The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-29 00:00:00

MEXICAN BRIGANDAGE.

The Mexican correspondent of the Baltimore
Commercial gives an account of the country,
which, however surprising, is we believe strictly
and literally true. The great institution of Mexico
is brigandage. No Mexican will work if he can
live without it. Respectable employment can
scarcely be had. The professions are limited, the
avenues of promotion outside the army are inacces-
sible to the moderately educated ; therefore men
must either labour or enter the bandit profession.

Forty thousand soldiers were discharged in August
last, and turned loose upon society, and the great

mass of them went to reinforce the brigand bawls.

Society, as a whole, does not condemn these high-
waymen. A noted robber may in Mexico be ad-
mitted to good society and rise to civil distinction,
and when the man abandons the road, his career
on it, if distinguished, is rather a feather in
his cap. The correspondent recognised a robber
that he had formerly met on the road, in the streets
of the city, and he rose to high rank in the army.

The Government earnestly endeavours to root out
this curse. A force of 20,000 men, and a swarm
of civil employes wage incessant war upon it, and
the weekly list of slaughtered ladrones as officially
published is appalling. From one to fifteen are
daily executed, yet brigandage is on the increase.
The death penalty, the rattle of musketry, the hun-
dreds monthly swept into robber graves, do not
even check the great national business of presta-
moing, robbing, and throat cutting. The road
guards have authority to shoot without trial before
a civil tribunal, and they carry it into effect with-

out mercy. The criminal code is almost uniform
in all the States, and so rigid, that stopping a dili-
gence, forcibly entering a building, or taking the
slightest article, is punishable with death ; and the
military can carry it into effect without even a form
of trial. The robbers, however, meet the case with
a nonchalance that argues an utter disregard for life.
They kill a man without a particle of remorse, and
when the law sends them to execution, there is no
shaking or supplicating, or begging for mercy. The
executions are pure business transactions, the ut-

most good humour prevailing, in which the culpri

is as gay as the rest. Smoking and drinking con

tinue even to the moment of death ; and there is no
repentance, as they recognize no sin in taking what
the world owes them. It is not the bullet or the
halter the bandit fears ; there is more dread to him
in the chain-gang, and more than all in the whip-
ping-post. But though the robbers thus fearlessly
meet their end, a travelling Mexican seldom risks
his life for the property he carries. A couple of
highwaymen have been known to rob a diligence
full of armed men, and even women have made twice
their number of male travellers " stand and deliver."

As a general rule, therefore, the danger to the rob
bers is not in acting against travellers, where they
seldom meet with resistance, while in some districts
to d
they are sufficiently strongnationalteloss
troops, and even to plunder towns without theithout the
of a man. But they constantly come into collision
with the soldiers ; and in all cases they have proved
their superiority. They are generally mounted, and
work in troops of from five to eight hundred. There
are at present in the field a band of 500, operating
west of Queretaro, on whose banner is inscribed
I' Long Live the Empress." Two months ago they
entrapped two new regiments, killing every officer,
enlisting the surviving privates, and thus com-
pletely annihilating both. These work with the
double purpose of supporting themselves and with
a political object. The gentlemen of the road are
generally fine-looking, well-dressed fellows, with au
air of dash, and a gentlemanlike manner. They crave
for jewellery ; rings and diamond pins are eagerly
gathered. In a twinkling their expert hands relieve
a dozen persons of their purses, watches, or shawls.
Then they light their cigars, offer them to the de-
spoiled, and bowing low are lost in the thick under-
growth. The following incident is given of the
politeness of a Mexican robber :—" Once upon a
time, on a journey from Mazatlan on the Pacific,
to Guadaljara, with three ladies, four children, and
an old man of 70 years, in the diligen, a well
mounted, well-organised troop of menn over-
hauled us. To show fight under the circumstances
would have been madness. We submitted gra-
ciously, losing money and watches—no more. It
was at a time when the road swarmed with ban-
dits. A view of the situation indicated very clearly
our condition. The next band w take our
clothes and rifle our baggage. The next one, find-
ing nothing else, would take our lives. Indeed,
when a man permits himself to
robbe rob bed, it is
is
necessary to have something to be bed of. H
person will suffer for his poverty. Our case was
submitted to the robber chief, and the old man and
our Spanish spokesman was eloquent and compli-
mentary. He touched the right cord, for the chief
wheeled his horse, ordered his men in front and
rear of us, and motioned the driver t push on. He
remained with us all that day ; drove o and talked off
no less than four robber bands, and saw us safely
in the garrita at Guadaljara. Since the close of the
late war I saw on the streets of the capitol this same
robber chief, now an officer, high in rank, in the
national army." It will be readily believed that
the bandits do not always escape unscathed in these
attacks. Their information is perfect as to the
movements, the nationality, and the valuables of
travellers, and they have
rica learned to
uses pecexpe-
t the
property of Englishmen and
rience has shown them that they run no slight risk
in attacking parties among whom they are nume-
rous. Some time ago an American and an Englishman,
well armed, took passage in the diligence for Vera
Cruz, and when near Puebla were halted by a
well-mounted baud of seven. As usual, prepara-
tory shots were fired to " bring the diligence to."
In a minute Smith and Lyons were in position out-
L side, and as the robbers advanced, opened fire upon
them. Every shot told, and in a very short time
and the rest were
. , four of the assailants lay dead,

