418 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



vour'on broad grounds. Indignant at a marriage being 

 prevented, he turned to the married woman and asked, 

 What was it to her ? what right had she to meddle ? 

 what if it was true ? — it was none of her business. Per- 

 haps the young man knew it and was party to it, and 

 still intended to marry the girl, and they might have 

 lived happily but for her busy tongue ; and, wilhout 

 more ado, he brought out a leather whip cut into long 

 lashes, and with great vigour began applying it to the 

 back of the indiscreet communicator of unwelcome ti- 

 dings. He wound up with an angry homily upon busy- 

 bodies, and then upon women generally, who, he said, 

 made all the difficulties on the hacienda, and but for 

 them the men would be quiet enough. The matrons 

 of the hacienda stood aghast at this unexpected turn of 

 things ; and, when the case was dismissed, all crowded 

 around the victim and went away with her, giving such 

 comfort as they could. The young girl went away 

 alone ; the hearts of her sex were steeled against her ; 

 in savage as in civilized life, 



" Every wo a tear may claim, 

 Except an erring sister's shame." 



In the afternoon Mr. Catherwood's fever left him, 

 but in a very low state. The hacienda was unhealthy 

 at this season ; the great troughs and tanks of water 

 around the house were green, and, with the regular af- 

 ternoon rains, induced fatal fevers. Mr. Catherwood's 

 constitution was already severely shattered. Indeed, I 

 became alarmed, and considered it indispensable for 

 him to leave the hacienda, and, if possible, the country 

 altogether. To carry out my other plans, we intended 

 at all events to return. We made a calculation that, 

 by setting out the next morning, we could reach the 



