The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-01
LIFE ONE LONG AGONY.
Mozam b!que, Portugal's Penal Colony,
Where Dentes Inferno Is Realized.

WQ6r9 Dante 8 inferno Is h0aIZ9Q.
| From the San Francisco Chronicle.
! Cayenne, with all its swamps and mos
! quito swarms, is pleasant summer resort =,
compared with the penal colony Of Mozam-
| bique. where the Portuguese government
| permits gang Of malefactors to lessen the
misery of their exile by working their fell
low prisoners to death. With the exception
| OF half dozen commissioned officers the
entire garrison of 700 men consists OF con-
| victs; and Convicts, Boosting the rudiments
of education, are put In charge of chain
| gangs of less accomplished criminals, who
wear out their lives tilling rice fields and
digging irrigation bitches under the rays
OF she dercest sun Of the East African
tropics. AT night the poor wretohes
are locked up in barracks built
| of mud bricks and covered with sheets OF
| rolled lead, wood being apt to disappear in
| a few weeks under the attacks of the
termite ants. A low door OF heavy iron
! CRATES and one or two grated loopholes
near the center of the opposite wall are the
| only means for ventilating these dormi-
! tories which in midsummer become so Of
| fensivs that the guards hesitate to approach
! the door even in answer to the appeals Of a
sick or dying man. In mere self-defense,
to prevent constant epldemios, the OVER
! seers permit undOubted invalids to sleep In
! the open air, bat as long az a convict can
walk at all he is driven at sunset to den of
atmospheric horrors that must make him
| dread nighs as the most affective part of
| the tweuty-four hours.
"How could Cullen Bryant blunder into
| a smile Of that sort" said Col Ingerson in
criticising the ''Galley Slave Soourged to
| His Den at Night when that den is his
| only haven of Festn But in Mozambique
a convicts dread OF the sunset hour mi Ehs
| often vlndicatethe author OF "Thanatopsis u
! POFtUOAI itself ia a -trppfNal
| and native Of Lisbon might survive the
| ordeal of the Calcutta Black Hole, but a
| ten years term at the South African Ha des
| lie generally enough to break the resisting
| force of the stoutest constitution. On Sun
| days and the principal church festivals
the convicts get syrup with their rice
! Fatlons, but are obliged 70 pass the entire
day in their barracks TO give the guards a
chance for recreation. On weak days their
rations consist Of boiled rice and sun-dried
beef. To lessen the chance Of escape nearly
all able bodied prisoners wear balls and
! chains, and on journeys to an inland port
are chained together pairwiss and obliged
90 march in front Of mounted picador.
Privileged convicts, or TRUSTEES. - as our
peultentiery wardens would call them have
chance to graduate from the position OF q
fed guard to that of custom house sentry,
and the fate of the chain-gang laborers may
be imagined from the fact that the TRUSTEES
uAO OhCOuA oEGA w bdtA buotT khQQOLlOu DY
extra severity and zeal for denunoiation
The Spanish government maintains a
similar inferno on the Isle OF Pines, some
fifty miles southwest Of Cape Corrientes, on
the south coast of Cuba. As viewed from
the sea, the island, with its blue slerras and
magnificent forests Of pines and tropical
evergreens, is the very ideal Of an earthly
paradise, but it is doubtful if an other
equal area Of the earth's surface has wit
messed more bloodshed and deeds of vio-
lence. The Spanisrds discovered the island
in 1897, and, as usual, began the work of
Christian civilization by tue Introduction of
sugar mills and bloodhounds. In less than
ten years the native population Of $50 900
had disappeared, aud the colonists, too.
mostly left for Mexico and the gold
fields of HsyE. The rocky west coast Of
the abandoned colony then became haunt
of pirates and the chief stronghold OF the
reckless buccaneers, who for more than 100
years remained the terror OF the Spanish
main. Repeated expeditions failed to sup
press the treeb oters, till at last the Span
ish government recolonized the island and
established a chain OF forts, with their
headquarter post at Nueva Corona Brig
ands, however, sill fingered in the mount
ain districts. aud the scarcity Of field labor
ers, and, indeed, of all agricultural ool-
onists, suggested the idea of turning the
colony into a convict settlement Dangerous
criminals by shiploads were landed from
Cuba, Porto Rico and South Spanish ha,
bors, and their labors not only, made the
colony self-supporting but enabled the gov
ernor TO export considerable quantities of
grain and fruit The climate is as near
perfection as that Of the neighboring BAHIA
mas, but the excessive inhumauity Of the
Spanish taskmakers goaded the convicts
into desperate revolts, some of them SO
nearly successful that the Isle Of Pines was
twice on the point Of being abandoned to
the fate OF second San Domingo. On one
occasion 800 outlaws took refuge in the
mountains. and by iucessant raids and the
acquisition of better arms became more and
more formidable.