AN ADVENTURE. 21 
On our way I said to the calezero (driver), a man 
whom I had employed for a long time, and who was 
much devoted to me:— 
“Isidro, I have some reason to believe that we shall 
be stopped; I warn you of it, so that you may not be 
surprised at the shots which will be fired from the caleza 
(vehicle).” 
Isidro, seated on the shaft, according to the custom of 
the country, answered :— 
“ Your pistols are completely useless, gentlemen ; leave 
me to act; one cry will be enough; my mule will rid us 
of two, three, or even four men.” 
Scarcely one minute had elapsed after the calezero had 
uttered these words, when two men presented themselves 
before the mule and seized her by the nostrils. At the 
same instant a formidable ery, which will never be effaced 
from my remembrance,—the cry of Oapitana/—was ut- 
tered by Isidro. The mule reared up almost vertically, 
raising up one of the men, came down again, and set off 
at a rapid gallop. The jolt which the carriage made led 
us to understand too well what had just occurred. A 
long silence succeeded this incident; it was only inter- 
rupted by these words of the calezero, “Do you not 
think, gentlemen, that my mule is worth more than any 
pistols ? ” 
The next day the captain-general, Don Domingo Iz- 
quierdo, related to me that a man had been found crushed 
on the road to Murviedro. I gave him an account of the 
prowess of Isidro’s mule, and no more was said. 
One anecdote, taken from among a thousand, will show 
what an adventurous life was led by the delegate of the 
Bureau of Longitude. 
During my stay on a mountain near Cullera, to the 
: 
