town has been burned because of a sentinel's carelessness, he is brought before the chief to receive punishment. The chief sits alone, his principal men placed on a long, semi-circular bench near by. The executioner orders the sentinel to kneel down before the chief. When this has been done, he sets his left foot on the offender's back, and with a sharp-edged cub made of ebony or some other hard wood, he strikes him a blow on the head hard enough to split open the skull. The same penalty is used for other crimes; while we were there, two men were thus punished." |
| Source | Lorant, Stefan (ed.). The New World: The First Pictures of America made by John White and Jacques le Moyne and Engraved by Theodore de Bry. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1946. |
| Date | 1564 |
| Creator | Theodor de Bry (Engraver); Jacques le Moyne de Morgues (Artist) |
| Type | Engraving |
| Copyright | 1946 |
| Origin | Scanner |
| Notes | Picture courtesy of Dr. Charles Ewen. |
flat edged truncheons also of wood about a yard long
Additional Notes
This truncheon business has puzzled many archaeologists. None, to my knowledge, have been found in the archaeological record. There is a DeBry engraving showing a prisoner being executed with an implement that may be what is being referred to (see the upper left corner of the attached image), although the Indian in the image is Timucuan (NE Florida) rather than from the Eastern North Carolina area. - Dr. Charles Ewen