to the
wilds have joined or organised a troop from among the bad characters
in the neighbourhood of their hiding-place.

These executions are not unfrequent at Manilla. One morning, when
riding near the usual place of execution on the sea-beach, I saw six
deserters, who had composed a band of atrocious robbers, suffer death
from the muskets of their former comrades; those who were not killed
at once, having an end put to their existence by the pistols of a
serjeant, who stepped close up to them before discharging the piece.

Truly it was a sad sight to see their former comrades degraded into
executioners. The number of women who had collected to witness the
last act of this tragedy was very great, very much outnumbering the
men present. But they were principally composed of the most worthless
class of females; yet on many of them the example appeared to make
a considerable impression.

I have no doubt, whatever the present popular mawkish
sentimental-mongers may write to the contrary, that these exhibitions,
when happening rarely, tend, in a great measure, to restrain the
passions of the evil-disposed, although some of them may think it
bold, among their hardened associates, to turn the spectacle into a
farce. I firmly believe that no human being can in cold blood look upon
another's death by violent means without being forced to think about
it for some time, greater or less, according to his or her temperament.

For minor offences criminals are sometimes flogged through the
town. They are mounted on horseback, with their legs manacled or
bound under the horse's belly, and a portion of their punishment is
administered at several of the most public places in the town, by
an executioner dressed in red, and with a veil over his face. Thus,
supposing a thief sentenced to receive a hundred lashes or blows,
they would most probably be administered by twenty at a time, in five
different places throughout the capital, proclamation being made at
each place, previous to the punishment, of the offence and of the name
of the offender, who is dressed in the ordinary mode, with a shirt and
pair of trousers, and exposed to the full view of the attending crowd.

Confinement in the jail at night, with labour in irons on the public
roads during the day, is also a usual punishment; criminals being
generally linked in pairs by a chain round the leg of each, and
taken out, under a guard, to work on the streets or roads at Manilla,
Ca