"Three kinds of torture have been generally used by the Inquisition, viz. the pulley, the rack, and fire. As sad and loud lamentations accompanied the sharpness of the pain, the victim was conducted to a retired apartment, called the hall of torture, and usually situated under ground, in order that his cries might not interrupt the silence which reigned throughout the other parts of the building. Here the court assembled, and the judges being seated, together with their secretary, again questioned the prisoner respecting his crime, which if he still persisted to deny, they proceeded to the execution of the sentence.
"The first torture was performed by fixing a pulley to the roof of the hall, with a strong hempen or grass rope passed through it. The executioners then seized the culprit, and leaving him naked to his drawers, put shackles on his feet, and suspended weights of one hundred pounds to his ankles. His hands were then bound behind his back, and the rope from the pulley strongly fastened to his wrists. In this situation he was raised about the height of a man from the ground, and in the meantime the judges coolly admonished him to reveal the truth. In this position, as far as twelve stripes were sometimes inflicted on him, according to the inferences and weight of the offence. He was then suffered to fall suddenly, but in such manner that neither his feet nor the weights reached the ground, in order to render the shock of his body the greater.
"The torture of the rack, also called that of water and ropes, and the one most commonly used, was inflicted by stretching the victim, naked as before, on his back, along a wooden horse or hollow bench, with sticks across like a ladder, and prepared for the purpose. To this his feet, hands, and head were strongly bound in such manner as to leave him no room to move. In this attitude he experienced eight strong contortions in his limbs, viz. two on the fleshy parts of the arm above the elbow, and two below, one on each thigh, and also on the legs. He was besides obliged to swallow seven pints of water, slowly dropped into his mouth on a piece of silk or ribbon, which, by the pressure of the water, glided down his throat, so as to produce all the horrid sensations of a person who is drowning. At other times his face was covered with a thin piece of linen, through which the water ran into his mouth and nostrils, and prevented him from breathing. Of such a form did the Inquisition of Valladolid make use, in 1528, towards the licentiate Juan Salas, physician of that city.