The Sun. — 1870-05-16 (London, England)

TALE FROM CHILI. A horrible story of brigandage reaches us from ChiliDon Gomez y Lagoberon, a famous bandit captain who, from his fastnesses in the Sierra Profunda, has long deflea the Chilian authorities, was recently pursued, with the brigands under his command, by a body of troops, which succeeded in cutting him off from his followers, and driving him to take refuge in a cavern situated near the summit of one of the lofty mountains constituting the above-named range. In this cavern he had concealed a female captive, whose husband he had robbed and slain, and whom he had for some time compelled to live with him as his mistress. The soldiers made several attempts to reach the entrance to this cavern, to which there was only one means of access—a mere mountain goat track ; but Lagoberon, a man gigantic stature and Herulean strength, rolled heavyrocks down upon them, and succeeded in beating them off, after several men had been severely injured. The officer in command, unwilling to sacrifice his troops uselessly, resolved to starve the bandit out, and " sate down" before the place. After two days' blockade, however, the soldiers grew weary of so tedious snd humiliating an expedient, so they improvised an escalade of the robber-chieftian's stronghold, and succeeded in capturing him. To their horror, they found that Lagoberon had cut off one of his unfortunate companion's breasts, and eaten it. The poor woman was discovered in a dying state, having sustained a fearful loss of blood ; and she expired shortly after her rescue from the clutches of her barbarous paramour. The butcher was conveyed to Talea where he •was promptly tried and condemned to death by the garotte. In South America, execution I follows sentence with startling rapidity ; and Gomez was straightway conducted to the scaffold, guarded by a strong escort of mounted gendarmes. While the executioner was engaged in adjusting his toilette de mort, the convict drew a whistle from his pocket, and blew a whistle from his pocket, and blew it sharply ; whereupon about sixty of his men, who had introduced themselves amongst the crowd surrounding the scaffold, rushed upon the gendarmes, and massacred them ere they could offer any resistance. They freed Lagoberon, and completed their enterprise in a manner not devoid of a certain ghastly humour, by garotting the executioner ; after which they escaped, almost unscathed, to the mountains. There they are probably still at liberty, practising their profession to the terror of the whole country round. It should be observed that to facilitate their flight they " annexed" the horses of the fallen gendarmes ; and that a good many of them seized women from the throng gathered upon the place of execution, carrying them away, flung across their saddle-bowsThe social condition of Chili as revealed by this narrative is one of almost hopeless degradation, only to be equalled by that of Mexico, Greece, and certain districts of Central Africa, where murder, lust, and rapine are the rules of life. Civilisation penetrates but slowly into these savage countries, of whose existence we are scarcely ever reminded save by some appalling and revolting incident, like the Marathon massacre, or the cannibalism of Don Gomez y Lagoberon.—Daily Telegraph.  The Broad Arrow believes it is quite true that Sir William Mansfield has been offered the command in Ireland, but it is not so certain that he has accepted it. The National Rifle Association are busy preparing for the annual camp-out at Wimbledon. The camp will be ready to receive occupants on the Bth of July, and the shooting will commence on the 11th of that month.