fyxull Winivmii^ § SilrtMg BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME | FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Benrs m. Sagu 1891 .//^/^f, .A./1.3.'^/^. Cornell University Library arV1227 The cruise of the "Falcon" : 3 1924 031 231 396 Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031231396 THE CRUISE OF THE FALCON LOW'S POPULAR LIBRARY OF TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE Vniform Crown 8uo, cloth, 2s. 6d. each. Ten Years' Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp, 1882—1892. From the Original Manuscripts of rather Joseph Ohrwalder, late Priest of the Austrian Mission Station at Delen, in Kordofan. By Major F. R. Wikgate, U.A. Fully Illustrated. How I found Livingstone; inoludinff Four Months' Residence with Dr. Livingstone. By Hekbt M. Staslet, D.C.L., ka. With Map and Illustrations. Men, Mines, and Ariimals in Soutti Africa. By LOED Hahdolph Chukchill. With Numerous Illustra- tions and Route Map. Tlie Cruise of tlie "Falcon": a Toyage to South America in a Thirty-ton Tacht. By E. F. Khiohi, Barrister-at-Law. With numerous Illustrations and Map. The River Congo ; „ „ ^ „ from its Mouth to BoMbiS. By H. H. Johnston, C.B. Fully Illustrated. The Great Lone Land: a Record of Travel and Adventure in North and West America. By Colonel Sir W. F. Butleb, K.C.B. With Illustrations and Route Map. The Land of an African Sultan : Travels In Morocco. By Walteb B. Habbis, P.B.G.S. (A1 Aissoui). With numerous Illustrations. The Cruise of H.M.S. "Challenger." ByW. J. J. Spry, R.N., F.E.G-.S. j Voyages over many Seas, Scenes in many Lands. With Portraits, Map, and numerous Illustrations. *** Other volumes in preparation. London : SAMPSON LOW, MAKSTON ft COMPANY, LIMITED, Si. Dunsiah's House, Fetteb Lane, Fleet St., E.G. THE "1^ CEIJISE OF THE "FALCON" A VOYAGE TO SOUTH AMEBIC A IN A m-TON YACHT BY t. F. KNIGHT BAKEISTBB-AT-I/AW WITH MAPS AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS SIXTH AND CMEAPES EDITION LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY Limited St, 'SmteUm'a lotut Fetter Lahe, Fleet Stbeei, E.G. s . i' N A.\ iondom: ^ TEINTED BY GILBEET AND EIVINGTON, LB., BT. JOHM'S HOME, CLEKKENWEIL KOAD, E.O. PEEFACE. In this volume I have told the story of the voyage, extending over a period of twenty months, of my yawl the Falcon (eighteen tons register, thirty tons ETM), in South American and "West Indian waters. "We left Southampton on the 20th of August, 1880, the crew being composed of four amateurs, three of whom were barristers, and a cabin-boy. The narrative includes the description of a five months' cruise in the yacht up the Eivers Parana and Paraguay, and of a ride across the Pampas to Tucuman. The number of miles travelled over by land and sea was rimghly 22,000. THE AUTHOE. NOTE TO FOURTH EDITION. CiECUMSTANOES prevented me from resuming my cruise as intended, so I sold the Falcon two years ago to a gentleman in St. Vincent. I was yachting in the West Indies this spring, and borrowed the old boat for a day's sail. She was very dilapidated and quite unfit for any more ocean cruising. A report has this day reached me that she was destroyed by the terrible hurricane which devastated St. Vincent last month, THE AUTHOE September Itth, 1886. Missing Page CONTENTS. CHIPTEB Ties 1- — The results op a Fish Dinnee at Greenwich 1 II. — ^VoYA&E TO Madeira 7 III. — The Cape Verde Islands . . . 16 IV.— Bahia ...... .26 V. — Eio DE Janeiro . . ... 40 VI. — Maldonado Bat , . i . .54 VII. — Montevideo and Buenos Atres ... 65 VIII.— -The Eio de la Plata ... .75 IX.— The Pampas .85 X. — "We commence a Long Ride , ... 96 XI.— The Eio Segtjndo 106 XII.— Cordoba 115 XIII. — On the Teopilla Track: to Potosi . . 127 XIV. — The Monies of Santiago , , . . 139 XV. — ^The Eio Saiadillo and the Salt-Desert . 151 XVI. — Santiago del Estero ..... 162 XVII.— Tucuman 172 XVIII. — Eetcrn to Buenos Atkes .... 182 XIX. — We sail lofi Paraguay 188 XX. — Sport on the Parana 198 XXL—El Gran Chaco 210 XXII. — The Province or Coreientes . . .219 B VI CONTENTS. CHAFTSE PAOB XXIII.— Pabagtjat 228 XXIV.— Villa Pillak 236 XXV.— AsragioN 245 XXVI. — OuB Adventubes at Abegtja . . . 253 XXVII. — Descent op the Eivees .> . . . . 263 XXVIII.— Ship a net Cket 272 XXIX. — HoMETAED Bound 281 XXX.— A Pampeeo . . .... 290 XXXI. — Trinidad and Martin Vas Islands . . 301 XXXII. — BXPLOBATION OE THE DeSEBT IsLAND . . 314 XXXIIL— Peenambuco 329 XXXIV. — ^A Cbtjise bound the Reconcavo . . . 339 XXXV.— Demeeara 351 XXXVL — Barbados and Home 361 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Entrance to tlie Bay of Kio .... Frontispiece Off at last 10 A Bahian Trader 41 Paqueta 47 A Gaucho's Home in the Swamps 78 One of our Guests 138 Giant Cacti on the Salt-Plains 169 On the Parana 209 View in Paraguay . . . ... . . . 236 View near Olinda : Beaching a Catamaran . . . 259 The Martin Vas Islands from Trinidad .... 318 Our Camp in the llavine 326 On the Kiver Jaguaripe 342 THE CRUISE OF THE FALCON. VWWVWWWA CHAPTER I, It was one of those beautiful lazy July days' that even London is occasionally blessed with, and which tend to inspire busy man with profound misgivings as to the truth of that trite old lesson, that unremitting toil is his destiny and sole object here below. My friend Arthur Jerdein and myself, urged by the glory of the weather, concluded that a holiday would be to our moral, physical, and mental advantage, and thereupon acting up to our laudable determination, walked away from the narrow city streets, and took boat at the Temple stairs for the ancient port of Greenwich — a favourite trip of both of us this, but one that never wearied and seemed ever new. To come out of the confined city, and to steam through the fresh breeze down the grand old river, among the big ocean-going ships, by the stately storehouses, and quaint water-side wharves and slips, has a peculiar fascination of its own, with its manifold suggestions of enterprise in many a strange land and sea. We enjoyed the orthodox fish, dinner, had another stroU through the models of antique ships of war and reUcs of many victories in the hospital, and then lingered, lazily smoking, on the sea platform of the palace, as we waited for the boat to take us back to the unquiet town. It was indeed a lovely evening — a Thames-side evening as Turner loved to paint, with just that suspicion of haze in the golden atmosphere to tone down all hardness of outline and crudity of colour, and glorify all. 2 THE CEUISE OF THE FALCON. We looked over the waters, saw the barges dropping down with the tide, their tanned sails gleaming like red gold in the western Ught. A big vessel passed us — an Australian clipper, crowded with emigrants, who raised a farewell cheer as the last shore-boats left her side. A smart yawl yacht of some sixty tons lay at anchor close in front of us. We looked on all this, silent for a time, but our thoughts were very similar, the surroundings influenced us in like manner. In all the restless air moved the spirit of travel and adventure. Each sound of chain rattling through hawse- pipe, each smell of tar and odorous foreign wood, each sight was full of reminiscence of far lands, warm seas, and islands of spice. All seemed to say, "Go out on the free seas." We were both 'vagabonds, I fear, in disposition, with nomadic blood in our veins, and our previous wanderings had not been few. So far, this summer, various causes had kept me in London, so I was more than usually thirsting after change from city-life — and . lo ! already there was an autumnal beauty in the sky ; it would soon be too late — a summer wasted ; all these months of glorious sunshine and breeze — winter was near. The weariness of the city, the sigh of the autumn wind, the surroundings of travel, all combined to wake a rest- lessness and a regret in me ; so too was it with my friend, for when one of us awoke from the reverie and spoke, the conversation was on that of which our hearts were full. We admired the beautiful yacht riding at anchor. " How well," one said, "to set to work now and fit out with all stores a vessel like that, and with a few good friends sail right away from the coming northern winter — right away for a year or two into summer seas ! " In five minutes — though before leaving London the faintest shadow of such a plan had not fallen on our minds — We decided to follow this impulse, and at the very idea of what we were about to do, all our discontent vanished like a smoke, and a most joyous enthusiasm succeeded it. As is the custom under such circumstances we retired to the " Ship," with solemn ceremony uncorked a bottle and poured out a libation to propitiate the sea-god, and jSlolus of the winds; then we returned to London, light-hearted THE OEUiSE OF THE FALCON. 3 and full of our plan, to commence preliminary work that very ev6iiing. Thus it Was that the cruise of the Falcon came about. ■ ■ My' friend Jerdein, I must tell you, has been a sailor, an ex-officer of the Royal Mail and P. and 0. Companies. I myself am an amateur mariner, having had many years' experience of fore-and-afters. As skipper, cook, steward, mate, and crew of my little yawl, the Ripple of Southampton, in which I used to make periodical descents on the coast ojf : France, I had gained a fair knowledge of practical seaman- ship. Now what we proposed to do, was to find two or three friends to join us in a lengthened cruise in a small yacht, say of twenty tons burden. The idea was that we should sail her ourselves, and dispense altogether with a professional crew — an advantage in a small vessel. On our return to town we exposed ourselves to some chaff when' we revealed our grand scheme. Those who did not doubt our sincerity were dubious of our sanity, and unhesitatingly expressed their opinion that both the boat and the crew would be found at about thefx Greek Kalends. "^ j. But before many days had passed we found the vessel ; and very lucky we were in her ; had we searched all round the British Isles we could have discovered nothing .so perfectly adapted for our purpose. ; I had written to Mr. Pickett, of Stockham and Pickett, Southampton, who had biiilt the Ripple for me, asking him if he knew of any vessel that would suit us. He wrote back and told me that there was the very thing for us laid up for sale in his yard, alongside the Ripple. So Jerdein and myself took the next train to Southampton to inspect her. We found the Falcon to be a yawl of eighteen tons register ; thirty tons yacht measurement, a boat of excep- tionally strong construction, for she had been built in Penzance for a fishing-lugger, and the Penzance luggers have the reputation of being the strongest and best sea boats of their size. ' She had a square stern, which did not perhaps improve her beauty, but gave hei a character of her own, and pole masts. Her length was forty-two feet, her beam thirteen, and her draught about seven feet and a half. 4 THE CEUISB OF THE FALCON. She was a most solid vessel, looking as if she meant business, perfectly sound and possessing a fair inventory, so it was not long before I had arranged matters with het- owners, and became the proud possessor of the gallant little craft that was to be my home for nearly two years. Jerdein and myself left London, and at once commenced to fit her out, for we were anxious to sail away into calm seas before the autumnal equinox was on us with its gales. There was plenty to do ; we had her coppered well above the water-line, fitted her with water-tanks and biscuit- lockers, reduced her canvas, and ordered spare and storm - saUs. Beside her main, jib-headed mizen, fore-staysail, and jib, she carried a sliding gunter gaff-topsail, and a spinnaker. We procured all the necessary charts, directories, nau- tical instruments, stored away some niae months' pro- visions, decorated the main cabin walls with arms for defence and sport — Martini-Henry rifles, cutlasses, and revolvers, and purchased a small brass swivel gun with grape and canister. No one who has not undertaken to fit out even so small a vessel for a cruise of years over tens of thousands of miles of ocean, can conceive how much there is to think of and provide for. The report of our proceedings spread in Southampton. Long-shore loafers, yachting-men, and others took an interest in the curious expedition of an amateur crew in so small a craft, and there was generally a small crowd watching the preparations that made Pickett's yard noisy with sound of hammering, sawing, and caulking. Jerdein and myself were employed for three days in unpacking and storing away bales of tinned meats and other stores. Hearing that we did not intend to take professionals with us, many affected to disbelieve in us, jeered at our plans and prophesied we should weary of the trip before we got out of the chops of the Channel, put into Cherbourg, stay there a week or so, and then return. By some ill-omened soothsayers we were advised to paint the vessel's name conspicuously on her keel, so that she would be easily recognized when found floating upside down on some sea or other. THE OEUISB OP THE FALCON. 