fleeing to the chapparel. The diligence was then
driven to Puebla, where the victors were acquitted
and an escort furnished them. The robbers ga-
thered in force on the road for the purpose of
avenging their comrades, and determined to slaugh-
ter every passenger. But the guard was too strong,
and the plucky travellers arrived in safety at Vera
Cruz. Since this encounter few feints are made.
The robbers come up at a gallop, firing into the
coach and at the mules indiscriminately. If pas-
sengers resist and are overpowered no quarter is
shown them. Under the most favourable circum-
stances a refusal to surrender valuables will sub-
ject the traveller to the most brutal treatment.
As a sample of what American or English travel-
lers are to expect who place any trust in Mexi-
cans, no matter how earnest their professions,
the correspondent relates this incident :--" Some
months ago a party of eight —one American
and seven Mexicans—left the capital for Puebla in
the morning diligence. All were armed with re-
volvers. As some of the party carried valuables,
it was agreed, before starting, to resist any attack
made upon them. On the first alarm each man
was to alight, take position as he saw fit, and fight
without orders. Yorke, the American, carried two
of Colt's revolvers. Thirty miles east of the capi-
tal a band of fifteen robbers:issued from the woods,
and immediately opened a heavy fire with pistols
and carbines upon the diligence. Young Yorke
jumped from the coach, as agreed upon, calling
upon his comrades to follow ; and taking his
place between two of the dead mules, killed by
a robber's shot, returned the fire. He stood
there with the fire of the whole pack directed
against him. Eight shots he fired, and then fell
dead. After falling, the fiends rushed upon him,
and literally hewed his body to pieces with their
sabres. His eight shots killed three of the rob-
bers, and wounded four more. His cowardly
fellow-passengers delivered up their arms, were
bound, robbed, stripped of their clothing, and al-
most beaten to death. The coach was upset, and
the mules, yet living, driven off. Several of these
bandits have since been apprehended and shot." It
is no wonder that in such a country Maximilian
failed, for there are no producers, and where almost
the only successful trade is thieving, it would be
folly to look for truth, honesty, or prosperity.
Brigand bands, who cared for nothing but the suc-
cessful prosecution of their plundering enterprises,
term themselves Liberals, against Maximilian ; or
Imperialists, against Juarez. The Government,
carrying out the stringent law for the suppression
of highway robbery, lays itself open to the charge
of murdering its political opponents. Since the
fall of the empire, the disbandment of a large por-
tion of the army, and the close of the employment
it furnished, has greatly increased brigandage in
Mexico, and now it is almost impossible to travel
anywhere without being robbed, unless accompanied
by a strong escort. The only remedy for this state
of things is the utter poverty and starvation that must
supervene on a total cessation of productive labour.
A man whose toil only brings the robber to his
abode will have no heart for work, and when there is
nothing left to steal the profession will not be worth
following. Had Mexico not been a wonderfully
rich country this stage would long since have been
reached. We. fear that the only peace for Mexico
is in depopulation ; and the only, regeneration will
be, when its great Northern neighbour—sick of its
crimes, and hopeless of its future—treads down be-
neath its heavy battalions all the political and com-
mercial corruption, the robbery and murder, the
cruelty and treachery that since the advent of the
Spaniards, have reigned supreme, and will continue
to curse the land till Uncle Sam decrees that they
shall exist no longer.