A PRIEST MURDERED FOR HIS RELIGION.

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 72, 28 March 1881, Page 3

A PRIEST MURDERED FOR HIS RELIGION.

The oolony of British Honduras, in Central America, is in a state of excitement over the capture and shooting, by order of President Banjos, of the Republic of Guatemala, of the Jesuit priest, the Rev. Father Gilliet;. By the laws of Guatemala, all Jesuits have been banished from the Republio, and should any be caught in the Republio they invariably meet weir doom by being shot behind the prison walls or out on the plaza, a place reserved for the execution of noted criminals, in full view of the entire populace. It appears that Father Gilliett visited Guatemala for his health, and not as a clergyman. Nevertheless, he had scarcely set foot in Livingstone when, being recognised by the commandant, he* was arrested, ironed, and thrown into a dungeon to await orders from the capital, Guatemala City. On the receipt of the telegram ordering his being brought on to the capital for trial, he was divested of nearly all his olothing, and was forced to walk barefooted a distance of nearly 100 miles over th« mountains, his captors using mules as a means of transportation. Arriving after three days he was tried, and sentenced to be shot. The news of his sentence reaching the ears of the people in British Honduras and he being a man of extraordinary eloquence and learning, and one whom every one honored ana respected, the Governor of Belize 1 was waited upon by thousands of persons of every creed and belief, and asked to demand the surrender of the priest into his hands. This was done, but all to no avail, for President Banjos had passed judgment, and nothing remained but the execution of the sentence. On Monday morning, 17th January, Father Gilliet was taken out of prison, under a heavy guard, and marched to the plaza, where they wero joined by two regiments of soldiers; his coffin wan brought and placed before him ; tho soldiers formed a hollow square, broken at one crossstreet, opposite which was posted a firing party. Behind the soldiers were the people of the oity, looking on awestruck and silent. The signal lor tile shooting was given by three short rolls on a drum heavily muffled, and hardly had the sound of the third roll died away when, with one instantaneous report, twenty carbines sent forth their leaden missiles on an errand of death, and Father Gilliet fell forward on his coffin, pierced by seventeen balls, a mass of lifeless flesh and blood, Immediately the shrill blast of a bugle was heard, ordering the formation of marching line, and, leaving a detail of eight men to perform the burying, the soldiers, marching to the tune of a lively quickstep, re-entered their barracks and were dismissed.