5 "West Quay, however, believed in us, and Pickett was enthusiastic on the subject and sanguine as to our success ; but he and others too would often inquire, "Here aro you and Mr. Jerdein, but whete's the rest of the crew I We have not seen them yet." With great difficulty we found two gentlemen to join us, Mr. Andrews and Mr. Arnaud, but unfortunately neither of these had the slightest idea of sailing a boat. They knew nothing whatever of nautical matters. At last they turned up in Southampton, and Pickett's yard came out to study them. The yacht sailors looked on with interest as one of these bold would-be circumnavigators in top hat and kid gloves, with gingerly steps carefully ascended the ladder which lay against the Falcon's side, reached the deck, and, looking round, remarked with quite a nautical air, as he hitched up his trousers, " What a lot of strings there are about this boat ! I shall never know the use of them all." West Quay likewise studied bold circumnavigator Number Two, smiled, and shrugged its shoulders. This was certainly not a promising crew to take across the Atlantic, and no one knew this better than Jerdein and myself. Thus were we bound to add another member to our crew, who was of much more use, though small in volume. This was a small boy, a very small boy of about fifteen, homeless and characterless, who was loafing about West Quay in [search of odd jobs, a half-starved, melaneholy, silent little wretch, who had been the recipient of more kicks than halfpence during his short existence. On questioning him, we found he had been two years on board a North Sea fishing boat — no gentle school. When we offered him a berth on the Falcon he gladly accepted it. He never smiled then, that boy — ^he does now. When we first engaged him, Jerdein catechized him thus ; — " What is your name ? " " Arthur." " Can you steer by compass ? " "Yes." "Can you make a bowline-knot on this piece of string 1" He satisfactorily accomplished this feat. "Do you ever get drunk?" "Ain't often got the chance, sir," " Do you ever smile t " " Yes, sir." This response came out doubtfully, and forthwith he tried to screw something like 6 TflE CEtJISE OF THE FALCON. a smile out of his despondent features. It was a ghastly failure ; his muscles were unaccustomed to the necessary, movementsj and worked rustily and with effort. Perhaps it was well for him that he could not smile during the early stages of our voyage, for there were things to smile at ; deeds of eccentric seamanship on the part of some of the crew, at the which, were he to have smiled, a box on the ears might have brought him back to his normal melancholy. Others now volunteered to join the Falcon ; stewards and French cooks, reading of a proposed lengthy cruise in the papers, came for engagements, beheld the vessel and her crew, shook their heads, and vanished. As far as the provisions were concerned, the Falcon was well supplied. We had stores sufficient for five men for nine months, consisting, among other things, of 400 lbs. of biscuits and nearly 1000 tins of preserved meats, vegetables, &c. A supply of lime juice was, of course, not forgotten, and an ample cask of rum was securely screwed down in the main cabin. We carried about 250 gallons of water, which we reckoned would last us three months with proper precau- tions. On our long passages, as across the Atlantic, all WEishing with fresh water was of course forbidden. We did not omit to take with us some tinned plum-puddings where- with to keep up" in orthodox form the Christmas days which we should spend on the Falcon. We shipped yet another hand before we sailed. Mrs. Pickett presented us with a little kitten to take with us. Poor little thing ! it purred merrily and" romped about when it first came on board, little knowing what was be- fore it. Before starting, the discipline of the ship had to be arranged, and the duties of each apportioned out. Jerdein was officer of the port, I of the starboard watch ; Andrews was on Jerdein's watch, Arnaud on mine. The boy, Arthur, was on no watch, as he had a good deal of lamp-cleaning, &c., in the day. He used to turn in for the night, only steering now and then in the day-time, especially at meal- times in fine weather, when he was left in charge, while we four sat down to table together. We used to keep four-hour watches, watch and watch, in the usual way, with dog-watches from four p.m. to eight p.m. The plan of our cruise was as follows : To sail by easy THE OEUISE OF THE FALCON. 7 ^ages .to Buenos Ayres, and then navigate the great tribu^ taries of the Eiver Plate, the Parana and Paraguay, as high as -we could in the yacht. We had heard much of the glories of those huge streams, and of the abundant sport to be found on their wild banks. No yacht had ever ascended the Paraguay before, and we anticipated a good deal of novelty and excitement in those fair regions, should we, as we little doubted, effect our purpose. CHAPTEE 11. Wb appointed four p.m., on the 20th of August, 1880 — a 'Friday, too — for our departure. That morning the Falcon, ready from truck to keel, lay at anchor off "West Quay. The Blue Peter was at the mast- head, indicating to aU friends that we were off at last. West (Qiiay took a holiday, and a crowd of small boats rowed round us all the morning, filled with many who wished to inspect the craft. • At two p.m. we stretched the awning on deck, and a lunch jvas sprgad out for a few friends — a boisterous lunch, in which many toasts were drunk, and our success warmly wished. At 3.30 p.m. the bell was rung, the main-sail hoisted, and as the last shore-boat left our side, up came the anchor, atid, with cheers from the spectators, we dropped down the river on the top of a good ebb. ; Almost all the yachts we passed knew us, and their crew^ cheered us lustUy. We still had a large company on board, yrho insisted on seeing us safe to the chops of the Channel -T7two friends from town, Captain Forbes, who had rubbed up our navigation at Southampton, and a pilot. At midnight we were outside the Needles, and commenced X(f feel the swell of the Channel. The weather was very favourable for the voyage, a light north-east wind was ,hlowing, which continued until we dropped our anchor in Falmouth Harbour on the following midnight, that is, thirty-two hours after leaving Southampton. - .We were now enabled to judge more or less of what stuff our crew were made during our trial trip. The philosophic 8 THE CRUISE OP THE FALCON. calm which distinguished Amaud commenced to declare itself. He reclined in his cabin smoking and thinking during the greater part of this voyage ; turning out only at meal- times, and evincing no inclination to undertake his due share of the work. On the afternoon after leaving South- ampton, while we were passing the Eddystone lighthouse, he did crawl slowly on to the deck, to our great surprise, with a blanket over his arm. He rubbed his sleepy eyes, looked round with a lazy smile at the smooth sea and cloudless sky, stretched his blanket on the deck, lay down on it, lit a cigarette, and with a half yawn, half sigh of extreme content, said, "I could go round the world like this ! " and resigned himself once more to his beloved dolce far niente. Andrews, though more active and willing than Arnaud, was equally incapable of mastering the very elements of fore-and-aft seamanship, and caused Jerdein, the officer of his watch, as much trouble as Arnaud did me. There was a good deal of hard language to be heard occasionally on board the Falcon, sounding above winds and waves, when such an incident as the following, for instance, would occur : — Time, two a.m. Dark and squally night. Knight steering. Amaud smoking and pondering (supposed to be looking out). Knight, observing squall coming up, loquitur : — " Amaud, just run forward and scandalize the mainsail, will yo«i ; begin by tricing up the tack." Arnaud creeps deliberately forward, and disappears in the darkness. Five minutes elapse. Knight, impatiently, " Now, then, have not you finished that yet ? " Arnaud : " In a minute ; in a minute." Another five minutes elapse ; we are now in the middle of the squall, which does not prove so violent as was anticipated. Knight, very impatient, " You are a nice, useful fellow on board a yacht ! Ten minutes, and you have not triced up that tack ; if that had been a serious squall, we might have gone to the devil while you were fiddling about there." Arnaud, very indignant, " I do not care. I will leave the beastly thing alone. I will not be sworn at. In the daytime I can find the strings ; in the night I cannot, and I shall no longer try." Follows a prolonged and very noisy discussion, whereon the face of Jerdein appears above the hatch. " How the blank do you think we can get a wink of sleep down here when THE CEDISE OF THE TALOON. 9 you are kicking up sucli an infernal row ? &c., &c., blank, &c." This little episode occurred months after leaving England, so the reader will perceive that the education of my friend progressed hut slowly. So, too, ' Was it when Jerdein and Andrews were on deck. I was awakened one night by a tremendous row, a banging about of ropes ; and, far louder than all, the stentorian exclamations of the wrathful Jerdein. On coming on deck I found that, on being ordered to let fly the jib sheet, that the ship might go about, Andrews had got rather mixed up among the " strings," and had let go in succession the jib haulyards, the bowsprit shrouds, and the peak haulyards. A very nice crew, this, to cross the Atlantic with! And here is another little adventure of Arnaud's. On one line day, the wind being steady, light, and right aft, and our spinnaker and top-sail set, he was left alone on deck for a few minutes to steer. Suddenly I heard a ^eat flapping of canvas, and on hurrying on deck, perceived that all our sails had' been taken aback. The main-sail, top-sail, and spinnaker were bellying out the wrong way, and the vessel was slowly travelling stern first. The booms, being guyed, had not swung aft. I looked at the compass, and perceived that Arnaud had steered the vessel right round, so that she was heading away from her course ; then I looked at the culprit. He was sitting, with his legs crossed Turkish fashion, on the locker aft — placid, calm as a Hindoo idol. He was deliberately rolling himself aiiother cigarette, thfe while professing to be steering with his elbow, and evidently unconscious of 'having done aught wrong. "Well, Arnaud? "I said. " I think," he remarked in a weary, careless voice, looking at the burgee at the mast-head; "I think the wind has changed." We passed two days in the quaint old Cornish seaport. Some yachting men called on us, and were somewhat surprised to behold our arrangements. " Where does your crew live ? " they asked after going all over the vessel, for we were at the time in our shore-going " togs," and not to be recognized as the four seamen our friends had perceived in the morning swabbing decks. "Where do your men live? there seems to be only room for yourselves on board." 