terms of service for every species of crime. One of these fellows boasted that "it was the fourth time he had been imprisoned for rape, and it would [242] not be the last." Another, clapping his hand upon his breast, said, in the proudest tone, "I am no ladron (thief); I am placed here for murder." In Mexico they think murder more honourable than petit larceny, though a large majority of them would steal the value of a pin. The most genteel man among these illustrious convicts was in for killing a priest who was caught kissing his wife. This fellow I often pitied: he had been in good circumstances, but in killing a priest, such was the influence of the Church that all his money could not save him. He was brought there after our arrival, and his wife followed him to prison with a devotion not uncommon among Mexican women. He was a tall, graceful man, about thirty-five years of age, and his keen black eye and Roman nose bespoke a temper fierce as a lion: nor did they belie him. His first act in chains was to beat one of the turnkeys severely for treating him as if he were merely a common prisoner. Almost without exception, these culprits are sunk so low in human degradation, that even an outline of their crimes and modes of life would be incredible to those who had never been an inmate of a Mexican prison.*4 [243]

In the next room, and to the right of our Bexar prisoners, myself and fifteen companions of the Mier men were lodged. At 6 o'clock in the evening, all the prisoners were counted and turned into their respective cells, where they remained until 6 the next morning, when the doors were again opened. At 9 o'clock we were, as usual, counted, and turned over to the new officer of the guard, at which time our men were made first to take the filth out of the castle in handbarrows, and after that to pack in stone and sand to repair the fortification. The stone they had to pack from over a mile and a half from the mountain; the sand a shorter distance. In the performance of this labour, our men, being chained in pairs by the ankle with large log chains, and only about four feet between them, had to walk [244] very close together, and on each hand was a file of guards with fixed bayonets to keep them in order.

* Mr. Myer, in his late work upon Mexico, gives the following graphic description of the "Accordada," one of the public prisons in Mexico, where a portion of our prisoners were confined: "Passing through," says he "several iron and wood barred gates, you enter a lofty corridor, running around a quadrangular courtyard in the centre of which beneath is a fountain of troubled water. The whole of this area is filled with human beings - the great congress of Mexican crime, mixed and mingling, like a hill of busy ants swarming from their sandy caverns. Some are stripped and bathing in the fountain; some are fighting in a corner; some making baskets in another. In one place, a crowd is gathered around a witty story-teller, relating the adventures of his rascally life. In another, a group is engaged in weaving with a handloom. Robbers, murderers, thieves, ravishers, felons of every description, and vagabonds of every aspect, are crammed within this courtyard; and almost free from discipline or moral restraint, form, perhaps, the most splendid school of misdemeanor and villany on the American Continent:" Mr. M. adds, "I did not see the prison for the women but I am told it is much the same as the one I have just described."

In this prison was confined for more than two years our patriotic fellow-citizen, Colonel Antonio Navarro. When this gentleman was visited by Mr. George Van Ness, he assured Mr. V. that he never left the small apartment which, by courtesy of the officers, he was permitted to occupy, for fear that these horrid wretches would commit upon his person a most unnatural crime, common among themselves, but never heard of among the English or their descendants, and too execrable here to be named.