364 THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



he would hire his animal for four reales, a second offered his for 

 six, but a third declared, that he would not let his animal go 

 for less than a dollar, and at last refused to hire the beast for 

 any consideration whatever. All at once he had business on 

 his chacra, and must be off, but at last agreed to accompany 

 us to the haci6nda. The sailors were to remain at Guam- 

 bacho, and make out the best way they could. Our party con- 

 sisted of three, but the owners of the <«b6stias" would not 

 consent to trust the animals to our care, and insisted upon 

 accompanying us. A small boy was mounted behind Lt. 



D ■ , and a man behind Mr. B , who was on the 



mule without a saddle ; I was on a horse, with a youth named 

 Manuel seated behind me on a pillion. 



While we were bargaining for the horses, we inquired for 

 the alcalde, with the view of enlisting his services in our favor. 

 An old Indian, in his shirt sleeves, secured at the wrists with 

 silver buttons, seated in the group, was pointed out by one of 

 the party as the person inquired for ; he arose on being address- 

 ed, and acknowledged himself to be the alcalde, but regretted 

 very much that it was not in his power to force the owners to 

 hire their horses, unless we had ^<un papel del gobierno" — a 

 paper from the government ; in that case he would furnish as 

 many horses as might be desired, but he doubted whether we 

 could do better than take up with the ^^bestias" before us, 

 because he did not think there were any more in the " pueblo." 



Manuel, who was behind me, was a light young man, of a 

 copper colored complexion. His eyes were black, but lack 

 lustre, and his whole form promised great activity, for though 

 small, his limbs were well proportioned. He wore a white 

 shirt and trowsers, and a straw hat, which were all extremely 

 degenerated in color by dirt. When talking, he was perfectly 

 nonchalant, and his countenance at no time betrayed anything 

 like emotion or feeling of any kind ; his face was as expression- 

 less as parchment. 



We set off, but had not ridden more than a hundred yards, 

 before the mule kicked up and threw both riders to the ground, 

 and trotted away into the bushes, to the infinite amusement of 



