Jose P. Rizal

Today, 2 March 1892, at 9:30 I went with Dr. Marques, physician of the prison — Victoria Gaol — to visit the insti­tution. We went walking and after going through several streets and down Hollywood Road, we went up a dead-end street, which is a continuation of Pottinger Street. The guards and other employees gave a military salute to my companion and the doors were opened for us. We passed near the Court where we saw numerous Chinese and Sepoy po­licemen. The Chinese were held by their pigtails; we saw one dressed in tatters. He was caught for being a thief.

One announced our arrival shouting Isang (Doctor).

The Chinese prisoners saluted and presented themselves for inspection by raising both hands to the level of their foreheads with palms turned outward and the fingers extended in this form.

We saw a crowd of prisoners in the patio — anemic, pale, dirty. Their clothes were of white canvas, solidly made, and consisting of shirt and trousers. On the left side of the breast above the heart is sewed on the shirt the prisoner's number in Arabic numerals; on the right side another piece of cloth with Chinese characters, probably his name or number in Chinese. On the front and near the lower edge is printed Victoria Gaol. When they wear two black stripes of the width of one finger on the right shoulder — parallel stripes which fall forward following the seam of the sleeves where they are joined to the body — they are recidivists, or at least, they are serving a second term.

After Dr. Marquez has sent to the hospital some who were complaining of weakness, we entered a dark corridor, somewhat round, at one side of which could be seen outside some grilled doors, about one vara wide. These are the cells of the punished prisoners — dark, scarcely lighted by a window