Sir,
It is for him, the President of Mexico, to do me justice, or exercise cruelty over my body at his sovereign will. I ask nothing for myself which the laws of civilized warfare do not guaranty to me, and must believe that upon reflection his excellency will concede this much, not only for myself, but my brave companions in arms, whom the fate of war has made prisoners with me.

When his excellency Mr. Packenham, the British minister, visited our prison near the city of Mexico, he led the officers to believe that we would have our parole according to the laws of civilized warfare; instead of which, we have been treated with every species of indignity, insult, and, in some instances, with inhuman cruelty.

At present we are occupying a filthy prison, chained together with cumbrous log-chains, lying upon the dirty floor for a bed, and ordered about by a brutal soldiery as if we were their own miserable Péons. To-day we are ordered out as scavengers [255] of the filth of this whole garrison, and are told that for refusing to disgrace ourselves and our country by a tame obedience of this infamous order, we will be incarcerated in a dungeon in solitary confinement. Be it so; yet the duty we owe respectively to our Creator, country, and ourselves, we never can abuse.

Can it be that those governments, yours among others, which have formally acknowledged our nationality, will longer permit a violation of those laws which are common to the whole civilized world? We hope not; and as your government claims friendship with ours, we most earnestly trust it will not. At the same time, we are grateful for the interest which your excellency has manifested towards us as kin and countrymen, and we beg to tender you our warmest acknowledgments for the same; at the same time, we solemnly protest that the open violation of this law is no