A WANDERING PHYSICIAN. 343 



gown of the padre Brizeno, whose letter to the pa- 

 drecito had been the occasion of our coming. It 

 kad been written early in the morning, when there 

 was no hope ; but within the last six hours a fa- 

 vourable change had taken place, and the crisis had 

 passed. Perhaps no two men were ever more glad 

 than the doctor and myself at finding their journey 

 bootless. Doctor Cabot was even more relieved 

 than I ; for, besides the apprehension that we might 

 arrive too late, or barely in time to be present at the 

 cura's death, the doctor had that of finding him un- 

 der the hands of one from whom it would be ne- 

 cessary to extricate him, and still his interference 

 might not be effectual. 



As a matter of professional etiquette, Doctor Ca- 

 bot proposed to call upon the English physician. 

 His house was shut up, and he was already in his 

 hammock, being himself suffering from calentura, 

 for which he had just taken a warm bath ; but be- 

 fore the door was opened we were satisfied that he 

 was really an Ingles. It seemed a strange thing to 

 meet, in this little village in the interior of Yucatan, 

 one speaking our own language, but the circuitous 

 road by which he had reached it was not less 

 strange. 



Doctor Fasnet, or Fasnach as he was called, 

 was a small man, considerably upward of fifty. 

 Thirty years before he had emigrated to Jamaica, 

 and, after wandering among the West India Isl- 

 ands, had gone over to the continent; and there 



