The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-20 00:00:00

of weak minds t 3 a state of idiocy. Its terrors are un
tprib'e, and never can its saddening, its wind-destroy-
ing horrors, be adequately conveyed to those who have
_ _

never endured it.
Upon me this punishment was inflicted in a place
too [narrow for exercise, in a cell that was damp and
filthy, that was overwhelmed with noisome insects, that
was exposed to the invasions of the rats of that country,
and that was constantly p.rvaded with noxious exhala
tions, aAsing from the ordure of the prison, that was

~ .
et lected almost immediAtely beneath it.
" It was :u such a place that the suff,rings of a Buenos
‘yros winter cAnstitu!ed the climax to tortures that ap-
-1 intolerable. This last completed my misery ;_my

health, which had been suffering, finally gavo way. Liss
of appetite was followed by loss of sleep, and to this suc-
ceed-d a swelling of my legs, which felt as if the process
of mortification and death had commenced in the lower
extr,mities, whilst life and sense were left to the brain
and the functions of the b
"Patiently, and even calmly, hail I waited out each
slow and lingering hour, and watched the tardy pace of
every long anti dreary day, h ,ping, calculating, and
self-convinced. that the next must bring with it the ap-
pearance of the British Minister in my cell—•to hear him
say that the meanest subject of the British Crown should
not be thus treated unaecused, untried, unconvicted. I
waiter•) and—alas! I grieve to say it—l waited in vain.
I was personally known to the British Minister. I came
at lad-to the conclusion that he mu,t be utterly ignorant
of my arrest—of my incarceration—and of the frightful

