82 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



drels sat on a bench with muskets against their shoul- 

 ders, and the muzzles pointed within three feet of my 

 breast. If we had been longer in the country we 

 should have been more alarmed ; but as yet we did not 

 know the sanguinary character of the people, and the 

 whole proceeding was so outrageous and insulting that it 

 roused our indignation more than our fears. Augustin, 

 who, from having had a cut across the head with a 

 machete, which did not kill him, was always bellicose, 

 begged me in French to give the order to fire, and 

 said that one round would scatter them all. We had 

 eleven charges, all sure ; we were excited, and, if the 

 young man himself had laid his hands upon me, I think 

 I should have knocked him down at least ; but, most 

 fortunately, before he had time to give his order to fall 

 upon us, a man, who entered after the rest, of a better 

 class, wearing a glazed hat and round-about jacket, 

 stepped forward and asked to see the passport. I was 

 determined not to trust it out of my hands, and held it 

 up before a blazing pine stick while he read it, and, at 

 Mr. Catherwood's request, aloud. 



I have since doubted whether even the officer had 

 read it, or, if so, whether he had communicated its con- 

 tents, for it produced an effect upon the alcalde and his 

 alguazils ; and, after some moments of anxious suspense 

 to us, they forbore to execute their threat, but said that 

 we must remain in custody. I demanded a courier, to 

 carry a letter immediately to General Cascara, which 

 they refused ; but, on my offering to pay the expense 

 of the courier, the alcalde promised to send it. Know- 

 ing General Cascara to be an Italian, and afraid to 

 trust my Spanish, I wrote a note, which Mr. C. trans- 

 lated into Italian, informing him of our arrest and im- 

 prisonment ; that we had exhibited to the alcalde and 