10 THE CRUISE OF THE FALCON. We pointed to the solemn small boy sitting, in the fore- castle, with his perpetual huge quid of tobacco in his cheek, and his chum the kitten on his lap. " That is our crew." "But the others?" ' '!!)i " There are no others." ^ i I think these gentlemen looked upon the Falcon, with its amateur crew, as being one of the most eccentric craft that ever wandered about the oceans. We lay, in a quantity of oft tack, bottled beer, and vegetables at Falmouth,. so that \^'&A!»'*«t.S**- '^'' ^'^^ -1 -J Orl' AT EAST. we might enjoy the wonted luxuries of the shore for some few days of our first voyage. On the evening of the 24th of August we bid adieu to the friends who had accompanied us down from Southampton. The anchor was weighed and catted. The last link between us and home was broken, and under all plain canvas the Falcon glided out of the bay, bound for Madeiija. ,- Well off, at last, we four, the boy, and the kitten ; . and it was with a curious mixture of sensations that we Sailed out into the dark cloudy night on the choppy waters of thp THE CEUISE OF THE FALCON. 11 Channel. The last we saw of old England Was the Lizard lights gleaming from the darkness. From these we " took our departure," and steered a course straight across the Bay of Biscay for Finisterre. At eight o'clock we lost sight of the light, and from that moment the routine of shipboard commenced. Eight bells was sounded ; the patent log, one of Walkey's taffrail logs, was dropped overboard; and the watches set; for from now our life was no longer to be divided out into days and nights, but into spells of four hours up and four hours down — rather trying, at first. There was usually a strong contrast between the expression of the faces of the watch coming down to turn in and of that about to turn out. To the latter the jovial and noisy way with which the former would rouse it from its slumber3 was disgusting in the extreme. Atnaud's face, for instance, when he was turned out at midnight wore anything but a happy expression. He did not seem to see any fun in Jerdein's boisterous " Now, then, you sleepers ! Now, then, starboard watch ; up you get i " We met splendid weather all the way to Madeira ; too splendid indeed, for we were becalmed for two days in the Bay of Biscay, roUing helplessly in the long swell ; the redoubtable gulf treating us kindly, and sparing us all its terrors. We were also becalmed for nearly three days in the neighbourhood of Madeira. Notwithstanding these five days of enforced idleness, we accomplished the voyage of 1200 nautical miles in fourteen days, for the wind was right aft all the way. It is off the south coast of Portugal that the mariner may expect to fall in with the north-east trade- wind ; but we carried the wind from that quarter all the way from Southampton, a great piece of luck. It would be tedious, I think, for my readers were I to give the narrative of these voyages in log form ; I will therefore but briefly jot down the particular events of each, especially such as may prove of interest or of service to yachting-men. The little Falcon gave great satisfaction on this her trial trip, and we got a much higher speed out of her than we anticipated — on some occasions she has logged as much as nine and a half knots an hour, running before a heavy sea. We were enabled to carry our spinnaker and gaff-topsail throughout this voyage, two days excepted. On approaching Einisterre we got into a confused and nasty 12 THE OEUISE OF THE FALCON. sea, in wMcli the vessel rolled heavily — and these lively Penzance luggers do know how to roll. Jerdein and myself had now to take all the steering through our watches, as Amaud and Andrews could as yet only be trusted at the helm in fine weather. On the evening of the 29th of August we sighted the lofty cliffs of the Spanish coast ; and at dusk made out the light on Cape Finisterre. This day we spoke the Maria, a Spanish barque bound for Coruna. In the night we lost a hand overboard ; we could not recover him, as it was very dark, and there was a heavy sea running. The sad event occurred in the middle watch. I was steering, with Arnaud standing by my side, when we per- ceived the kitten crawl out of his lodging under the dinghy, which lay upturned on the deck. The poor thing had been pining ever since we sailed. The terrible liveliness of the little craft had made him very sea-sick — and perhaps tinned meat and preserved milk did not agree with him ; anyhow, he was a melancholy object, becoming thinner and sadder every day, as his chum the boy grew fatter and more contentedrlooking. This particular afternoon the kitten had sighted the smiling downs of Spain, had smelt the land ; so he plucked up a bit, tried to purr, and evidently entertained hopes of soon setting foot on forra^wwa again. But now that he saw us bearing away once more, and the Finisterre light fading away behind us, despair seized him. He climbed on to the bulwarks, and stretching out his neck, looked yearningly out towards the receding land. Now he gazed down shrinkingly at the black water, now back at the deck, evidently in doubt ; and just as the light became quite invisible, with a piteous mew and one last reproachful look at the cruel Falcon, and her crueller crew, resolutely leapt overboard — a deliberate suicide ; death, he thought, was to be preferred to this life of misery on the ever-heaving seas. On the 1st of September, being in about latitude 38* N., and longitude 14° 12' W., off the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, we encountered our strongest breeze— a moderate gale from the N.E., before which we ran nearly 100 miles in twelve hours. On the 29th of August, we ran 142 miles ; on the 30th of August, 118; on the 31st of August, 108 ; THE OEUISE OP THE FALCON. 13 on the 1st of Septemlier, 180 ; on the 2ni of September, 150 — dead before the Tvind, so we had no reason to complain. We were, on the 2nd of September, only 168 miles from the Madeira islands, but we did not drop our anchor in Funchal roads until the 7th of September ; for we now encountered calm and light baffling winds, progressing but slowly under a leaden sky, across a long, smooth-swelling, leaden sea. Tepid, uncomfortable weather it was, with the thermometer standing at 85° in the shade. Early in the morning of the 6th of September we sighted a rugged, rocky coast right ahead of us, which we soon made out to be the island of Porto Santo, the northernmost of the Madeiras. It appeared to be a wild spot ; a small isle not six miles long, with an iron-bound coast, on which the Atlantic seas perpetually broke with a thunderous roar. It seemed to be barren in the extreme, merely a tumbled mass of rugged black mountains, in some places running sheer into the foaming sea, in others fringed at the foot by beautiful beaches of golden sands. Strange did ' these lofty mountainous islands of mid-ocean appear to us, after the low verdant shores of old England. There was but a light wind blowing, and it was not till midnight that we sailed between the group of barren rocky islets known as the Desertas (only distinguishable this dark night by the roar of the surf on them) and the east coast of Madeira. Then we bore away to the westward until we were abreast of the lights of Eunchal, some four miles from the anchorage, and hauling the fore-sheet to windward, hove-to till morning. The next day was cloudless, sultry, and with scarcely a breath of wind to fill our sails, but with the assistance of the sweeps we brought the Falcon, by about mid-day, to the roadstead of Eunchal, and came to an anchor within hailing distance of the shore under the walls of the Loo Rock Eort. And now, indeed, we could perceive that we had come to a summer land. On the shore in front of us was the white Portuguese city, and behind it the island rose in swelling domes of luxuriant vegetation and dark forests, up to the barren rocky mountain-tops, 6000 feet above the sea. It was pretty hot too ; the Leste was blowing, the hot wind from 14 THE CEUISE OF THE FALCON. the African Sahara, which brought the thermometer up t ■ 90° in the shade. As soon as the Customs' and the health boat had come o£, and we were free to hold intercourse with the natives, a bum-boat came off to us from the shore — the regular old traditional bum-boat of Marryat's novels — ^laden with oranges, bananas, figs, mangoes, fresh butter, fish, soft tack, and other imwonted luxuries. But the bum-boat woman, the sweet little musical Buttercup, was wanting. In her place was a shifty-eyed, grave, dark man of unprepossessing countenance, one Marco, who undertook to supply us with water, stores, look after our washing, and so on. He could speak some English, and was laden with certificates from aU the English yachts that had visited Madeira for years. There are no ship-chandlers here, so one is left to the mercy of these irregular land-sharks. Marco is perhaps no worse than the rest. Jerdein said, " He may prove to be an honest man, for he did not wince when swallowing the very strong tot of whisky I gave him." I have some doubts myself as to the general efficacy of this ordeal. The town of Funchal we found to be very dull and uninteresting ; but like aU who visit this island of perpetual summer, we were astonished at the beauty of the surrounding country. Prom the steep, paved, narrow streets of the suburbs, over whose every wall hung large bunches of purple gi'apes, to the tops of the swelling hills, the land overflowed with an exuberant and lovely vegetation. Myrtles, large trees of grand geraniums in full flower, roses, vines, oleanders, bananas, covered the hiU sides, while every lane was shaded with festoons of vines. Mr. Falconer, our host of the excellent English hotel known as Mile's Hotel, a beautifully situated place buUt in the centre of a lovely tropical garden, made arrangements for us to visit the world-renowned view of the Gran Corral. He procured good horses for us. The Gran Corral deserves its reputation, and we had a most pleasant ride to the sublime gorge, by a road which winds along the sides of mountains, sometimes precipitous and barren, but generally covered with verdure and flowers and noble forests' of chestnut. The broad, blue Atlantic was always a feature in the scene ; so high were we above it that we could see THE CEUISE OF THE PALCON. 