building destined for the detention of criminals. There were but a few prisoners, some of whom were already condemned. I formed a favorable judgment of them all, for it seemed to me they must have either great confidence in their own innocence, or scruples as to compromising the few soldiers who acted as guards. In no other way could I explain the fact that they remained in prison, when flight seemed so easy.” I well remember one evening when walking in Teffé seeing a number of men leaning against the wooden grating of a dimly lighted room in a ruinous thatched house, and being told that this was the prison. I asked myself the same question which presented itself to the President’s mind,—why these wild-looking, half-naked creatures had not long ago made their escape from a prison whose bars and bolts would hardly have imposed restraint upon a child. The report continues: “A more decent and, above all, a more secure prison at this point, the most important in the whole Solimoens, is an urgent and even indispensable necessity. Of the sixteen prisons in the whole province, only two, that of the capital and of Barcellos, have their own buildings. With these exceptions, the prisoners occupy either a part of the houses of the legislative chambers, or are placed in private houses hired for the purpose, or in the quarters of the military detachments. In these different prisons 538 prisoners were received during the current year, inclusive of recruits and deserters.” This last clause, “inclusive of recruits and deserters,” and the association of the two classes of men together, as if equally delinquent, touches upon a point hardly to be overlooked by the most superficial observer, and which makes a very painful impression on strangers. The system of recruiting, or rather the utter want of system, leads to the most terrible abuse of authority in raising men for the army. I believe that the law provides for a constitutional draft levied equally on all classes, excluding men below or above a certain age, or having certain responsibilities at home. But if such a law exists it is certainly not enforced; recruiting parties, as bad as the old “press-gangs” of England, go out into the forest and seize the Indians wherever they can find them. All who resist this summary treatment or show any inclination to escape are put into prison till the steamer leaves, by which they are despatched to Pará and thence to the army. The only overcrowded room I saw at the prison was that where the recruits were confined. Coming from a country where the soldier is honored, where men of birth and education have shown that they are not ashamed to serve in the line if necessary, it seemed to me strange and sad to see these men herded with common criminals. The record of the province of the Amazonas will read well in the history of the present war, for the number of troops contributed is very large in proportion to the population.