male aggressor was found dead, having swallowed poison, it is
believed, to avoid a worse kind of death, and the priest declaring
his opinion of the guilt of the surviving party, she was immediately
sentenced to be drowned. This afternoon, the ill-fated woman was tied
hand and foot, and conveyed in a canoe to the main body of the river,
into which she was thrown without hesitation, a weight of some kind
having been fastened to her feet for the purpose of sinking her. She
met her death with incredible firmness and resolution. The
superstitious people believe, that had the deceased been innocent of
the crime laid to her charge, their god would have saved her life,
even after she had been flung into the river; but because she had
perished, her guilt was unquestionably attested. The mother of the
deceased is not allowed to display any signs of sorrow or sadness at
the untimely death of her daughter, for were she to do so, the same
dreadful punishment would be inflicted upon her, 'For,' say the Brass
people, 'if the parent should mourn or weep over the fate of a child
guilty of so heinous a crime, we should pronounce her instantly to be
as criminal as her daughter, and to have tolerated her offence. But
if, on the contrary, she betrays no maternal tenderness, nor bewail
her bereavement in tears and groans, we should then conclude her to
be entirely ignorant of the whole transaction; she would then give a
tacit acknowledgment to the justice of the sentence, and rejoice to
be rid of an object that would only entail disgrace on her as long as
she lived.

"Our people are become heartily tired of their situation, and
impatient to be gone; they were regaled with an extra quantity of rum
last evening, by their female friend, the duenna; when their
grievances appearing to them in a more grievous light than ever, they
had the courage to go in a body to King Boy, to demand an explanation
of his intentions towards them. They told him, indignantly, either to
convey them to the English brig, or sell them for slaves to the
Spaniards, 'For,' say they, 'we would rather lose our liberty, than
be kept here to die of hunger.' Boy returned them an equivocating
answer, but treated them much less roughly than I had reason to
anticipate. Afterwards, I went myself to the same individual, and
with a similar motive, but for some time I had no opportunity of
conversing with him. It is a kind of holiday here, and most of the
Brass people, with their c