1815. Carta de Domingo Cortés, salteador, para su mujer Isabel García.

Letter from Domingo Cortes, highwayman, to his wife Isabel García.

The author gives his wife some instruction about the person who bears the letter.

Manuel Pérez, Galician, who called himself Antonio Barral, together with two other men, were accused of being a highwayman in the region near Setúbal and in Alentejo. They were seized a dagger, two picklocks, a false passport, and three letters. Two of the letters were written by Domingos Cortés, member of the gang of Pedro Indiano, a prisoner in the jail of O Limoeiro.

This case, like many others, proves that the memories of the travellers crossing the country, who told of highwaymen and robberies, were actually correct. Robberies and bandit groups, some of them very dangerous, were quite frequent along the roads of Portugal. It is interesting to note that most of the crew had Castilian origins.