Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/208

202 and kicked him again for joking under such serious circumstances.

I have alluded to the new Superintendent of the English Company, Mr. John Furber, who was in charge of these works when we were there. He was a fine, intelligent young man, for whom we all conceived a great liking. A long and useful life appeared to be before him. On Sunday, the 19th of December, a month after we saw him he left his brother's house at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, accompanied by a servant, to return to his residence at Marfil, distant about a league. After passing the Cerro Trozado, he was attacked a little in advance of the junction of the old and new roads to Marfil, by four men on horseback, supposed to have been plagiaros, belonging to the band of the notorious Juan Duran. A struggle took place in which Mr. Furber was wounded by a pistol-shot in the stomach, after which he was carried off, along with the servant (who was blindfolded) in the direction of the hacienda of Burburron, and, after many turnings and windings, the party crossed the high road to Siloa, (not many miles from where we saw the supposed robbers being chased by the soldiers,) and the river Santa Anna, and entered on the territory of the hacienda of Santa Teresa. At this place the unfortunate gentleman was hung up to a tree, whether dead or alive will probably never be known, and the servant, after having been stripped, was set at liberty and returned to his late master's residence with the news of his murder.

The authorities at once dispatched a party to bring in the body, which was found suspended to a tree without coat or waistcoat, with a paper affixed to the braces, on which was written in ink, the following: "This has