94 TRAVELS IN 
tient to efcape from it : but the underftandlng 
of thofe with whom I had to deal had fo far 
given way to the liberaHtles of Pinar, that nei- 
ther that day nor the following was it poffible 
for me to fay a word on the fubjedl ; as the 
reader will eafily fuppofe when I tell hlm^ that, 
In three revolutions of the fun, eight men and 
fix women had emptied a half-awm of brandy, 
in other words, a cade containing no lefs a quan- 
tity than twenty gallons. It is true that they 
pa fled the three nights without going to bed ; 
that the days had been employed entirely in 
drinking, with the exception of that portion 
of lleep which circumftances had rendered un- 
avoidable ; that Pinar w^as fkilful in the art of 
egging on others both by his precepts and ex- 
ample, and that in all probability his attend- 
ants were not lefs fkilful in this refpedl than 
himfelf. 
At length, on the fourth day, the company 
being tired of their revelry, and in feme mea- 
fure fatiated with drinking, I made to Van der 
Wefthuyfen and Engelbrecht my propofal. 
Their anfwer was, that neither of them could 
fpare me a fingle ox, as they had no more than 
were indifpenfibly necefl^ary for their own ufe. 
This 
