Note XXXVII‑58 — Chapter XXXVII · GUATEMALA AND CHIAPAS. 1701-1800.

During the alarm caused by the threatened outbreak the authorities of Santiago armed a force, and the royal officials had their valuables removed to one of the churches for safety. Before this excitement had subsided a Jesuit priest was cruelly murdered in the jail by three negro criminals whom he was confessing. The jailer gave the alarm by ringing the bell of the jail, and thereupon the people, in the belief that a riot had broken out, seized their arms and hastened to the principal square, even the women flocking thither with stones. The three negroes were captured after a determined resistance, and one of them having been killed in the scuffle the other two were hanged the same afternoon. A few days later a Dominican was found murdered in his cell. Escamilla, Not. Cur. Guat., MS., 18-19.