SAN FERNANDO. 123 



separate quinta.* The curate has chosen 

 a good situation, but art and industry have 

 done nothing to improve it. 



21st. The bogas worked bettet, and we 

 had hopes of getting in without further de- 

 lay. Stopped to sleep at a cottage on the 

 left bank. We supped in the open air, under 

 some trees, through the branches of which 

 the rays of the moon, which shone remark- 

 ably bright, played on the little bench which 

 served us for a table ; on either side of 

 this, Mr. Bray and myself, in our leathern 

 armour, sat perched on two high stools, 

 quite disproportionate to the table, alter- 

 nately supping a spoonful of soup and flap- 

 ping away the musquitoes and sand-flies with 

 our dusters,'!' whilst we cast every minute 



* A quinta is a country-house of any dimensions or style, 

 t A duster is a piece of cocoa, split at the end into 

 long threads. 



