1 04 Unexplored Spain 



Danish ; and they will next alight (within an hour) in Africa. 

 Already at their altitude they can see, spread out, as it were, at 

 their feet, the marshes and meres of Morocco. 



Although nominally describing that first day in Las Nuevas 

 (and, so far as fficts go, adhering rigidly thereto), yet we are 

 endeavourinof to concentrate in fewest words the actual lessons 

 of many subsequent years of practical experience. Thus the 

 pick-up on that day (though it may have numbered a couple 

 of hundred ducks) we refrain from recording in this attempt to 

 convey the concrete while avoiding detail. 



Back again, splash, splosh, through mud and mire, two 

 hours' ride to our camp-fire — a picturesque scene with our marsh- 

 bred friends gathered round, their tawny faces lurid in the 

 firelight as fiames shoot upwards and pine-cones crack like 

 pistol-shots ; and over the embers hang a score of teal each 

 impaled on a supple bough. Away beyond there loom like 

 spectres our horses tethered when silvery moonlight glances 

 through scattered pines. Things would have been pleasant 

 indeed had the rain but stopped occasionally. True we had 

 our tents ; but our men slept in the open, each rolled in his 

 cloak, beneath some sheltering bush. 



