A BOY WHO WENT WHALING 221 



friend of General Scott, persuaded the general to break the 

 habit of a lifetime and use his influence to push the boy ahead. 

 At all events, on September 3, 1858, President Buchanan ap- 

 pointed Len United States consul for the port of Tumbez, Peru, 

 and the Senate confirmed the appointment. Len was then 

 only nineteen years old, and to hold the appointment, the law 

 required him to be twenty-one. He kept his true age a carefully 

 guarded secret. 



He had deserted from the Lancer on June 6, 1857. On 

 September 6, 1859, exactly two years and three months later, as 

 ''consul of the United States of America for Tumbez and the 

 dependencies thereof," he signed, at the request of Captain 

 Owen Fisher, a certificate that Captain Fisher had discharged 

 from the Lancer John Duty, a sick sailor, and had paid him three 

 months' extra wages. There is humour in the thought of that 

 meeting between the captain and his quondam runaway. 



During his years in South America, Len learned Spanish 

 and various Indian dialects, and traded on his own account in 

 india rubber and Peruvian bark and fresh vegetables; and in 

 search for the supplies that he sold to visiting whaleships, he 

 rode far and wide throughout the country and high into the 

 mountains. 



There are few records of his life during those years in South 

 America; but the little that is known indicates that he had his 

 full share, and more, of adventure. He met the Indians in 

 their own huts and villages. He traded with native farmers in 

 the valleys. Once, when he was riding on a lonely trail in the 

 Andes, a puma leaped from a tree and killed his horse under him. 



It was a stirring life, but letters entreating him to return home 

 kept coming, and he himself was eager to visit his family. He 

 resigned his office on March 31, 1862, and set out on the long 

 journey north, with $10,000 dollars in gold, earned by shrewd, 

 honest enterprise. For years he had worked to prove that he 

 was no ne'er-do-weel. He was still a very young man, remem- 

 ber, and for a lad of his age it was in those days a small fortune 

 that he was bringing home to justify himself in his father's eyes. 

 He was very eager to see his father again; but when he came to 



