years in the post of alguazil. He never knew the torture inflicted in the island, until the arrival of the defendant. There had been before no instrument for the purpose. The first he saw was in the barracks among the soldiers. Before Louisa Calderon, the instrument had been introduced into the gaol perhaps about six months. The first person he saw tortured in Trinidad was by direction of the defendant, who said to the gaoler, “Go and fetch the black man to the picket-guard, and put him to the torture.” After the eight months’ confinement, both Carlos and Louisa were discharged.
The order for the application of the torture, in the following words—“Applicase la question a Louisa Calderon”—(Apply the torture to Louisa Calderon)—was then proved to be in the handwriting of the defendant; and the suggestion of the alcade Beggerat, before whom the girl had been examined, that slight torture should be applied, was read.
Don Juan Montes then said that he had known the island of Trinidad since the year 1793. That the torture was never introduced until after the conquest of the island, and was then practised by order of the defendant. It was first used with the military in 1799, and two years afterwards in the gaol.
Mr. Dallas, for the defendant, rested his defence upon the following statements:—
First,—By the law of Spain, in the present instance, torture was directed; and, being bound to administer that law, he was vindicated in its application.
Secondly,—The order for the torture, if not unlawfully, was not maliciously issued.
Thirdly,—If it were unlawful, yet, if the order were erroneously or mistakenly issued, it was a complete answer to a criminal charge.