15 the light clouds skimming over it bolow us like phantom ships. On our return to the city we went to the circus, for dull Funchal just now hOasted this excitement — a Yankee circus that was travelling among the Canary Islands and up and down the West Coast of Africa^" We were already provided with tickets for the performance, for the shrewd American had already pounced down on us as likely people to he looking out for entertainment. We had made the acquaint- ance of some of this queer crowd of light-hearted wanderers in the following wise. We were sitting in a caf^ indulging in glasses of strong red wine in which cream ices had been stirred up, a pleasant combination in vogue here. At another table was sitting a man who eyed us silently for some time, mentally taking our measure. He was a shortish man, with close-shaved head and keen Yankee features, with an eye ever twinkling with good-natured fun, and a mobile, nervous mouth. After, no doubt, having pretty well gauged the character of the Falcons, and having detected some freemasonry of Bohe- mianism in the appearance of those great navigators, he came boldly up to us and with Yankee twang burst at once in medias res. "Wall, strangers, and so ye've come all the way from England in that little craft in the harbour, eh ? Proud to make your acquaintance. I'm the fi-nanoe man of Peely's circus, that's who I am. Now I guess you'U want a dash of moral recreation to-night after all those days of hauling and heaving, eh ? Here you are (producing an envelope), just four places left — four box-tickets for to-night's grand representation of. Teely's American Circus — right. Yes, I'll take a little aqua pur a with whisky. Emiva, senores." We visited the circus and enjoyed it too, for the little company was clever. We all lost our hearts to a pretty and merry-eyed little Yankee girl, who gracefully did la haute ecole on a fine bay horse. I think our friend, the finance man, saw this, for he considerately spared us any further wounding of these too susceptible hearts. He came off in a boat to call on us the next morning, and brought with him his " boss," Mr. Jeely, and the Neapoli- tan clown, but none of the " fair artistes." - " They are liable to sea-sickness," he diplomatically explained. This 16 THE CRUISE OP THE FALCON. trio stayed to lunch, and we turned them out our best curry and minced collops, stimulating their appetites first with the world-renowned ^aZcow fog-cutter, a terrible beverage of the cock-tail species, invented by Jerdein in the early days of the cruise, but much improved by further research and experiment, as we progressed. It contains manifold in- gredients, of which whisky and Angostura bitters form the base. What comes on the top of these depends much on the products of the clime the Falcon happens to be iuy thus a detailed recipe is impossible. If you ask a denizen of British Guiana what a " swizzle " is, his reply will be "a Domerara tipple." He will not condescend to analyze further for you that delicate pink foaming draught. So be it with the Falcon fog-cutter — it is a " Falcon tipple." For two years this company had owned a small schooner- y£icht, in which they travelled with all their paraphernalia from island to island of the West Indies, and up the Spanish Main. Then they were wrecked. Many a curious yam these three Bohemians spun us of their roa,miiig life on the warm Western seas among the pleasure-loving people of the Spanish Main. Mr. Feely was the gravest of the three, as became his responsible position ; circus proprietors always are more or less solemn. It must indeed be hard and delicate work to keep in order the curious little world of a travelling circus, with its artistic jealousies and sc[uabbles. CHAPTEE III. In the afternoon of the 13th of September, having got a clean bill of health for St. Vincent, and laid in a good stock of vegetables and Colares wine, we weighed anchor, and sailed oat of Funchal Bay before a light breeze. We did not get out into the strength of the fresh trade-wind until past midnight, as is generally the case on the lee-side of this island, with its lofty mountains. Our next port was to be Porto Grande, in the island of St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands, a distance of 1026 nautical mUes. This voyage we accomplished in seven days and twenty hours, notwithstanding that we had in all about forty THE CRUISE OP THE FALCOjST. 17 hours of light winds and calms, and twelve hours of head- wind. But during the rest of the voyage we had strong north-east trade-winds. In three consecutive days we made the following runs : 169, 166, and 183 nautical miles, which is not had work for a tuhhy, jury-rigged craft like ours. "We were now sailing over a lovely sea. The old Spanish discoverers named this vast region of the north-east trade- wind, that extends almost from 36° N. to the Equator, the Ladies' Gulf. "Well named it is too. A tropic sea where storms are very rare, where there is a perpetual summer, tem- pered hy the fresh, strong trades. In these warm latitudes the four a.m. to eight a.m. watch is the pleasantest of the day. There is first the matutinal coffee and pipe — for on the Falcon smoking on duty is not absolutely forbidden. You steer the gallant little vessel as she reels off her eight knots an hour before the steady breeze, rolling and heaving gently as the great green seas pass under her, sometimes playfully dropping a bucketful of salt water over the bulwark. You watch the gradual approach of dawn : there comes a pale flush with bright emerald streaks in the eastern sky ; and far quicker than in our northern climes, the sable night is driven back, and the stars put (out ; and gloriously the tropical sun rises from a throne of rainbow clouds over burning Africa. During our voyage to St. Vincent, the thermometer ranged from 80° to 85° in our cabin. On September the 14th it rained for the first time since we left Southampton, but not for long. On the evening of September the 16th, four full-rigged ships were in sight of us astern. The following morning the wind freshened from the south- east quarter. We held our own against three of the four ships, stiU keeping them astern of us. Only one could gain on us, and at two p.m. she was alongside. She was a magni- ficent British ship with all sail set. We were in company with her for some hours, during which we kept up a conver- sation with her by means of the international code of signals. She hoisted her number, H.F.S.E., and we found she was the well-known fast London clipper, the Paramata, of 1521 tonss, bound from Plymouth to Sydney. Her passengers crowded her decks to look at us, the sight of so small a craft as the Falcon in mid-ocean evidenly sur- 18 THE CEUISB OF THE FALCON. prising them. The flag conversation went on in an ani- mated manner, until we bade each other fareweU, dipped our ensigns and separated, she taking a course considerably to the westward of ours. This pleasant little encounter was in latitude 26° 2i' E., longitude 20° 30' W. The other three ships did not overtake us. On September the 18th we boomed along merrily before a fresh breeze. It was Saturday, so at eight p.m. as is the old sea rule, we drank to sweethearts and wives, and even found occasion for another toast, so merry were we at our luck and prospect of a smart run. This was to the tropics, for it was this evening we entered the torrid zone, crossing the Cancer at sunset. This night the wind freshened consider- ably, but blew steadily. At daybreak, as I was steering, it being my watch, the spinnaker outhaul carried away, so I had to call up the watch below to muzzle the sail and repair the damage. A curious and undignified spectacle the port watch presented as they hurried up en deshabille. Andrews was arrayed in a blanket and a pair of hideous blue spectacles which he considered to be necessary for his eyes when in tropic seas. On the 19th, we had reeled off another 166 knots. And now the gallant north-east wind blew fresher and fresher still ; at times we made eight and a half knots an hour, driving showers of spray from our bows as we plunged " like a frighted steed " from one great sea to another. Top-sail and spinnaker were stowed in the afternoon ; by evening the wind had increased to the force of a gale, and we close-reefed the main-sail and shifted the jib. Jerdein and myself had now to do all the steering, as was nsual when the tiller required delicate handling. The old boat behaved splendidly, and in twenty-four hours we had made another 190 miles on our course. On the morning of the 20th, we sighted a brig steering W.S.W., with top- gallant mast gone. jSTearly every morning about this time we had a little fresh fish for breakfast, for many flying fish would jump over our low bulwarks by night, attracted by the glare of the bull's eye and side lights (when we carried them). On the night of September the 20th, we knew that we were in the close vicinity of the Cape Verdes. As the weather was very thick, we first shortened canvas, and THE CEUISE OP THE FALCON. 19 later on, during the middle watch, hove to, so as to keep off the land till daybreak. At four a.m. I relieved Jerdein on deck, made sail and proceeded on our course. We were unfortunate in having an exceedingly unfavourable morning for making a landfall. It was squally, drizzly, thick weather, in which it would be impossible to distinguish the highest land at the distance of two miles ; a not uncommon state of things to encounter off these lofty, cloud- collecting islands. At seven a.m. we perceived through the drizzle a dark, un- defined mass on the port bow that might be a lofty coast, so we bore down towards it. Then a violent squall came down on us, which compelled us to lower the main-sail. At eight p.m., of a sudden, a great rift opened out in the thick atmosphere, and lo ! right ahead, for a moment only appeared a mass of inky rock till- ing up the rift, its edges and extent not yet discernible. Then the rift in the mist closed, and we were left again in uncertainty for a while. But soon, with the strengthen- ing sun, the thickness cleared once more, and we perceived before us, not three miles off, a dark threatening mass of mountains which we recognized as the island of San Antonio. This is the most northward of the Cape Verde Islands and one of the most fertile of the group, though it looks barren and inhospitable enough from the sea. These islands lie at the southern limit of the north-east trade-winds, and are about 200 miles distant from Senegambia on the West Coast of Africa. They belong to Portugal, and are for the most part inhabited by a fine-looking race of negroes, giants of their kind, who are good sailors and farmers. The whole group is volcanic — a congregation of curiously-serrated, daii mountains, that look as if vomited out from hell itself, so w^eird some of them appear. The island of San Antonio presents a fine appearance from the sea. It is a grand volcanic mass of dark rock, whose peaks rise above the clouds (it attains an elevation of 7100 feet), and at whose feet is a perpetual white line of heavy surf. Bleak and uninhabited as it appears to be, this island has a considerable negro population, and they say contains fertile vales, between its precipices, where vines, cocoa- plantains, indigo, and cotton, are cultivated by a mild and industrious coloured people. 20 THE CEUISB OP THE FALCON. The island of San Vincente is separated from that of San Antonio by a channel seven miles wide. After close-hauling the Falcon on the port tack so as to double the north-east Cape of San Antonio, we then bore away down the channel for Porto Grande — the harbour of St. Vincent. This is the most important island of the Cape Verde Archipelago, having been selected as a coaling station and place of call for several lines of ocean mail-steamers. But of all the group, none I imagine is so barren and burnt-up a desert as is this little islet. As we approached it we could easily distinguish its volcanic oiigin. It is merely a burnt- out volcano. From the golden sands that divide it from the blue tropic sea it rises a confused mass of utterly bare, fan- tastic mountain-peaks. Steep and profound ravines descend to the sea in' places, black and lifeless ' some of them as if they had been cloven but yesterday with a great pickaxe out of a mountain of coal. This arid African crag is not a cheerful-looking place. At midday we dropped our anchor in Porto Grande Bay, close to the wretched little Portuguese town. This is a splendid and well-sheltered harbour, capable of holding at least 300 sail. The entrance, which looks out toward the island of San Antonio, is about two miles wide. Once within the bay one finds himself in clear, smooth water, surrounded on aU sides by shores of beautiful yellow sands and coral rocks, from which rises the amphitheatre of barren, tooth-shaped mountains. The only objection to this land- locked basin is the almost daily occurrence of furious squalls, which sweep down on it from the ravines. Twice during our stay here we dragged our anchor in corisequence of these. The little town on the beach, with its whitewashed houses and bright red roofs, looked cheerful against the dreary back- ground j for JErom the domed mountain-tops to the shore sloped down the couloirs of black lava and debria of old volcanoes. Travellers have likened this aspect to that of a raked-out coal fire of giants— a Titanic heap of cinders— and this exactly describes it. One could ahnost imagine that the fire stiU smoulders below, so intensely hot is it in this land-locked bay ; an atmosphere of a furnace at times en- velops the town. On the desolate land there is no green to THE ORtJISE OF THE FALCON. 