MANAOS AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD. 289 
building destined for the detention of criminals. There 
were but a few prisoners, some of whom were already 
condemned. I formed a favorable judgment of them all, 
for it seemed to me they must have either great confidence 
in their own innocence, or scruples as to compromising the 
few soldiers who acted as guards. In no other way could 
I explain the fact that they remained in prison, when 
flight seemed so easy." I well remember one evening 
when walking in Teffe seeing a number of men leaning 
against the wooden grating of a dimly lighted room in 
a ruinous thatched house, and being told that this was 
the prison. I asked myself the same question which pre- 
sented itself to the President's mind, why these wild- 
looking, half-naked creatures had not long ago made their 
escape from a prison whose bars and bolts would hardly 
have imposed restraint upon a child. The report con- 
tinues : " A more decent and, above all, a more secure 
prison at this point, the most important in the whole 
Solimoens, is an .urgent and even indispensable necessity. 
Of the sixteen prisons in the whole province, only two, 
that of the capital and of Barcellos, have their own build- 
ings. With these exceptions, the prisoners occupy either 
a part of the houses of the legislative chambers, or are 
placed in private houses hired for the purpose, or in the 
quarters of the military detachments. In these different 
prisons 538 prisoners were received during the current 
year, inclusive of recruits and deserters." This last 
clause, "inclusive of recruits and deserters," and the 
association of the two classes of men together, as if 
equally delinquent, touches upon a point hardly to be 
overlooked by the most superficial observer, and which 
makes a very painful impression on strangers. The sys- 
13 B 
