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 Tefife 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- 



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