and appeared before this mandarin--who was in his tribunal, into which the door of the prison opened. When the soldiers saw me through the door, they began to weep. [I fell on my knees before him, and he asked me through my interpreter the cause of my imprisonment. I replied, and the cause seemed to him bad: but he told me that no one could undo what the inspector did. He said that he would try to satisfy the inspector, because the latter was obliged to go off very quickly on his inspection, and, if he left me a prisoner here, no one else had the authority to release me. With this he ordered the chains to be taken off, and sent me into the prison. When I saw myself in prison with the soldiers I was without anxiety, because for their sake I had made all these stations, [21] and after all without succeeding in rescuing the prisoners--though I could have taken refuge in our ships if I had chosen, as I afterwards did; while now, by adventuring the same fortune with them, I left God to watch over all. There were in this prison some three hundred prisoners, many condemned to death, but permitted to work during the daytime in order to earn their food. I suffered in the prison, because I had little protection and the weather was very cold. God delivered me within only three days; my host became my security for a thousand taes. As I was about to leave the prison, all the servants crowded about me asking for plata (silver), for they already knew its name in our Castilian. There were so many that, even if I had had much to give, there would have been little for each one. As I had nothing to give, I gave them nothing, and they paid me with hard words and blows. It was very late; and we were obliged to go to the house of the inspector, and from it to that of the guarantor outside of the city, in which we were not permitted to sleep. All this was to be done before they closed the gates. We were kept waiting in the courtyard of the inspector for some time. In addition to falling on our knees before him, he made us bow our heads and then turned us over to our bondsman. When we reached the latter's house, we had to enter by leaping over a lighted fire which they said was the ceremony of security. The poor guarantor immediately began to suffer persecution, for all the servants and attendants of the inspector, though they had in no way intervened in our business, came to beg money from him from that which they said he must have received from me, to persuade him to become my security. The man brought all these demands to me; but I answered him that nothing more was to be paid than the thousand taes, and these we should get from Don Luis. He was unwilling to go to Don Luis, and took great care to prevent us from escaping. We, fearing that Don Luis and his soldiers might be forced by our delay to leave us in this embarrassment, determined to save ourselves. We agreed with a Chinaman, for ten taes to help us escape,