176 ANDALUSIAN SKETCHES. 



Old Spain. I landed at Cadiz only a few days since. Once more I 

 am under my paternal roof; and I hope to prove a comfort to you, 

 my parents, in your old age, I ought to have been rich, and able to re- 

 lieve you from the necessity of further toil. It was no uncommon 

 occurrence in Porto Rico to find gold-dust in the sands of the rivers, 

 and I was as active and quick-sighted as most persons ; but I regret 

 to say, I led an improvident life, and I have brought little else with 

 me than that faithful dog Palomo, who you may observe never leaves 

 me ; I found him, when only a few days old, in a wood near the sea- 

 shore at Porto Rico. He is of the race of those dogs which our fore- 

 fathers carried over to Las Americas, when they discovered and con- 

 quered the country. It is said that those animals assisted in no small 

 degree, by their fierceness and the dexterity with which they hunted 

 down the savage natives. They tell me the breed has totally disap- 

 peared from the continent of the New World. It is therefore strange 

 that the race still continues at Porto Rico. They are, however, in a 

 wild state, keeping to the woods, and subsisting upon the land-crabs 

 which burrow in the earth there. Palomo is well tamed; but he 

 would be a formidable enemy to an intruder at unseasonable hours. 

 He will be a capital sentinel here." 



Such is the purport of Alonzo's story. The intense delight with 

 which Old Francisco and the females listened to it was most inte- 

 resting to witness. They made no remark, asked no elucidating 

 question, and only indulged in occasional exclamations of oyga ! (hear 

 him !) when any wonderful circumstance was told, or JSendito sea 

 Dios! (God be praised!) Que Dios sea servido! (serve God!) when 

 any escape from peril was narrated. 



Alonzo is now his father's right-hand, and labours in the garden at 

 the Boca de Leone, as though he had never led any other life. 

 Juana is married to a worthy man at Ximena, a lover of long-tried 

 attachment. She had for years resisted his entreaties, for she would 

 not quit her aged parents. The brother's return enabled her to do 

 so, and we celebrated her wedding by a grand feast at the cottage. 

 Our shooting quarters there are still carefully kept in repair, and 

 continue to be the resort of a select few of the sportsmen of the gar- 

 rison of Gibraltar. J. W. 



