ousand of which force is in and about Havana.
To keep such a body of soldiers in order, when governed by the
principles we have described, the utmost rigor is necessary, and
military executions are very frequent. The _garrote_ is the principal
instrument of capital punishment used in the island,--a machine
contrived to choke the victim to death without suspending him in the
air. The criminal is placed in a chair, leaning his head back upon a
support prepared for it, when a neck-yoke or collar of iron is drawn up
close to the throat. At the appointed moment, a screw is turned behind,
producing instantaneous death, the spinal cord being crushed where it
unites with the brain. This, though a repulsive idea, is far more
merciful than hanging, it would seem, whereby life is destroyed by the
lingering process of suffocation. The most common mode of execution,
however, in the army, is the legitimate death of a soldier; and, when he
is condemned, he always falls by the hands of his comrades.

The writer witnessed one of these military executions in the rear of the
barracks that make the seaward side of the _Plaza de Armas_, one fine
summer's morning. It was a fearful sight, and one that chilled the blood
even in a tropical summer day! A Spanish soldier of the line was to be
shot for some act of insubordination against the stringent army rules
and regulations; and, in order that the punishment might have a salutary
effect upon his regiment, the whole were drawn up to witness the scene.
The immediate file of twelve men to which the prisoner had belonged when
in the ranks, were supplied with muskets by their officer, and I was
told that _one_ musket was left without _ball_, so that each one might
hope that his was not the hand to slay his former comrade, and yet a
sense of mercy would cause them all to aim at the heart. The order was
given; the bright morning sun shone like living fire along the polished
barrels of the guns, as the fatal muzzles all ranged in point at the
heart of the condemned. "_Fuego!_" (fire) said the commanding officer. A
report followed, accompanied by a cloud of smoke, which the sea breeze
soon dispersed, showing us the still upright form of the victim. Though
wounded in many places, no vital part was touched, nor did he fall until
his sergeant, advancing quickly, with a single reserved shot blew his
brains over the surrounding green-sward! His body was immediately
removed, the troops were formed into compan