21 relieve the eye, no trees to keep off the burning rays of the tropic sun. The health-oflScer came off in a, boat rowed by sturdy negroes clad in -white, and gave us pratique ; then in his turn came off the Marco of St. Vincent in his bumboat— a merry little Portuguese, with a ne'er-do-weel twinkle of eye and cock of hat, Jose by name ; he spoke English fluently, and offered to find all we wanted in the way of provisions during our stay. Very well he did it too ; and, to our surprise, without swindling us in the least. Let me recommend little Jose to future callers at this port. . It is easy to procure any quantity of bananas, mangoes, cocoanuts, and other fruits here. They are brought over from the other more fertile islands in small cralt by the negroes. These same islanders appear to be a merry, pros- perous people, perpetually jabbering and gripning like so many monkeys. Some of these islands, they tell me, are very negro and half-caste Utopias. Each man owns his little plot of land, which produces more than suffices for his needs. Coffee, papias, sugar, bananas, Ac, are cultivated in the fertile vales beneath the volcanic crags. Yankee schooners carry on a brisk trade among these people,,bartering cheap and gaudy cottons, knives, and such goods, for agricultural •produce. San Vincente is not self-supporting even in the way of water, of this necessary there is very little, if any. Some is brought over from San Antonio in schooners, but the shipping is chiefly supplied by Miller the coal-king, who condenses large quantities of sea-water in giant tanks. San Vincente is one of the stations of the Anglo- Brazilian Telegraph Company, so there are about fifteen young Englishmen in the company's employ, resident here. It was chiefly owing to the companionship and hospitality of these gentlemen that we lay at anchor off this cinder-heap for so long as nine days. Every naval and royal mail officer knows the telegraph station and the telegraph men of St. Vincent. These all live together in one large buUding, by far the most luxurious place on the island, with a spacious verandah sur- rounding it, libraries, reading-rooms, billiard-rooms, and all the other luxuries of a club. Were it not for the number of the company's employes, and this pleasant system of half-club, half-college fellowship, I should imagine their Hfe in such a hole as Porto Grande would be intolerable, so utterly desti- 22 THE CBUISB OF THE FALCON. tute of all society or amusement is it. As it is they live jollily enough. They give their little dances to the officers and passengers of passing mail steamers ; play at cricket on the hlazing sands; keep their four-oared boat, and so on. The arrival of a steamer with a good supply of first-class passengers of the fair sex, is generally the signal for a ball, for St. Vincent can turn out little in the feminine line — save negresses and mulattoes. Sadly were the telegraph men, and we mariners of the Falcon too, for the matter of that, disappointed, when the SS. Cotopaxi called here on her way to Austr^ia, with a fuU complement of passengers. We had eagerly looked forward to her arrival. There would be English papers, the faces of English girls again, a jolly ball. But, alas ! there was a case of scarlatina on board, so she was put into quarantine during her stay. A great disap- pointment for all parties — the passengers perhaps not least ; the emigrants hung over the bulwarks all day, gazing sadly at the forbidden ierrafirma. One fine morning Arnaud and myself started off in our Berthon collapsible boat to explore the other side of the bay under Washington Head, where the sands, piled up in huge dunes, glittered like pale gold under the vertical sun. The outward journey in the little ten-foot canvas boat was smooth enough, but on nearing the land we found, what we could not perceive from the Falcon's deck, a heavy surf breaking on the shore. The edge, too, of the beach was thick with sharp, ugly-looking, coral rocks. Anyhow, here we were, and land we must to explore those great slopes of glaring sand. As soon as we had reached the breakers, and were, as we imagined, in sufficiently shallow water, I gave the order to jump overboard, so that we might lift the boat safely on shore without running a hole in her bottom. To Arnaud's astonishment the water was well over our heads 5 so when we had at last successfully lande4 and carried the boat out of reach of the breakers, he upbraided me sadly. "You told me we were in shallow water — do you call that shallow water ? " We sat down on the burning sands under the sun to dry, and forthwith entered into a fierce discussion as to whether ten feet was shallow water or the reverse ; I holding the former, Arnaud the latter view. Shallow, I said, was a purely relative adjective, and in these circumstances ten feet THE CEUISE OP THE FALCON. 23 was shallow. Amaud held that water could not he shallow for walking and fording purposes, when there were three or four feet of it above your head. In five minutes the tropical sun had dried us, so we post- poned the discussion, and wandered about collecting shells and specimens of coral, enjoying this amusement, I verily believe, as much as we used to do when we were small imps with spade and bucket in the olden times. The trade-wind blows all the refuse of Porto Grande across the bay to this beach, and so stalking about on the sands, greedily gobbling, were the ugliest and most mangy-looking vultures I have ever cast eyes upon. They were quite tame, and allowed us to approach them within a yard or so. These useful scavengers are protected by law, and a heavy fine is inflicted on any one who kills one of them — hence their tameness. They are evidently quite aware of this law, and insult you with impunity. They are most insolent beasts, worse than Barbados niggers. Arnaud and myself now proceeded to re-embark — no easy matter, for the surf had increased considerably. Our naked feet suifered a good deal during the process, for the shore was covered with sea-urchins, whose hedgehog-like bristles pierced and broke off in them. We waded in quickly after a returning wave, carrying the boat with us, jumped nimbly in and paddled out ; but, alas ! we were not sharp enough, for before we had got beyond the second line of breakers a roller caught us, slued the boat round, capsized her, rolled us out, and we had to draw her up on shore, bale out, and start again. Five times in succession we were thus capsized, but always managed to save the boat and keep her off the coral. We knew that there were ground sharks in this part of the bay — ^not a pleasant matter to think of. The sixth time we altered our tactics and succeeded. We followed a breaker, carrying the boat with us ; Amaud jumped in, seized the paddles ; I held on to the stern and managed to guide her safely over the next breaker ; then he rowed with all his energy till he was well outside the surf in deep water. It was now my turn. I swam out till I came to the boat, put a hand on either side of the stern, and jumped in between my hands. My weight pulled her under, and half-filled her with water, but she did not capsize, and we soon baled her out. 24 THE CEUISE OF THE FALCON. I have mentioned this to show what can be done with a Berthon's boat ; no wooden dinghy could have got off from that shore then ; she would have most certainly been stove in. But two men with practice and a little activity can carry this little light canvas tub through the broken water and safely embark as we did on this occasion, without scra,tcliing a particle of paint off her fragile sides. Sunday, the 26th of September, was a hot day, a day of oppression and irritability, which found vent, as far as the Falcons were concerned, in two fashions. The morning was too sultry to do anything ; we lay about the cabin lazy and sulky, sleeping and wrangling alternately. First we entered into a most fierce discussion on some subject of dynamics, in which all parties waxed savage ; as a matter of fact, none of us knew anything about the question in point. Then came lunch — curry and CoUares wine ; this mollified us somewhat, and the talk veered round to a more gentle discussion as to the comparative beauty of the fair sex of different nations, over our pipes. But, alas ! from that we go on to some pro- found metaphysical question, which stirred up all our latent irritability again. At last, unable to convince each other, we went to sleep. In the evening we were engaged to dine with the telegraph men. Arthur put us on shore, then pulled back to the Falcon. When we reached the verandah of the telegraph station, just as the sun was setting, Jerdein's sharp eye detected a suspicious circumstance — a boat with three men in it was rowing off to the Falcon. Yes ! there could be no mistake ; they were now alongside ; now they had boarded her. Then the rapid night of the tropics fell, and aU was obscure. Jerdein and myself ran down to the beach, found a boat with two negroes, and engaged them to row us off. We told them to go off quickly, but noiselessly, explaining our plans to them. They greatly enjoyed the situation. We found a boat made fast to the Falcon, but no one suspected our arrival ; our foemen were aU in the forecastle, where we heard them laughing boisterously. Jerdein and myself jumped down the companion, passed through the main-cabin, and so into the forecastle, where we surprised three Portuguese sailors. Without parley we proceeded to belabour these fellows ; there was a fine scrimmage. They were driven on deck j one fell into the boat they had come THE CECTISB OF THE FALCON. 25 in, and alone managed to escape with, her ; the other two we knocked overboard, to find their way to their vessel as well as they could through the sharks ; the latter, hy the way, are too delicate in their tastes to feed on Portuguese mulattoes unless very hard pressed for a meal, so I suppose they returned safely to whence they came. Arthur told us that he was helow when they came, on board ; they paid no attention to his remonstrances at their uninvited appearance, but seized him, prevented him from going on deck, and commenced to inspect the vessel for grog, and anything else, I suppose, that might come in handy. After our victory, which proved a fine safety-valve for the irritability caused by the sultriness of the day, we handed over a loaded six-shooter to Arthur, in the presence of our two grinning negro boatmen, with injunctions to challenge once, and then shoot, any other visitors who might come off that night. The boy was proud of his post, he took the revolver with a grin and meaning gesture that made the niggers shudder. I did not think that we should be troubled any more after this. He is a bloodthirsty boy, this Arthur. He has, I think, fed his youthful mind with literature of the " penny dreadful " class. At every port he would ask such questions as, " Be there savages here, sir ? " " Be there Indians in these parts 1 " He used to appear very disappointed on receiving an answer in the negative, but used to solace himself with dreams of future bloody encounters. "With' all these guns and cannons we ought to do for them when we do see them — eh, sir?" he would say. He used to look at our little brass cannon with great respect and admiration, as being a wonder- ful piece of ordnance ; was very fond of it, indeed, save when he was set to polish it. When, later on, we did come across his long-looked-for Indians and savages, I fear one of the cherished illusions of his life vanished, a fragment of his youth was gone ; for lo ! they were not