HELD FOR HANSOM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20254, 14 May 1929, Page 12

HELD FOR HANSOM.

BANDITS IN MEXICO.

HOW PRISONERS FARE.

KIND TREATMENT THE RULE. British mining and business men have been frequently captured and held for ransom by Mexican bandits, but few of them havo hard words for their captors. Capture by bandits who demand ransom is regarded largely as a matter of course by mining engineers afld mining company officials whose work takes them to regions infested by such law-breakers. Many foreign mining companies operating in Mexico, says a writer in tho Morning Post, havo come to look upon payments of ransom for their officials or employees as part of -their business expenses. Some of tho companies carry payments of ransom on their books as "kidnapping costs."

As a rule Mexican bandits treat their prisoners well. They see to it that the captives are supplied with good food of the nativo variety—meat and eggs propaved in Mexican style, beans and tortillas, or Mexican corn cakes. Frequently (ho bandits give their ransom prisoners the best of food, such as new-laid eggs, find often go without these things themselves in order to provide their captives with them. Tho bandits rarely, if ever, have tea or coffee, and are often hard up for tobacco. They very often expose themselves <o death or capture in order to secure cigars, cigarettes or pipe tobacco. There is a case on record of a bandit chief paying for corn and other food in order to keep the man he was holding for ransom well fed. • Tho members of this band, according to tho prisoner, actually denied themselves food so that tho captive should not lack. Strongholds of the Brigands.

The average Mexican bandit band is 50 strong. The men are invariably -well mounted, each bandit priding himself on his equipment—horse, blanket, rifle and ammunition. Ho may have only tattered clothing, but ho is never found poorly outfitted or mounted. Each band as a rule has its stronghold on tho crest of some mountain or hill. This stronghold usually overlooks ways of approach to their hiding-place. Here they live cither in caves or stono huts.

The women live with their menfolk, doing the cooking and washing and nursing the wounded whenever resistance is met with. The outlaws live by making raids on small, isolated farms, from which they car if/ off corn and other supplies. But perhaps their chief source of income is the kidnapping of prominent persons or those known to be wealthy or the officials and important employees of companies that arc willing to pay for their liberation.

The ransom prices range from £lO to £2OOO, according to the resources of the prisoner. Often these bandit bands are composed of ruffians —uncouth, illiterate fellows; but not infrequently the members are men of refinement who are able to speak more than one language. How they obtain supplies of ammunition is ono of the greatest mysteries. They aro invariably well armed, but it has never been determined whence they get good rifles and other arms.; Narrow Escape from Death. Some of the British subjects who have been held for ransom have tales to tell which would make fine plots for motion picture scenarios. One Briton, more than 6ft. tall and of remarkable strength, who fell into the hands of a bandit band, was mounted, after his capture, on a horse so small that his feet dragged the ground. While ho was being conducted down a steep decline with a break of several hundred feet to a raging torrent, and in pitch darkness, the horse stumbled, under its heavy burden. The rider instinctively reached out as the animal began to fall. By accident he clasped the root of a tree, and thereby saved himself and his mount from certain death. The incident made a profound impression upon the bandits, and they treated their captive with the utmost kindness. This man, a mining engineer, has been held for ransom no fewer than four times.

Many of the Mexican bandits feci aggrieved if they are referred to as "bandits." They say they are patriots, fighting for their people, and any little business of kidnapping they consider is but a means to a good end. They think that grabbing a prosperous or important-look-ing foreigner and holding him prisoner until money is paid for his release is a definite arul easy means of obtaining tho wherewithal to purchase arms and ammunition for "tho cause."