CHAPTER V.

Servants acquitted for want of evidence.—Take

new Servant from the Hospital.—Embark in the Tartar.- Arrival at Acajutla.

IGNACIO, my valet, who was one of the handsomest Creolian lads I had seen, had a love affair in Mexico. He cried lustily when I told him, on setting off, that I must take him to England: now that he had been with the Juez de Letras and acquitted, he was in high spirits ; he asked me to give him a written character to the Commission, and also a mare which I bought at Xalapa on my first arrival in the country: as I had no positive evidence against the poor fellow, I gave him both. In order to replace him, I had applied to the old Spanish merchant, Don Juan M-a, who told me he knew of a man whose honesty he could answer for: he was the barber and bleeder of the hospital to which

that worthy old gentleman gave his gratuitous services: I accordingly engaged him. He was a Chinese, about sixty-five years of age, out of forty of which he had been in the habit of attending, as valet, the merchants who were trading between China and Acapulco; thus oscillating, like a pendulum, during the whole of that period, across ninety-six degrees of longitude. He was, in fact, six feet two inches high, and what he had gained in longitude he had lost in latitude, for he was the thinnest man I ever saw, and he usually went by the title with which I christened him, of Don Quixote, though his right name was Henrico. As I was obliged to provide some animal for my other servant, whom I was not anxious to take with me, I told him he might return on my mule, but, not deeming his services worthy of such recompense, I desired him to deliver it to the gentleman who had now succeeded me in my situation at Mexico.

At eleven o'clock on the 4th of May, I

embarked on board the Tartar. There was not much difficulty in shipping my luggage; but my little violent and irritable horse, which I had bought of the rough rider of a dragoon regiment at Mexico, had nearly killed one of the crew, who was fettering him for embarkation: it was evident he objected to the marine service, although he, afterwards, evinced great discipline, and bore a tolerably good character with the sailors, by whom he was surrounded.

My two Mexican servants were anxious to go on board, and I allowed them to accompany me: they were astonished and seemed lost in speechless admiration at so large a house, with all its nice accommodations and conveniences, being able to float upon the water : they had never before seen any thing of the kind larger than a Mexican punt, a vessel shaped exactly like, but half as long again as, those which contribute to the piscatory recreation of gentlemen who angle between Battersea and Staines.

We immediately weighed anchor and stood out of the bay. By the 6th, it was calculated we had made half the voyage to the port of Sonsonate, to which we were bound.

At four o'clock in the morning of the 7th, the great volcano of Guatemala was in sight; we were then about eighteen leagues from the shore. The coast is not very accurately laid down in the charts; at least, there was a variation between them and the ship’s reckoning of seventy miles, in this short voyage. I procured from Mr. James, a midshipman, a copy of an improved plan which he had formed of the coast from Acapulco to Sonsonate* We had run the distance exactly in five days, having had fair light winds all the way.

About midday on the 9th, we came to anchor off the port, or rather open roadstead,

, of Acajutla. At eight o'clock the next morning, Lieut. Morgan went ashore with part of my baggage. There happened to be, at the time, a great concourse of people

a

assembled there from the capital, to celebrate the festival of the Holy Cross. I forgot to mention that the frigate, on coming to anchor, fired a salute which was answered by the fort of two guns, to the number fired by the frigate. This had drawn the attention of the whole population, whether natives or visitors. The morning was very fine, and we could perceive, by our glasses, that the beach was thronged with holidaydressed company, who, with their shawls, bonnets, and parasols, had a very Europeanlike appearance : indeed, a painter might have transferred the group, with propriety, to his representation of the coasts of Ramsgate or Brighton. Captain Brown, whose pleasant and affable manners had rendered the voyage in every way agreeable, sent a boat ashore, with the expectation that the company would avail themselves of the

opportunity of coming aboard the frigate, probably the only ship of the kind they had ever seen anchor at their port.

The periodical blustering gales which an