cannibals ; neither did they scalp him ; neither were they, as a rule, even naked —simply a drunken, dirty, very ugly set of uninteresting ragamuffins. The morrow after this night of wrath was a busy day for aU hands ; we were employed in oiHng spars, taking in stores and water — in short, preparing all for sea. But after all this work we did not sail on the following day after all, but 26 THE CKUISE OF THK FALCON. indulged in a holiday ; for the SS. Thales was in the harbour, with the latest English papers on board, so we went in for a grand read at the telegraph station. The same steamer had also landed in St. Vincent a small quantity of that unwonted luxury, ice. One of the storekeepers near the beach had obtained a supply of the precious article, so most of the white population were La and out of that store a good deal during that day., CHAPTER IV. OuB first long run was now before us ; Bahia dos Todos os Santos in Brazil, across the broad Atlantic, was to be our next port. The time this voyage might occupy was rather uncertain, for we were now towards the southern limit of the north-east trade-winds. We had to traverse the region of the south-west African monsoon, which blew in our teeth, and that broad belt of equatorial calm, so terrible to sailors — tha sultry doldrums, where a ship may lie for weeks on the hot, smooth water under a cloudless sky, with the pitch oozing from her decks ; a region of unbearable calm, broken occasionally by violent squalls, torrential raiu, and fearful lightning and thunder. AU these difficulties conquered, we should be in the pleasant realm of the strong south-east trade-wind — the trade-wind of the southern hemisphere — which blows fresher and steadier than the north-east trade, and under whose favouring breath we should bo able to reel off the knots right merrily. We steered so as to cross the equator in longitude 24° W., which Jerdein considered to be the best route at this time of the year. As this voyage will be of some interest to yachting men, I shall, contrary to my usual custom, narrate it in the form of a diary. It will be observed that we were thirteen days reaching the equator ; that for the greater part of that time we encountered calms and south-\yesterly monsoons, so that sailing as we generally did, close-hauled on the starboard tack, we were driven considerably to the eastward of our course, on the tenth day being as far east as 21° 30' W. If ot till we were on the equator did we fall in with the south- THE OEUISE or THE EALOON. 27 east tiade, whicli then stood by us pretty steadily till we reached Eahia. Throughout the voyage the thermometer ranged between 85° to 90° in the shade. In the following diary I divide time in the civil fashion for convenience, but the positions and distances are extracted from the log, and given at mid- day, nautical fashion. October \st. — Weighed anchor at midday. Light N.E. wind. Ean down the San Antonio channel under all canvas. On our left were the bare volcanic masses, the forbidding gorges of San Vincente ; a thundering lino of breakers dashing against the shore everywhere : on our right the more smiling mountains of the isle of San Antonio. The lofty summits of both islands were hidden in the clouds. At night wind dropped ; calm, and vivid lightnings. October '2nd. — Dead calm j nasty drizzle ; hot, debilitating weather ; vessel rolling uncomfortably in the swell. Through the haze perceived the lofty mountains of Brava, the southern- most and most beautiful of the Cape Verde Archipelago. Towards evening an E.S.E. wind sprung up, which enabled us to average six and a half knots an hour during the night. October 3rd. — Glorious sunny weather; wind E.S.E. Eleven a.m. — one of the crew was caught in a serious breach of discipline ; man at the helm, too, at the time. He was sitting down to his work ; was wearing blue spectacles, and, worst of all, was reading a play of Sophocles in the original. Fancy a man at the wheel reading Sophocles ! He was seriously rebuked by the officer of his watch, Jerdein, who is a martinet in his way, and who gazed at him for fully five minutes, speechless with dismay, ere he could find voice for vituperation. October Ath. — Wind E.S.E. At midday in longitude 25° 1' W., latitude 10° 32' IST. ; distance made this day 152 miles. During the day the wind came round, till it was quite aft. The glass fell rather suddenly — more than a tenth in a few hours. In the evening there was a wild appearance in the sky, slight squaUs of wind and rain, and signs of worse weather coming ; then followed a magnificent sunset, ominous of storm, and a calm for a while. So threatening was the appearance of the heavens to wind- ward, that all hands stayed on deck, to see what was coming. Eight aft we perceived an inky mass of cloud rising from the 28 THE CEUISE OP THE FALCON. horizon. It had huge, rugged, black streaks diverging from it in all directions, like the claws or arms of some great monster crab or polypus. Bigger and bigger the threatening mass swelled, and the evil-looking arms stretched half round the horizon and to the zenith, as if the monster was about to inclose the whole world in its grasp — a wonderful and awful appearance. Our sails flapped as we rolled in the calm ; wo lowered the main-sail, laade all snug, and waited. First constant and vivid sheet and forked lightning of a- blue colour came out of the cloud, and then down burst the squall on us, and such a squall. The cloud had enveloped all the sky, had blotted out all the stars ; never have I experienced so complete a darkness on the seas. The wind blew with great fury ; and we could not turn our faces to the stinging rain, so smartly it struck. We scudded on before the heavy gusts. As I steered I had to keep the vessel right before them, judging the direction by the feel of the wind on my neck, for the binnacle-light was blown out. The roar of wind and rain rendered even our loudest shouts inaudible to each other across the decks. It was, as I said, pitch-dark. As I steered I could only see two whirling masses of foam on either side of our bow like two great wings, thrown up by our speed. Our side- lights were lit. On the foaming mass on our port side fell the red, on that on our starboard side fell the green light, lending a spectral horror to the scene. With this exception, the occasional lightnings alone threw a fitful light on the noisy darkness around. Above the roar of wind and water but one sound was heard — our bell pealed forth loudly, with each exceptional pitch of the vessel, a deep funereal tone that added to the solemnity. This squall lasted nearly an hour ; others succeeded it throughout the night from various quarters, but none coming nearly up to it in fury. October Hth. — Cloudy, warm, no wind. We were in that most uncomfortable position for a vessel, becalmed in a heavy sea ; for last night's weather had raised a confused tumult of choppy waves, in the trough of which we rolled and pitched horribly with all sail stowed. It was a lazy day for all, our chief employment being eating bananas and vainly attempting to catch a large shark who was prowling round us, a wary old ruffian who refused the most tempting bait. The calm con- tijiued throughout the day. As usual, ill-temper resulted. THE OEUISE OJ? THE FALCON. 29' Two of the crew entered into a fierce discussion as to whether the plantains which were to serve as one of the courses for dinner should he cooked and eaten with salt like potatoes, or be treated with sugar like fruit. At eight p.m. there were signs of squally weather in the sky, so the crew waxed hopeful and good-tempered again. During the night we had occasional showers and light squalls from S. to S.S.W., at which we put the vessel close-hauled on the starboard tack. Then came the calm again. We were now having an experience of that tantalizing, wearisome region where the doldrums and south-west African monsoons fight for mastery over the equatorial sea. • All this time we were being drifted a considerable distance daily out of our course to the eastward, for we were now in the Guinea current, an equatorial stream of hot water (its temperature is about 84°) setting into the Gulfs of Benin and Biafra. So warm is the water that the morning douse with the bucket, which took the place of the tub, was no longer refreshing as it used to be, for the temperature of the sea was of course higher than that of the night and morning air. When a sea came on board in the night it felt like hot water to our faces and bare feet. October 6th. — Again a dead calm ; 88° in the shade ; a high sea running ; a fearful rolling, creaking, and groaning of ship ; all our canvas was stowed ; a barque in sight in the same situation ; for forty hours we did not lose sight of her, though we were bound in different directions ; lat. 9° 14' N., long. 24° 30' W. As no sharks seemed to be near, I jumped overboard for a short- mid-ocean swim. At midday there came on us a slight squall with rain . We hoisted the canvas, but in half an hour it was as calm as ever. October 7th. — A light northerly air and very heavy equatorial rain. We stripped and enjoyed a freshwater shower-bath; also blocked , up the Scuppers and collected enough water to refill some of our empty breakers. We only made seventeen miles this day, so light was the wind. October 8th. — Calms and light northerly airs. ' There was a haze to the S.E. as if portending our entrance into the region of the trades. This day we made seventy-two miles on our course. October 9th. — Tacking very slowly against head variable winds, divided from each other by hours of dead calm. In 30 THE CEUISB OF THE FAIiCON. the afternoon we came to a disturbed sea, where it had evidently been recently blowing : 87° in the shade. Spoke an English barque homeward bound. At night passed very close to another vessel. Neither of us were carrying side- lights, and the night was dark, but we showed them our bull's-eye, to which signal they responded by showing another. A night of calm with occasional squalls from every point of the compass. October IQth. — A strong and squally S. W. monsoon sprang up. We sailed close-hauled on the starboard tack. The vessel was very lively but not wet. At noon the wind freshened to a half-gale from the S.W., with heavy squalls at intervals. We sailed under close-reefed main-sail, fore- sail, and storm- jib. In the night it was blowing a moderate gale of wind in our teeth. The Falcon was livelier than - ever ; the way she jumped, first her head and then her stem into a sea, was a thing to experience. At midnight the vessel was labouring so heavily that we hove her to, for it was a shame to tax too much the endurance of the brave old boat. October 11th. — At dawn the great seas looked most im- posing, with the fiery sunrise lending a weird colour to them, as they charged on towards us. At eight a.m., as the wind was moderating, we proceeded on our voyage. We put the vessel on the port tack, for the wind was S. by W., and we had been driven considerably to the eastward of our course. At midday our position was lat. 4° 58' N., long. 21° 49' W. AH hands were now well weary of this S.W. monsoon blowing in our teeth, with its heavy, confused seas and squalls. October 12th. — Fine, sunny, but disagreeable dayj for the wind, though stUl as a rule from the S.W. quarter, seems to come at times from everywhere and anywhere, hence a troublesome sea. There was a curious hazy appearance to- day to the S.E., which cheered us somewhat as indicative of change. We had now reached a locality between the S.W. monsoon and the S.E. trade, where these winds contend continually for the mastery. They certainly have ploughed up their battle-field with their rival artUlery into short, choppy furrows, very nasty for small vessels like ours that have to cross them. At midday we were in lat. 3° 56' K, long. 22° 50' W. October 13th. — A marvellous sunrise : on the eastern THE CRUISE OF THE FALCON. 