OX THE PACIFIC COAST 321 



confidence, having been sent to Europe last year 

 to purchase goods, returned with a quantity of un- 

 saleable trash and with forged invoices, Clarke took 

 himself off to England immediately after the smash, 

 and was bearing off also 7000 dollars from the cash- 

 box ; but Gutierrez missed the money, followed him 

 on board, and took it off his person in the sight of 

 many witnesses. In almost any other country he 

 would immediately have been incarcerated, but they 

 manage matters otherwise here. Icaza walks about 

 Guayaquil holding his head as high as ever : and 

 as he is a scion of one of the noble houses of the 

 country, Gutierrez dare not proceed against him by 

 law, which would expose him to the risk of having a 

 knife stuck into him at the turning of some street 

 corner after nightfall. . . . 



To Mr. Daniel Haubnry 



GUAYAQUIL, Nov. 29, 1862. 



Mv DEAR SIR- -Your last letter shows plainly 

 that you consider your correspondent both listless 

 and dilatory. He confesses to both, and can show 

 ample cause. If you knew how entirely disabled I 

 am ; how rarely I can sit to a table to do anything 

 but must write, eat, etc., in my hammock ; how I 

 cannot walk except for short distances, nor ride on 

 horseback without being in danger of falling from 

 an arm or a leg suddenly turning stiff, you would 

 surely not be surprised at my want of activity. I 

 had never calculated on losing the use of my limbs, 

 and yet nothing was more likely to happen, if the 

 sort of life I led be considered. When alter loss 

 of health came wreck of fortune, simple though my 

 wants be and modest as were my aspirations, I felt 



Vol.. II Y 



