Chap. VII. AXGLO- AMERICAN MASTERS. 295 
advanced with a heavy mule-whip, I stepped aside to avoid 
witnessing any further proceedings. 1, however, heard 
the lad called upon to confess, and his repeated assertion 
of his innocence. Then the lash descended — " For the 
love of God, sir, do not beat me!" — "Speak! confess!" 
— A second time the whip descended. — " For the sake of 
your mother's life, sir, do not strike me ! " — " Speak ! 
confess ! " — A third stroke followed. — " For the sake of the 
beautiful eyes of your wife ! Stop ! I will confess." The 
lad now confessed that the thief had threatened him with 
death should he betray him ; that hereupon he had let the 
horse pass out, and the thief ride off while he was on 
guard, without raising an alarm ; but that he knew nothing 
more, and was no further implicated in the theft. 
Such occurrences frequently happen in the North 
American trading-caravans, in whose service Mexicans 
are engaged ; and these people are, indeed, under the 
Anglo-Americans in a position quite unprotected by law. 
The conductors of the caravans subject them to penal 
discipline, which is allowed neither by the laws of the 
United States nor by those of the Mexican Republic ; for 
in Mexico, the law gives the master no right to the cor- 
poral chastisement of his peons. The Mexican victim of 
Anglo-American violence there has, commonly, no legal 
protection : the most distant attempt to deal with an 
Anglo-American, who has hired himself out as a labourer, 
as is so frequently done with Mexicans on the journey and 
in the frontier places, would doubtless result in the instant 
death of any one who should venture the attempt ; and not 
until the Mexicans, in their intercourse with Anglo- 
American masters, venture their lives in resisting attempts 
against their honour and liberty, in the same decided 
manner, will they be secure from such treatment. He 
