302 



PRISONS. 



Lima, the dungeons were found filled with prison- 

 ers long forgotten by the courts, and against whom 

 no charge was upon record. The following ex- 

 tract from the Biblioteca Americana, No. 3, (a 

 periodical work recently published in London,) 

 puts this branch of the subject in a strong light : — 

 " In America, as well as in Spain, there were 

 collected together, in obscure, humid, and infect- 

 ed dungeons, men and women, young and old, 

 guilty and innocent ; the hardened in crime, along 

 with those who had erred for the first time ; the 

 patriot and the murderer ; the simple debtor with 

 the most determined robber — all were confounded 

 together. The filth — the wretched fare — -the na- 

 ked ground — the irons — were all in South Ame- 

 rica the same, or even worse than those of Spain. 

 The Alcalde, generally taken from the dregs of 

 the people, was a kind of Sultan ; and his satel- 

 lites, so many bashas, to whose severe and capri- 

 cious decrees the unhappy prisoners were compel- 

 led to submit, without appeal. It is impossible 

 to paint in colours sufficiently vivid the miseries 

 to which all prisoners were subjected, or the in- 

 humanity with which they were treated by their 



