This Wretch Pays For His Place, And In A
Few Years Will Retire With A Fortune, Gains Arising From Bribes Wrung
From Prisoners And Their Friends By Threats And Torture, And By
Defrauding Them Daily Of A Part Of Their Allowance Of Rice.
The prison, as far as I can learn, consists mainly of six wards, each
with four large apartments, the
Walls of these wards abutting upon each
other, and forming a parallelogram, outside of which is a narrow, paved
pathway, on which the gates of the wards open, and which has on its
outer side the high boundary wall of the prison. This jailer, this
fiend - made such by the customs of his country - took us down a passage,
and unlocking a wooden grating turned us into one of the aforesaid
"wards," a roughly paved courtyard about fifty feet long by twenty-four
broad, and remained standing in the doorway jangling his keys.
If crime, vice, despair, suffering, filth and cruelty can make a hell
on earth, this is one. Over its dismal gateway may well be written,
"Whoso enters here leaves hope behind."
This ward is divided into four "apartments," each one having a high
wall at the back. The sides next the court are formed of a double row
of strong wooden bars, black from age and dirt, which reach from the
floor to the roof, and let in light and air through the chinks between
them. The interiors of these cribs or cattle-pens are roughly paved
with slabs of granite, slimy with accumulations of dirt.
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