[23] Various explanations have been offered of this name. One account says, that upon finding his family murdered by the French, he smeared his face with pitch, and made a vow of vengeance. Another, that he was so called because of his swarthy complexion. But in the account of his life it is said that all the inhabitants of Castrillo de Duero, where he was born, have this nickname indiscriminately given them by their neighbours, in consequence of a black mud, called pecina, deposited by a little stream which runs through the place; and the appellation became peculiar to him from his celebrity.
[24] Renovales evidently did not know the terms of that capitulation.
[25] There could be no intention of deceiving Renovales, nor was a victory in S. Domingo likely to have any effect in determining his conduct. But this mention of one may show how little the French officers knew of public events; nothing in fact but what their own government chose to let them know, ... and that government gave them always as much falsehood as truth.
[26] This account of Xavier Mina differs materially from that which has been published under the title of The Two Minas and the Spanish Guerillas, as extracted from the work of a German officer, Captain H. Von Brandt. The German officer, who collected his information in the country, acknowledges that the accounts given upon the spot differ essentially from each other. My statement was derived from Mina himself during his short abode in England. Certainly I have never seen any person whom, from his countenance and manners, I should deem less likely to be given to such company and such courses as in that publication are imputed to him.
[27] They were to be a pound and a half of bread, ten ounces of meat, and a bottle of wine per day for every man.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book. Simple typographical errors were corrected and some unbalanced quotation marks were remedied. Other errors of these types were not changed because the corrections were not obvious to the Transcriber.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained; occurrences of inconsistent hyphenation have been changed only when there was a predominant preference throughout the book.
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