We went to the palace, but were refused admittance, and only got back to the French Legation in time to see the five prisoners pass to execution. Presently one returned whom the President had pardoned. When the procession arrived at the place of execution, there was a mob collected of several thousand spectators, principally ferocious negresses. A shout arose, “We were promised five! where is the fifth?” and the crowd closed in on the procession, with knives drawn and pistols ready. The cowardly officers replied, “The fifth is coming,” and sent word to President Salnave. He, unwilling to disappoint his most faithful followers, looked over the list of those in prison, and finding that there was a parricide, whom he had pardoned but the day before, ordered him to execution. In the meantime, the four others had been kept waiting, exposed to the insults of the people--particularly one prisoner, whose long white beard and hair and white skin made him particularly obnoxious. The arrival of the fifth prisoner pacified the crowd. The five were clumsily shot, and then the spectators rushed in with their knives and mangled the bodies under every circumstance of obscenity. Such are the negresses when excited by political leaders, and such are evidently the most devoted followers of President Salomon, if we can place any faith in the accounts of the fearful atrocities perpetrated by them during the massacres of September 1883. The chief of this ferocious band was a young negress who went by the name of Roi Petit Chout, to whom President Salnave gave a commission as general. She used to come in front of the Legation with some of her companions, knife in one hand and pistol in the other, and utter ferocious threats, on account of our having received some political refugees. These women were used as a high police to keep down disaffection, and horrible stories are told of the murders and cruelties practised by these wretches. When the revolution triumphed, Roi Petit Chout was arrested, but though murder could readily have been proved against her, she was soon restored to liberty. As all the police department is most inefficiently paid, its members are generally open to bribes, and are accused of levying black-mail on the poorer inhabitants. During the time of Salnave they were unbridled in their savage acts, and every man they met in the streets, foreign or native, was liable to be seized and sent to the forts as a recruit. As regular police commissaries accompanied these groups, these arrestments were made in a spirit of wanton mischief; at other times it was to obtain a pecuniary recompense for their good-nature in letting a foreigner go.