78 



PROVINCE OF RIO DE JANEIRO. 



delightful water excursion, which, added to the charms of the island itself, in- 

 duce all the world to be of the party, and under the religious cloak of these 

 occasions, females always appear in public. A worthy captain of an English 

 merchantman was induced, upon one of those festivals, recently, to accom- 

 pany a party in his own boat ; and, the mode of refreshment being of the pic-nic 

 kind, he came in contact with an adjoining group, including several females, to 

 whom he was tempted to pay some attention, and thereby unconsciously 

 excited the jealousy of a monster in the shape of a human being, who was of 

 the party ; and at the moment of his departure from the island, the boat having 

 only proceeded some yards, a knife was thrown with such unnerring aim at him 

 that it produced his immediate death. That blacks, slaves, and others, are 

 hired to commit such atrocities, by the payment of a small recompense, is a 

 fact aflSrmed to be notorious ; one authenticated instance will be sufficient to 

 show that it is too correct. It is within a short period that the inhabitants of 

 Pria Flemingo were much shocked at the discovery of a dead body upon that 

 beach, decapitated, and in a state of nudity, so that no trace was left to find 

 out who the unfortunate individual might be. This mysterious circumstance 

 excited deep interest, and produced the offer of a reward for the detection of the 

 perpetrator of so foul a deed. During the interval that the matter was involved 

 in uncertainty, it was known to the friars of a monastery that one of their 

 members was missing ; but, it would appear, nothing was said by them regarding 

 the lost brother, from the apprehension, probably, that something vicious or 

 improper might arise out of the investigation, not quite honourable to their 

 sect. At last, from a fear of detection, and a consciousness of guilt, the real 

 culprit came to the determination of communicating the affair to the King, 

 presuming upon the known mercy of his Majesty, which is so unbounded that 

 few persons have suffered the punishment of death since he ascended the throne, 

 although it is possible the royal forbearance may have frustrated, in some 

 instances, the just expiation of guilt.* On this occasion also the criminal was 

 not brought to justice, who, it is ascertained, was a fidalgo, whose jealousy 

 was roused by the frequent visits the friar already mentioned paid to his wife, 

 for the professed purpose of exacting the confessional duties of herself and 



* No one had suffered the penalty of death for a long period before July 22, 1819, when a wretched 

 criminal was hanged. He had «tabbed five or six men, and it was said his punishment would have 

 been commuted for transportation to Africa, had he not imbrued his hands in the blood of a pregnant 

 female, whom he stabbed mortally. 



