104 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 facts go, adhering rigidly thereto), yet we are 
endeavouring 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 flames 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. 