31 horizon lay a bar of bright gold, with a mass of fiery red above, like a coast of golden sand lit by an intense light, and backed by mountains of half-molten iron. The wind blew fresh to-day from S. by W., to S. by E. At noon our position was lat. 1° 47' N., long. 23° 8' "W. ; distance made in the twenty-four hours, 146 mUes. During the night, of a sudden, with a squaU, the trade- wind burst down on us at last, then settled down strong and steady : so we rejoiced exceedingly. October lith. — A glorious morning, no cloud in the sky, and a fresh trade-wind. At seven a.m. we crossed the line. At midday we had reeled off a hundred and sixty miles on our course, and at lunch were glad over our last two bottles of Collares wine from Madeira, which we had reserved for our arrival at the equator. Our luck had changed as we entered the southern hemisphere, after thirteen days of calms, squalls, and head-winds. Jerdein reported a most curious phenomenon ift his morn- ing watch. The sea about a mile from us became suddenly disturbed, boiling up violently, as from a subterranean spring. This lasted for about two minutes. He said he thought it would have been dangerous had we happened to be over the spot. Throughout the day we observed great patches of discoloured water, having exactly the appearance of shoal water. These and similar phenomena are frequently observed in this part of the ocean. Often a ship reports that here- abouts she has experienced a violent shock, similar to that which is felt when a rook is struck. Sometimes a great rumbling is heard like that of a heavy chain running through the hawse-pipes, and the vessel quivers like a leaf in the wind. Another time in smooth water a vessel has been known to heel right over suddfenly, as if she had run on a sand-bank, for this is a region fuU of most uncanny appari- tions for the mariner — a sort of haunted corner of the sea. Before this ocean had been as thoroughly sounded and surveyed as it is now, these phenomena were attributed to the presence of unmarked sand-banks and rocky shoals, and are thus put down as vigias in the old charts. But it must have astonished the mariner somewhat to find that he got no soundings with his deep-sea lead, immediately after ex- periencing one of these shocks ! It is now known that there is no less depth than 2000 fathoms anywhere in this neigh- 32, THE OEDISB OF THE FALCON. bourhood, and submarine earthquakes are acknowledged as the true cause of these convulsions. So frequent are these manifestations of suboceanic disturbance, that this is now- termed "the volcanic region of the Atlantic." Fearful in- deed must be the forces that can transmit such violent action upwards through three miles of water. This afternoon we noticed that the sea changed to a light green colour, and the thermometer suddenly fell six degrees. These, I believe, are also usual phenomena on this mysterious tract of ocean. October I5th. — "We sailed to-day through an enormous fleet of Portuguese men-of-war (Nautilus), under full canvas. Pretty these little creatures (I don't suppose I can call them fish, and creature is a safe term) appeared, with their delicate pink fairy sails spread to the favouring wind. This day we logged 160 miles. Position at midday, lat. 3° 15' S., long. 24° 39' W. Oatober l&tJi. — ^Day's run, 175 miles ; lat. 5° 45' S., long. 25° 55' W. Spoke a full-rigged ship bound for the Cape of Good Hope. October I7th. — "We generally hold our own against the trading-vessels we come across, and on many occasions have shown some barque or ship a clean pair of heels ; but this day we were ignominiously beaten, but by so beautiful a vessel that we forgive her. She was a clean, bright Yankee barque, the Golden Cross. Her sails were as well cut as a yacht's, and as snowy. By noon we had added another 169 miles to our score. Octobef 18th. — The wind was now so much to the E. of S.E., that we were enabled to hoist our spinnaker with advantage. A very hot day. The wind was lighter, so our day's work was only 141 miles. Octobet 19th. — "Wind stiU lighter j day's work, 118 miles ; passed a jackass-rigged craft. October 20th. — Thermometer 90° in cabin, 125° on deck ; ivind light and variable ; day's work, 89 miles. October 21st. — A light breeze from S.E. ; barometer fell a tenth. We observed three interesting phenomena this day. The first was a huge waterspout, which crossed our bows at about two miles' distance ; the second phenomenon was America ; the third a bottle of CoUares wine. I was at the tiller ; Arnaud was sadly contemplating a THE CETJISE OF THE FALCON. 33 small whale, ■which was floundering ahout near us ; Arthur was, as was his wodt, at the mast-head, looking out for passing vessels — this and fishing for flying-fish with a bull's- eye at night being his chief diversions on board. Suddenly the boy cried " Land right ahead, sir ! " I was incredulous, for I did not expect to sight the coast for some hours. On going aloft with the glasses I saw that the boy was right ; there was no mistake about it at all. There before us lay a long line of low sandy dunes, fringed with cocoanut- trees. I rather surprised Jerdein, who was sleeping below, when I touched him on the shoulder and remarked quietly, "Here is America." It was a dreary coast — and so it is aU the way from Bahia to Pernambuco, low and monotonous, but strange and of the tropics to one coming from the northern lands for the first time. A treble belt of striking colour clove the vast blue spread of sea and sky. First was a band of bright white, the foam of the perpetual breakers on the coast ; then a long strip of golden sand, and above, a broader green belt of waving cocoa-palms, dark against the pale blue sky. The third phenomenon I spoke of was a bottle of Collares wine. Having had a good look at the American coast, our storekeeper took a dive below, and soon reappeared on deck with a smile and this same bottle. He was greeted with a shout of surprise. The existence of such a treasure on board had not been in the least suspected by the rest of us ; but this wary member of the crew had secreted this last bottle of our Madeira cellar, in order to produce it on our first sighting the New "World. It was formally uncorked, and with its assistance we saluted the Western Continent. We had made the land about 100 miles to the northward of Bahia. October 22nd. — A hot sun and a light breeze. We slowly followed the coast, at a distance of about two miles from it. A line of sand fringed with cocoa-nuts, and^visible from the mast-head only — dense black masses of forest behind, unroUed themselves before us in monotonous panorama as we sailed by. We perceived no signs of human life on the shore, save here and there what appeared to be a negro hut. At last we sighted the lighthouse of San Antonio, and the scenery changed ; gently sloping hills came down to the shore, covered with all manner of tropical forest and garden, 34 THE CRUISE OF THE FALCON. among which nestled the villas and palaces of the wealthy merchants of Bahia. A wonderful sight this brilliant tropical verdure to us fresh from the barren seas : a luxuriant growth pouring right down to the narrow merge of sand, where stretched the long line of graceful cocoanut-palms, casting dark shadows on the clear water. We rounded the point of San. Antonio with its picturesque fort, and sailed into the smooth waters of the beautiful bay of Bahia. At seven p.m. our chain once more rattled out through the hawse-pipe, and we came to an anchor off the city. We were twenty-one days and seven hours out from San Vincente, a much shorter voyage than we had anticipated. The distance by the route we had taken is 2538 nautical mUes. As soon as we had stowed our canvas, we brought out from hidden places, white shirts, neckties, clothes, boots, and other articles of civilization, — for our sea costume was barbaric in the extreme, — and awaited the authorities. Two boats soon came off; first, the patrique boat. The doctor was satisfied with our hygiene and gave us per- mission to land, as far as his department was concerned. Then came off the steam-launch of the captain of the port. The ofi&cer informed us that we were anchored in a pro- hibited spot, and must move farther in. And now for the first time we experienced that universal courtesy which so pleased us in all the authorities we had dealings with in Brazilian and indeed in all other South American ports. As we were flying the blue ensign, man-of-war rights were granted to us ; the captain of the port gave us permission to anchor in the man-of-war ground, and to land with our boats at the naval landing-stage at the arsenal. As the wind had now dropped, he very kindly towed us up to our anchorage with his launch, and offered to give us every assistance in his power. The above privileges are of the greatest value in a Brazilian port, where the custom regulations for merchant-vessels are so strict. One cannot go off or on one's vessel, if she be a merchantman, after eight p.m., without a special permit from the custom-house. Now, we had the privilege of rowing to and fro at any hour ; we could leave our boat alone and in safety at the arsenal steps. All we had to do when coming off late at THE OEUISE OP THE FALOON. 35 night was to call the sentry at the arsenal gates to open them for ns, telling him the name of our vesseL Again, an insolent negro guard is put on board every merchantman by the custom-house. There he has to he fed, lodged, bribed, and made much of generally, during the vessel's stay in the port — a horrible nuisance which we were also excused, by virtue of our blue ensign. Ours was a nice snug anchorage in four fathoms, under the antique fortress of Fort la Mar, a round, grey mass built on a rooky islet. "We were close to the beach and could see all the busy life of the Praya from our decks. Bahia is a picturesque place viewed from the sea. First along the shore is the Citade Baxa, or lower town, the more ancient portion of the city. Here are the lofty stone houses of the old colonists, with antique churches of massive and quaint architecture. For Bahia is one of the most antique cities of South America. It was founded in 1511, and is now the second city of Brazil. The lower city is built on a narrow strip of land along the water, at the foot of a steep, black cliff some 240 feet high.' One great street stretches along the beach, known as the Praya — it is four miles long, with a tramway rmmiag down its length. This Praya presents a very animated appearance. For here are the huge stores, magaziaes, and warehouses, and along the quays are moored the native craft, the queerest imaginable, with their gaudy paint, lofty stems, strange rig, and semi-nude negro crews. Here are to be seen the giant blacks with glistening ebon skin, roUiag down the bales of cotton, coffee, and sugar, and other produce of this rich province. At first sight, this is evidently one of the busy marts of the world. Along the front of the Praya is a fruit, vegetable, and odds-and-ends market, where at their stalls sit the fattest and most voluble of negresses, with the gaudiest and most voluminous of tul'bans on theii heads, and a rather liberal display of their large charms. This Praya is a hot place, and somewhat malodorous at times, for the fresh breezes are kept off by the steep cliff.. Here the Imglish sailor, too, roUs about red and sweating, drinking the vilest of new white rum, and eating half-rotten fruit imder the tropic sim, tDl of a sudden a sickness and a dizziness comes upon him, and in a terribly short time he falls, another victim of the invisible fiend Yellow Jack. 86 THE CRUISE OP THE TALCON, Behind this Praya, as I said, rises a cliff, but not a smooth, hare cliff, hut rugged, with quaint houses let into it, and rich vegetation filling each crevice. The contrast between the two is most striking. Eor the houses are antique with gloomy arches, dingy, many of them, as if they had stood through centuries