598 ^ry First Duel. [pKC. 



accompaniment, by a mulatto youth; and a party of four American officers, 

 who were going home, invalided from their squadron, round the Horn. 

 Forcibly as my attention was arrested by the picturesque costume of the 

 Brazilian mountaineers — one of those dark satanic groups that the spi- 

 rit of Salvator so revelled in delineating — it did not escape me that the 

 subject of discourse with the American party was England, against 

 whose institutions and people violent abuse and unmeasured invective were 

 levelled, in that drawling, nasal tone that so particularly distinguishes 

 our transatlantic brethren. No man, even of the most cosmopolitan 

 composition, can digest violent strictures on the country of his birth ; 

 the language of the Americans jarred violently on my ear, but though 

 it stirred np the ill blood of my nature, I did not exactly think myself 

 called upon to play the Don Quixote, and to run a tilt against all those 

 who should choose to asperse the majesty of England. By the young 

 and ardent this feeling, I am aware, may be stigmatized as ignoble ; but 

 those whose passions have been mellowed by time and experience will, 

 I think, own the prudence of the line of conduct I pursued. 



I therefore took my seat, lighted a segar, and listened attentively to 

 the beautiful modinha sung by the mulatto ; there was a plaintive soft- 

 ness in the air, and an exquisite simplicity in the words of the ditty, 

 that told the pangs of unrequited love — 



" Despois que Martillo partio, 

 Partio comelle o prazer — 

 Amor que pode, nao quer valer 

 Na ha remedio senaS morer," 



that had well nigh allayed the angry feelings that were struggling for 

 mastery in my bosom ; when the strictures of the Americans, which 

 had hitherto been levelled at Old England in general, were directed 

 to me personally, and left me but one — one honourable alternative. 

 " When a man openly insults you," says my Lord Chesterfield, "knock 

 him down." If I did not on this occasion follow his lordship's advice 

 (i la Icttre, I did something which, among honourable men, is deemed 

 tantamount to it, and which produced a challenge from one of the 

 party — a demand for immediate satisfaction on the following morning, 

 on the plea that their departure Avas fixed for the succeeding day. — 

 " Gentlemen," said I, " willing as I shall be to give you the satisfaction 

 you require, I doubt my ability to do so at the early hour you have 

 named ; for I am a stranger here, and may experience some difficulty in 

 finding a second among my countrymen, who are quite strangers to me ; 

 and are, moreover, established in a country, where the laws against 

 duelling are severe — banishment to the shores of Africa — I must, there- 

 fore, defer the rencontJ e till the evening, not doubting in the mean time 

 to find some one to do me the office I stand in need of." 



A provoking sneer played round the lips of three of the party, and 

 an exclamation of withering contempt was on the point of escaping 

 them, when the fourth, who had hitherto been quietly sipping his san- 

 o-aree, rose from his chaii*, and addressed me with great politenes of 

 manner: — "I cannot conceal from myself," were his words, "that 

 this quarrel has been forced upon you, and I regret, from the turn 

 it has taken, that there remains nothing but the last appeal ; but if, as 

 you say, you are a stranger here, and are likely to experience any 

 difficulty in finding a second, I will myself most willingly do you 

 that office : for I can conceive no situation so forlorn, so desolate, as that 



