I never knew why Mr. Shaw was shot, but I have every reason to suppose that what I was told of Cambiaso’s reply to his request for medical advice was the truth. It would have been too much trouble to take care of a sick man. The same fear of trouble probably decided the poor boy’s fate. Why captain Talbot was executed, while I was reserved, is also a mystery to me. I never saw captain Talbot, but from his mate’s remarks about him, I felt that he was a man of some spirit and character. Perhaps his high spirit led him to say things that exasperated Cambiaso. He gave some expression of this spirit at the time he was seized. Two officers (Chilians,) were handling him rather roughly, when he indignantly told them they need not look so surly, and at the same time drew a dirk knife from the waist of his pantaloons. But it was immediately taken from him.
Mr. Shaw’s death was a great shock to me, and is still a matter of deep grief. We had been friends for some time, and I had the highest respect for him. He was indeed a young man of great promise, and his loss to his family and friends is one which cannot easily be replaced. I grieved for them, even there in my prison, while I expected each day to be my last, and while I remembered the agony of my own family, when the news of our sad fate should reach them; and now that a kind Providence has restored me to them, I grieve to remember him who met so cruel a death from such barbarous hands, on a desert and far distant shore.
I was told by one of the men who came into my cell that morning, that the bodies were to be left hanging until we had all seen them. Accordingly, about one o’clock that afternoon, three of the prisoners (I think they were captain Avalos, with the captain of the regular troops, and Mr. Dunn,) were taken from their prison, their irons knocked off, and, when they were unshackled, Cambiaso walked up to them, and with much mock politeness asked them to accompany him for a walk. They were in no situation to refuse, but accompanied him in silence, followed by a file of soldiers as guard. He led them out of the barracks, toward the vessels. As they passed under the trees on which hung the bodies of Mr. Shaw, captain Talbot, and the young lad, Cambiaso pointed to them, and laughing, said, “You see what happens to such villains when they fall into my hands; it will be your turn next.” After compelling them to pass round the tree, so as to view the bodies from every side, he conducted them back to the barracks and to their crowded prison.