FUERTEVENTURA I I 



Presently he continued, " Yen I travel, I put myself 

 on to de boat as baggach ; if I a'ive, veil and goot, if 

 not- - !" Again he lost himself in a comprehensive 

 shrug. " So far I have alvays a'ived, but you never 

 know." 



He presented me with an introduction to the Mayor 

 of Puerto Cabras, with whom he had apparently stayed 

 on his shooting expedition to Fuerteventura, producing 

 a very large card on which was inscribed his name, 

 and in one corner, printed in small letters, the words 

 " Lieut. Colonel in retreat." The designation struck 

 me at the time as a rather unfortunate one for an officer, 

 but was probably due to the fact of his having got 

 hold of the word " retreat " instead of " retirement." 

 I must say he was very entertaining, and whiled 

 away the half-dozen hours which on a small rolling boat 

 would have seemed most tedious ; the Peak of Tenerife 

 imperceptibly disappearing from view, while Grand 

 Canary never seemed to be any nearer to us. Presently 

 I saw the " Colonel in retreat " lying down on one of 

 the deck seats, so I followed his example. 



Another two hours, and we rounded the jagged 

 rocks of La Isleta and found ourselves within easy dis- 

 tance of Las Palmas ; the harbour first, with its crowd 

 of shipping, then a long stretch of sand leading up to the 

 town itself, and last of all the cathedral, its two towers 

 of solid masonry standing up, black and forbidding, 

 above the crowd of white houses below. When we 

 came into the harbour and were moored alongside the 

 quay, the captain told us that the boat would not start 

 for Fuerteventura until half past eight the same evening, 

 so taking advantage of this I went up to one of the 

 hotels to dine. 



