Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon

The warrant against Joam Dacosta, alias Joam Garral, had been issued / by the assistant of Judge Ribeiro, who filled the position of the / magistrate in the province of Amazones, until the nomination of the / successor of the late justice.

This assistant bore the name of Vicente Jarriquez. He was a surly / little fellow, whom forty years' practice in criminal procedure had not / rendered particularly friendly toward those who came before him. He had / had so many cases of this sort, and tried and sentenced so many rascals, / that a prisoner's innocence seemed to him _à priori_ inadmissable. To / be sure, he did not come to a decision unconscientiously; but his / conscience was strongly fortified and was not easily affected by the / circumstances of the examination or the arguments for the defense. Like / a good many judges, he thought but little of the indulgence of the jury, / and when a prisoner was brought before him, after having passed / through the sieve of inquest, inquiry, and examination, there was every / presumption in his eyes that the man was quite ten times guilty.