160 EARLY CAREER OF MR. NOBBS. 
actions, a short account of which may be 
interesting in this place, the reader will infer, 
that Mr. JSTobbs's rescue from his hands was 
indeed a providential event. 
Having been made prisoner by the royalists, 
Benevideis entered their army, and, being taken 
soon after, was sent to be tried as a deserter ; 
but he escaped by setting fire to the hut in 
which he was confined, and soon distinguished 
himself among the royalists by his talents and 
bravery. Again he was taken prisoner, and 
sentenced to be shot in company with many 
others. He fell with the rest; but, though 
thought to have been executed, was not killed ; 
and he afterwards joined the patriots. Being, 
however, suspected and accused by their gene- 
ral, San Martin, of treachery, he once more 
turned against them ; and hence arose the atro- 
cities with which Benevideis is charged. He 
murdered his prisoners in cold blood ; and his 
great delight was to invite the captured officers 
to an elegant entertainment, and after they had 
eaten and drunk, march them into his court- 
yard, while he stood at the window to see them 
shot. Some, to whom he had promised safety, 
he delivered over to the Indians, of whose 
barbarous customs with regard to prisoners of 
war he was well aware ; and they were cruelly 
murdered. 
His cause having failed, he fitted out a 
privateer, to provide himself with food and 
ammunition; and at length, on the 1st of 
February, 1822, finding that he could hold out 
no longer, he attempted to escape to one of the 
