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ASSASSINS. 



349 



some persons who had been commissioned to 

 perform this deed in revenge of some real or 

 imagined injury which the man had committed. 

 This determined my proceedings j tfoe following 

 morning I set off with the manager and a ser- 

 vant, to see the wounded man. 1 found him 

 at his father's house, in most woeful plight ; his 

 face was dreadfully lacerated, and his body 

 much bruised ; the work had been done by 

 bludgeons, and evidently in fear, else the task 

 would have been performed less clumsily and 

 more effectually. I never could discover by 

 whom the murder was intended, nor the persons 

 who attempted it ; they were dressed in leather, 

 like unto Sertanejos ; but the sufferer imagined 

 that this costume was made use of as a disguise. 

 Two men sprang out upon him, in a narrow 

 lane which had high banks on each side ; he 

 defended himself for some time with his sword, 

 but they overpowered him at last, and his wea- 

 pon was the only part of his property which they 

 carried off. I removed altogether from Mon- 

 teiro in a few days ; my presence had long been 

 necessary at Jaguaribe, for the mill was at work, 

 and, as frequently happens in every country, 

 some of the persons who were employed had not 

 remained empty handed. 



The poor fellow who had been waylaid soon 

 returned to the plantation ; he told me that 

 every night large stones were thrown violently 



