Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/102

Rh de Dios, it appears that in the year 1827, near 1500 were stabbed in drunken quarrels, of whom from 3 to 400 died. Of these, probably fifty or sixty were assassinated secretly, without having any opportunity of defence.

The police, if such a thing can be said to exist, takes no notice of these events, and it would seem fabulous to relate, were it not confirmed by the most respectable testimony, that there is at liberty in Guatimala, at the present moment, more than one, of whom it is known that they have murdered several individuals. The respectable inhabitants defend themselves by carrying swords or pocket pistols in the evening, and are rarely molested; while the lower orders revenge the death of their relatives by taking away the life of the murderer the first convenient opportunity.

A circumstance of this kind occurred while I was residing in Guatimala, very near to the house in which I lived. About four o'clock in the afternoon a poor man was observed lying dead in the street, who had evidently been murdered. For some time no notice was taken of him; at length he was carried by some passers-by to the hospital, and it was immediately known that he had been killed by a shoemaker who resided near, and whose brother had fallen some months ago, by the hand of the deceased. This man had now