304 



IKFIERNILLOS. 



seventy thousand, there were only two small pri- 

 sons ; and the want of room aggravated the other 

 miseries of the captives beyond all conception. But 

 the most horrible of all prisons was invented in 

 Lima during the viceroy alty of Abascal. " These 

 were subterranean dungeons, constructed in such 

 a manner that a man could not place himself in 

 any natural position whatever. Many persons, 

 victims of despotism, were confined in these holes 

 for years ; and when at length let out, it was only 

 to bewail their own existence, being rendered use- 

 less and helpless for the rest of their lives ; crip- 

 pled, and liable to acute pains and diseases, of an 

 incurable nature.''' The public gave the name of 

 little hells (infiernillos) to these places, and they 

 were allowed to exist in Lima fully a year after 

 the Spanish Constitution had been proclaimed. I 

 was in Lima at the time they were abolished, by 

 a public decree, dated the 19th of December 1821. 

 San Martin, on the 15th of October 1821, visited 

 the prisons of Lima in person, accompanied by the 

 judges and other public officers, who furnished a 

 list of all the prisoners, with an account of the 

 crimes alleged against them. He listened patient- 



