260 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



village, in company with and a friend 



who kindly supplied us with horses. The 

 marsh we went to has the reputation of being 

 extremely unhealthy, and is no doubt the cause 

 of the town having such a bad name ; the water 

 of the lagoon is of a dirty cocoa colour, and 

 emits a foul stench ; notwithstanding which we 

 waded over most of it, and made a fair bag 

 of ducks, and some roseate spoonbills ; the latter 

 were most beautiful birds. 



A day or two after leaving Manzanillo we 

 anchored in our old quarters at San Bias. 



I fear the morality of this place is at a very 

 low ebb. On one occasion I gave a passage 

 to an individual residing not 100 miles off ; this 

 man had been to San Francisco on special 

 business, and was returning home. He told 

 me he had done pretty well, and showed me 

 with great pride and satisfaction a number of 

 labels to be pasted on cigar-boxes, the said 

 cigars being manufactured on his premises. 

 Every well-known Havana brand was repre- 

 sented, having been very exactly forged in 



