A PRESIDENT’S ESCAPES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 190, 29 July 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

A PRESIDENT’S ESCAPES.

Porfuio Diaz, “the dazzling Diaz,” us he has been aptly named, who has been seven times President of Mexico, «ua who recently engaged the attention of the whole world, has himself had a career fuli of the most exciting of hair-breadth escapes. Once, while in prison, he had just completed the excavation of a gallery from under his bed to the street, cutting through the thick cement of the flooring of bis cell, «hen he was removed to another prison. From this he made his escape through the roof, with the aid of three ropes and at the imminent risk of breaking his neck. But most amazing of all was his escape from the S.S. City of Havana. Some officers had arrived on hoard to take charge of h;m, and it looked like short shrift and a long rope for Diaz, when a splash as of a man overboard was heard by the watch at night. Diaz nas at once sought for and found missing. and, as the sea was infested with sharks, the prisoner was given up as lost, especially as a ship’s buoy which was missing at the same time was thrown up empty on shore. Nevertheless, remembering that it was the daring Diaz that they had to deal with, vigilance was not relaxed; and the steamer, on arriving at Vera Cruz, was carefully overhauled by troops, but in vain. The commandant nf the port then surrounded the vessel with boats manned by soldiers to preclude all possibility of Diaz escaping. But he did. After having been for seven days and nights sown up. half suffocated, in a sofa-seat in the purser’s cabin, he contrived to pass, disguised as a. sailor, tbroucdi the cordon nf blockading boats. Tin? purser had befriended him on his extrication from tb sea. but the ®ofa i’l which he was hidden was several times sat xipon bv the very officials who wore searching for Diaz!