torture that was inflicted mein me.
" I had contrived many plans for my escape ; they
were the sole amusement of my prison hours, and each
had been in turn rejected by me as cowardly. At last,
my entire thoughts were fixed upon a communication
with the British Minister, being perfectly certain that
once he knew my position he would procure my release.
" I did succeed in effecting that communication ; and,
in order to show how closely and jealously I was
watched. I must explain the plan that I adopted.
"At the time that I was arrested I had in my side
coat-pocket a small memorandum book and pencil.
This was a fortunate circumstance for me ; for I had
frequently applied to the gaoler to supply me with pen,
ink, and paver, and these were constantly refused to me.
If I spoke it was seldom that a simple affirmative or ne-
gative were conceded to me ; for the orders given to the
gaoler and his assistants were not to take any notice of
me.' I was treated as an idiot, in the hope that I might
be visited with idiocy.
" The only favour conceded to me was this—l was
allowed to receive my meals from the British hotel.
These were always brought to me in a portabiandes.*
This was sent at dinner-hour ; but before it was handed
to me through the door, I observed that every dish was
strictly examined by my gaoler, lest any communication
should reach me from abroad ' • and when I gave it back
in the evening the same rigid examination took place,
lest I should attempt to seek thus sending a message to
any friend.
" I could see, through the hole in the door, this double
examination taking place every day ; but I perceived
that there was one portion of the portabiendes that was
not looked into, and that was the lowermost portion,
which came containing fire, and returned filled with the
cold ashes. Upon that circumstance I rested my only
hope of communication with the British Minister, and
my subsequent chance of escape from a prison which I
felt was fast hurrying me to a premature grave.
" I had a pencil to write, but no paper to write upon.
None would be given to me. Upon two or three occa-
sions, however, pastry was sent to me rolled in white
paper, and at another time a few oranges were wrapped
in paper. Every scrap of this was taken and carefully
concealed by me.
" Then, for the purpose of seeing if the portabiandes
would bear my message safely, I removed the ashes from
the lowermost parts, to try if my gaolers would notice
the alteration. They did not do so ; and I snatched
the first moments that I was sure I was not
watched to write, in pencil, a few lines to the British
Minister, Mr. Mandeville. The purport of the note
was, that my health was fast declining ; that such con-
finement, if much longer protracted, must inevitably
cause my death ; that I wits quite sure it was resolved I
should not leave that prison alive ; that as I had a con-
siderable amount of property in Chili and Peru, and
some in Ireland, I wished to make my will, in order that
my sister might inherit my estates ; and that I therefore,
begged of Mr. Mandeville to come to me, if it were but
for a moment, in order that, having arrang d my worldly
affairs, I might the better submit to that cruel fate
which, without a single fault or error on my part, had
been manifestly reserved for me.
" This, to the best of my recollection, was the sub-
staece of my note to Mr. Mandeville, and all my hope
was that he would receive it. lam sure that a British
subject, without a single charge alleged against him—
unarraigned before any species of tribunal—unques-
done 1, unexamined, and unaccused by any one, or
under any form of law—would not be permitted by the
representative of my Sovereign to be left thus—a pri-
soner, suffering the worst species of punishment-e-with-
out finding in that Minister a defender, a sUpporter, and
a vindicator a the country which was thus outraged in
my person.
" These were my feelings as I wrote that note. My
calculation was, as I removed the ashes from the porta-
Glandes, that the person appointed to clean them out be-
fore patting in fresh fire would fine the note, and, as it
was addressed to Mandeville, would forward it to that
gentleman. That calculation the event proved to be
correct. The man found the note, and, being ignorant
of what it contained, at once delivered it to his master,
Mr. Bette'', the proprietor of the British Hotel, who
performed his duty, by placing it at once in the hands
of Mr. Mandeville.
" Mr. Mandeville did not act as I had anticipated he
would have done, for, instead of coming to see me, he
went to the Minister of Rosas, Arena, and informed him
that he had received a communication from me l The
result was an immediate visit from the Chief of the Po-
lice (Victorino) to the prison, and the attempt by him
to extort from me a knowledge of the means by which I
had communicated with Mr. Mandeville. I denied the
fact—l pretended that ,the communication was an inven-
tion of that gentleman's brain—and I denounced him in
the strongest terms I could use, calling him a humbug
of a British Minister.'
" I conceive, that in acting in the manner that he did,
Mr. Mandeville did not bear himself as a British Minis-
ter should have done in such circumstances. He com-
mitted, I think, a great error, and one that might have
cost me my life, by thus betraying my act to the Minis-
ters of a man who he knew had acted outrageously to-
wards me —who could not allege any excuse for my de-
tention, but that it was a precaution,' because he had
heard and believed that I came to Buenos Ayres to make
a revolution ! bringing with me 15,000 doubloons !
when the fact was, all I had with me was 5,0001. in bills
on London, and that my own property, carried for the
purpose of going to England, where it was afterwards
received by me.
" Even if Mr. Mandeville did not choose to come and
see use. Ido not think he should have told Roses' Mini-
ster that I had found the means of making a secret com-
munication to him, for as a British subject—deprived of
ro right that attached to me as such by crime—l was, I
think, entitled to communicate with him and to beg his
protection.
" It was a great error in judgment, but it was no more.
I think the act was wrong—l do not think so of the
motives that prompted it ; and least of all do I suppose
that it was done with the slightest intention to injure me.
" I am aware that Mr. Mandeville was peculiarly
situated with the Governor of Buenos Ayres. Ho was in
Buenos Ayres, I think, for three years before Roses con-
descended to speak to him. The respect which is due
to a British Minister was not shown t him. He could
not but he aware that frightful atrocities were committed,
under the special direction of Rosas, and it might be
that apprehensions for his own safety induced him to
apprise the Minister of a fact that might subsequently be
learned through spies, and that their denunciation
might bring down upon him that fate from which
neither the sacred character of long friendship
nor the respect due to the sacerdotal functions could pre •
serve others ; and he might have felt that a British Mi-
nister was not safe where a British subject was treated
as I had been. Whatever may have been the motives of
Mr. M Indeville, I am quite positive they could not
have arisen from any unkindness towards me ; for
I was honoured with his hospitality before my
imprisonment, and with the testimonies of his sympathy
when I escaped from the miserable death to which I had
been destined.
" The first result of my letter to Mr. Mandeville was a
visit from the police—the second was most useful to me,
for it brought me at the same time a physician, who ex-
amined me in the presence of the police-officer and a
lawyer, with whose aid I made out my will—the third
was the immediate change of my gaolers, double sen-
tinels placed on the door, and a third at the top of the
house—and then came a consultation between Rosas and
his Minister Maze, as to whether I ought not to be re-
moved to the Betiro barrack to short distance from
Buenos Ayres), as I eould there be, with greater facility,
deprived of life, and my death attributed to illness.
" This was the proposition of Rosas; but Maza op-
posed it—he represented that I was a British subject,
long known in South America—that my death would
certainly excite attention, and that, if I were got rid of
by violence, it would, most probably, be afterwards dis-
covered by some one of the numerous friends I had in
the different states, and its consequences fatal to Rosas
himself. Maza found that his remonstrances were in
vain ; that Rosas had resolved on dispatching me.
Finding all his arguments useless, he told the facts to
the wife of Rosas, and she went down on her knees to
beg my life; and it is to her intercession that I attri-
bute that delay which subsequently saved me.
" I did not, at the time, know any of these circum-
stances. I had never been spoken to •, but from the
moment I had written to Mr. Mandeville, and that he
had mentioned it to Rosas's Ministers, I regarded my
death as inevitable. I was treated as a man doomed to
death ; and I prepared for death. I expected to be
taken out and shot, and I cut down a light green surtout
that I had brought with me to the prison into a jacket,
so that, if I were given a soldier's death, I might ap-
pear as a soldier, with that care bestowed upon my
habiliments which becomes a soldier ; and that, in my
last moments, it might be seen I was not unworthy of
those companions in arms with whom I had often faced
that danger which was now inevitable.
" I had settled my worldly affairs, and it was in the
daily expectation that I should be called out for exe-
cution—that having made up my mind to die, and to

• The portabiandes consists of five or six dishes, placed
one above the other, and fastened together with a strap—the
undermost dish, or closed receptacle, contains fire, 150 RS to
keep all above it warm.