The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-05-04

one among million.
The Picayune IS mistaken in one respect
There was Captain. General, before Concha,
who left the Island as poor as when ne enter
ed II. That was Tacon-the great Tacon as
he has been sery justly called. Before his
day, Havana resembled Sodom and Gomorrah.
There was no species ofcrime which was not
perpetrated daily, and with perfect impunity.
Professional bravoes, ready to take the lives of
any and every person, for doubloon, swarmed
throughout the city. They were perfectly
well known. but there was no person bold
enough TO denounce them. An American gen.
tleman, sitting in his summer house, was as
saulted by one of these villains, and left for
dead. He recovered, and was afterwards in the
habit of seeing the assassin every day, in the
street. He knew il was useless to denounce
him, for the government connived at his
trade, in consideration, no doubt, of large
sums paid for such connyance. Another
American gentleman was attacked, and severe
ly wounded, by one of these assassins. When
he recovered, the fellow came to him and told
him he had made d mistake in attacking him.
That he was no; the man he had been employ
ed to kiil-that he was very sorry for what he
had done-that he wished TO make all the rep
aration in his power-that he knew of only
one way in which he could prove his peni.
tence, and that was, if be 1.-THE gentleman had
any enemy whom he wished to remove, he
| would do it for him without charging him a
cent. No man, in those terrible days, could
walk the streets with safety, even in the day,
and to venture out of dark night, was temp
| tation of Providence. The monte tables filled
the city to OVERLOOKING with villains of the
blacklist description. The number of them ex-
ceeded all belief, and the passion for gaming,
which is but one form of avarice, is SO vehement
in the bosom ofthe Spaniards and their descen-
dants, that they sickle at no crime to obtain the
means of gratifying it. Hence the daily muir
ders, which took place under the very nose of
the government. Old pirates, who had left off
business, lived in splendor in Havana, and
were caressed by the great, though the man
ner in which they had obtained their money
was perfectly well known to everybody. The
grandees were protected in any villainy they
might choose to perpetrate, land they oppressed
the unfortunate commoners without mercy.
DESTROYS to put an end to this state ofthings.
the government sent out Tacon, investing him
with absolute and unlimited power. 1t is re-
lated of him, that his first act was to visit the
| Moro, enquire into the condition of the prison.
ers, ascertain the charges against them, en-
quire into their probability, and as the offences
| might be worthy of Imprisonment or not, or as
| the proof might be decisive or the contrary, to
| order punishment according TO law, or an i'm
mediate discharge from prison. 1t is further
said that when the turnkey, who had been his
conductor, halted, he asked him if he had seen
all the rooms. The official replied all but one.
He then commanded him to show him that
one. He was obeyed, and upon entering found
a man who was an object of the deepest COM
miseration, so long and severe had been his i'm
prisonment. The emaciated figure ofthe mis-
cradle victim moved the compassion of Tacon,
who, upon enquiry, learned that he had been
gunsmith, and had, by considerable industry,
amassed little fortune of three or four hundred
HuU OCCu iuuuCCu, ny VI
ers of heavy interest, TO lend it to Spanish
nobleman-that he paid no interest, and when
applied to for the principal, answered by OBJ
tanning warrant and combining him in that
miserable hole. The resolution of the Captain
General was Immediately taken. He gave
splendid entertainment, to which he invited all
the grandees of the Island, the prosecutor
among the rest. In the midst of the feast, the
gunsmth was introduced, and the guilty man
was asked ifhe knew him. Overwhelmed with
terror, he could not deny it, and when the poor
man repeated his story, he acknowledged that
it was all true. He was made to pay the sum,
with the interest he had at first agreed to pay,
and was, in addition, treated to lodging in
the Moro, OF exactly the same length of time
with that to which he had treated his victim.
This story may not be true, in every partic
ular, but it is very much like Tacon. He was
the most incorruptbly and most nfiexibly just
of men. His name was a terror to all evil.
doors, but a tower of strength to the honest and
upright. He broke up the monte tables, caro-.
ted all the assassins and pirates he could lay
hands on without even the form of a trial sent
the noblemen and rich gentlemen, who had
been suspected of being concerned in assassi.
nations, to work on the walls of the Moro es-
tablished the most efficient police, probably,
in the world +; broke up the pirates nests in
Matanzas, and other seaport towns. and
brought the whole Island TO such a condition
of regularity and good morals, that bag of
gold might be left for weeks in the streets, with
out being touched.
Like Concha, Tacon left Havana without
having added doubloon to his private posses
sons.
The Shooting Of the Fugitive Slare at Co.
lumbia, Pennsylvania.