The Virginia Gazette

Extract of a Letter from Pampelona, dated Oct. 26. N. S. directed to a Gentleman, a Native of that Place, who is now in London.

Yesterday Two Persons, nam'd Valdenuenia, and Pinto, were executed in this City, for their frequent Barbarities and Murders committed in the Caverns of the Pyrenean Mountains, upon the Bodies of all the Men, Women, and Children, they could lay hold on thereabouts; and when they had done any Mischief, they took Refuge in the famous and almost inaccessible Caverns of the Pyrenean Mountains, called Las Cerradas, about Six Leagues Eastward of the Roncevallles. In their Examination, they confess'd no less than 30 Murders committed by them, and declar'd that they had devour'd several of the Bodies at different Times, when the Pursuit was too hot against them for them to venture out of their inaccessible Retreats. The Execution could not be too severe for Crimes so flagrant; they were quarter'd alive, and their Quarters hung up in the publick Road from Roncevallles, to St. John de Pie de Porte. There was likewise a Woman executed with them, who, for the Sum of Ten Pieces of Eight, given her by one Aldrete a Surgeon, had murder'd her Two Children, as it was thought, to remove them out of the Way of a small Fortune, which they were to have the Reversion of, after the Death of an old Relation, and to which he was the next after them in Expectation. The Surgeon made his Escape to France, as soon as he found the Murder was discover'd, and the inhuman Mother was taken up.