that of being suspected of being malcontents, were
shipped off for Angola. These unhappy men, though of good families,
and respectable characters, were chained up with the most abandoned
ruffians, robbers, and assassins, and doomed to the same punishment. In
the middle passage, they were even stowed away in the smallest compass
possible, like the slaves of Africa, while the best places were assigned
to the malefactors; magistrates, members of the cortes, and other
reputable persons occupied the most deadly and pestilential berths.
Out of respect for their former situation in life, and pity for their
present sufferings, they were for some time spared the fatigues of hard
labours; but the superintendent soon received orders to discontinue this
lenity. Nor were the political prisoners confined in the dungeons at
Lisbon much better treated. They could scarcely obtain trials, and when
declared innocent, they could not gain their liberty. The treatment they
received may be seen from a petition which those confined in the castle
of St. Julian presented to Miguel against their jailer:--"The prisoners
of the tower of St. Julian have been lodged in the worst cells,
subterraneous, dark, exposed to rain and all weathers, and so damp that
it has frequently been necessary to strew the ground with furze, to
enable them to walk on it. They have occupied apartments only nine yards
long and three yards wide; and these being crowded, the temperature has
been raised to such a degree as to cause cutaneous eruptions, and other
complaints. Among these sufferers are the Spanish bishop, Dr. Diego
Munoiz Torrero, Doru. Ant. Pinho, and J. Ant. Cansado, these latter
being already declared innocent by the commissioners. In one of these
cells a complete inundation has occurred more than once, leaving a
continual dampness, and causing a consequent deterioration of health.
Besides this dreadful state, sir, the governor has ordered the windows
to be closed, to shut out the few spans of light of the heavens, and the
fresh air, the only remaining part of it being from the fissures of
the door, whereto the prisoners apply in turn their mouths, to breathe
particles of that air which the Almighty spreads so unsparingly to all
animals and living beings. Another cell, called the principal one, from
below, is also inhabited, and so dark that, let the sun be as brilliant
as possible, six lights will not suffice to lighten it, being twenty
steps below the surface