of London smoke, whereas the vegetation — who can describe its freshness, its marvellous exuberance of youth ! its fairy-like beauty ! Graceful palms, luscious- leaved bananas, wonderful creepers of rainbow colours, over- flow the cliff, forming a luxuriant curtain of tropical verdure, flower and fruit, depending from the upper to the lower city. On the summit of this cliff is a plain on which is built the Citade Alta, or upper city, with its crowded narrow streets (nearly each with its tramway line), its broad squares, and the cathedral. On either side of the town, on the hiU-sides overlooking the bay, are the most beautiful suburbs imaginable, with palatial villas nestling in gardens of such colour and aroma as intoxicate the senses. No wonder if the Brazilian is voluptuous and lazy, living as he does in such a Paradise as this. A steep road winds from the Praya to the upper city, but there is also another means of ascent prepared for an indolent population that will not walk ten yards if such exertion can be avoided. From the sea an imposing-looking tower is observable, built from the lower town to the upper, along the cliff-side, and terminating in a broad platform on the summit. This is the elevator, or parafusa as it is here called, being merely one of our now common hydraulic hotel-lifts on a large scale. A smart Yankee hit upon this speculation, and it has proved successful. Any invention that can save a Bahian a ten-minutes' walk must pay well. The network of tramways in every Brazilian city, is almost incredible ; even small villages inland, like S. Amaro, have their tramcars; and fine dividends the directors show too. There is in Bahia another means of locomotion which I have never seen elsewhere. Nothing less than the good old- fashioned sedan-chair of Queen Anne's day, carried by two stout negroes. The model is exactly that of the queer box in which our great grandmothers were wont to be carried to rout and ball. Such is Bahia, a city of about 230,000 in- THE OEUISE OF THE FALCON. ' 37 habitants, of ■whom nearly three-quarters are mulattoes, native negroes, and Africans, the remainder Brazilians, Por- tuguese, and foreigners. On the morning after our arrival ive prepared to go on shore to stretch our legs after our long confinement. So here we were at last on shore in South America, with plenty to see and wonder at. I am afraid the first thing we did was to enter Freitas and "Wilson's store, and indulge in the unwonted lux'iry of English beer. And now that I am on the subject, let me strongly recommend this firm of ship- chandlers to any yachts that may come into Bahia. I shall not soon forget the courtesy and kindness they showed us. A ship-chandler's store in a foreign port offers no small opportunity for the study of character, for it is the loafing- place of the merchant captains. Here they sit, drink, and gossip through half the tropic day. Quite at home, sitting astride his chair, is the Yankee skipper of the smart schooner, with broad Panama hat and long cigar. That bluff gentleman, who sports a white helmet, is the captain of the fine English barque that came in yesterday. The jovial German in the straw hat is the master of the ship Frdulein^ from Hamburg. Somewhai savouring of shop is their talk as a rule. Freights are discussed ; the best longitude to cross the equator in ; and the law is laid down with a thump of a homy hand on the counter. Then crews are disparagingly overhauled, somewhat in the manner of women talking over the much- vexed subject of domestic servants. We were introduced to an old American skipper with a snowy goatee, who hailed from Virginia, a tough old sea-dog of the Spanish Main and the Southern Seas. He had been a whaler in the great South Pacific, and was full of strange yarns of islands where one white lives alone— a king of savages. He was a walking pilot directory, and gave us a long string of directions as to where we should go and what we should do. Said he, "I guess you should go to the Solomons ; they are fine. If you dew, don't land at such or such an island, for they air a queer people thar ; they'd treat you just as you would a fat bullock as walked on board your vessel. No! you visit the little bit of an island just south of that, so-and-so isle. Now ! you mind me ; keep the big hut in the east bay in one with a tall palm you'll see all by itself 38 THE CEUISB OP THE FALCON. on a hill, east by south, and steer bold in and bring up in four faflioms, two cables off the shore. There you land ; teU the people you want the white man — say Jake. They'll know then that you've smelt him out, and they'll fetch him for you ; for he is shy, is Jake. Bather queer ; can't abear a white man ; ain't accustomed to him. When you see him, say you know me, and he'll show you roimd that thar island, I bet. You'll have high old times. Shouldn't wonder as you'll stay there altogether, you'll like it so much. I guess you'll take half-a-dozen wives each and fix ; and they air fine women, young men. For that there island is a paradise; what with the fruit and the flowers and — the women; whitish, too, whiter than I am, with long black hair. "Why, Lord ! see Jake sitting under his pahn-tree smoking aU day, while his wives do aU the work there is to do — do it willingly too, singing aU the time, not Hke them darned sailors we were talking of just now." "We start for an expedition to the upper town. "We take our tickets for the elevator, and enter a half-dark sort of wild-beast cage, where we sit down beside several of the gorgeous fat negresses, for the production of which Bahia is celebrated, and a few dark gentlemen smoking huge Bahia cigars. A strong and not delectable aroma pervades the cage, which strikes me as being somehow familiar, and seems in some strange way to call up reminiscences of my innocent childhood long ago. I have it — it is castor oil ! The machinery of the elevator is evidently lubricated with this horror of my youth. The pretty tree from whose berries this useful drug is extracted grows in great profusion in Brazil ; and this oil is here the cheapest of all lubricators, and is therefore ex- tensively used for this purpose. At last our smooth, well-castor-oiled journey is completed, and the cage stops suddenly. We effect our exit, and find ourselves on a platform on the summit of the cliff, an extensive square open on the sea side, and surrounded by lofty hotels and houses on the other three sides. We pause awhile by the railing on the edge of the precipice to admire the marvellous scene that stretches before us. The cliff with its curtain of tropic verdure falls perpendicularly from our feet. Below are the 5roof-tops, the narrow streets of the lower town, the busy Praya, the shipping ; and then beyond, a great, blue inland sea, with islands of waving palms and THE OEUISE OP THE I-ALCON. 39 dense mangoes scattered over it, a sea indented witli many a beautiful sandy bay, and witb many a forest-clad promontory jutting out, noisy with, tbe cry of parrots, and bright with many jewel-winged birds. On the further side stretch ranges of great purple mountains, scarce visible even in this clear air, for the distance of them. And many a great river is seen pouring in from the inner lands, and many towns and pictuijesque whaling villages are scattered here and there round the wonderful coast, which is one ever-changing tropic garden. For this is the world- renowned Eeconcava of Babia, surely one of the wonders of the world. A bay seven miles broad at its mouth, then opening out into this land-locked sea of more than one hun- dred miles in circumference, where all the fleets of the world could find safe anchorage, free from any danger, and opening out with its many tributary rivers one of the richest regions of BrazU, that wonderful country of tropical prodigality — a gulf which seems as if formed by nature to be the emporium of the universe. AU these shores are famous for the produc- tion of tobacco ; for Bahia is the great tobacco port of Brazil, just as Rio Janeiro is the cofiee, and Pernambuco the sugar port. Interesting it is for a stranger from the old world to stroll for the first time through the Citade Alta of Bahia; the streets are narrow, some of the houses are of antique archi- tecture, built of solid stone, the gloomy mansions of the old merchant-princes of the land. The more modern are plastered, gaudily painted, pseudo-classic and Byzantine gingerbread — which, however, harmonize well with the brilliant air and vegetation. Most of the buildings here are five stories high, thus utterly differing from the patio'd, one- storied, flat-roofed houses in the cities of the Spanish people to the South. A busy life, too, throngs these narrow streets, tramways rattle down the principal thoroughfares, a mongrel crowd of black and white and yellow jostles and jabbers. Towards evening, it is the custom for the women to come out on the balconies to enjoy the fresh breeze that then springs up. Up and down a long street, at every balcony, up to the fifth story, they hang over — mulatto and negro belles, in orange, green, white, scarlet, every, gaudy colour, fanning, flirting, laughing, chattering vigorously. Above the shrill scream of 40 THE CEUISE OF THE FALCON. the tram-whistle rises their shriller Babel; a bewildering pandemonium of extreme light and sound and colour and motion, mellowed slightly as a rule by an all-pervading, mysterious, heavy odour. On the morrow Amaud and myself took tram to a certain ancient convent, whose nuns are famous for their skill in the manufacture of feather flowers. All manner 'of pre- cautions are taken to keep the male sex from intruding on these gentle recluses. We were not admitted within the precincts at all, but had to stand outside a stoutly-grated window, and hold parley through it with the caged inmates. Indeed, one grating was not deemed a sufficient barrier be- tween them and the outer world. The wall was about seven feet thick, and there was a double grating in the recess, one at each side, so that a partition seven feet deep was between us — an unnecessary precaution, a biting sarcasm, I should imagine, to the poor nuns, for in carnal attractions they were sadly, hopelessly deficient. They passed the flowers through the gratings to us in long-handled ladles. Very beautiful some of these flowers were, of metallic-lustred, rainbow-hued feathers of humming-bird and parrot. Very keen at a bargain were the ladies; they jabbered and wrangled and pushed each other aside in the excitement of their rivalry. It was an unpleasing sight, so we purchased a few flowers and departed. CHAPTER V. DuEiNQ our stay in this port we organized several pleasant expeditions up country; but to describe all these would swell this work to a size far greater than I mean to trouble my readers with. I should like to tell you of the pretty village of Rio Vermilio, where the fresh trade-wind blows full on the shore, driving the great Atlantic seas till they break grandly on the rocky beach, scattering showers of spray over the bending cocoanut-palms, whose leaves glisten like diamonds with the salt crystals. I should like, to narrate, too, a five-days' trip of Arnaud and myself" when we crossed the bay, steamed up a river through Jungle and forest, then progressed higher still in a negro dug-out to the little town of St. Amaro ; how on the THE CRUISE OP THE FALCON. 41 muddy banks the pink cray-fish. gambolled; ,and bow the branches of the mangroves were thick with oysters hanging like fruit ; and how from St. Amaro we rode across fifty miles of roadless country to Faira St. Anna, now by the palatial mansion of some rich sugar-planter, surrounded by its slave village and sloping hills of waving cane, and now through virgin forest, where the tall palms rose high above the lesser growtlf of trees, linked by intricate creepers, lianas, and convolvuli. I should like to linger over the description of the wonderfuUy-plumaged birds — parrot, humming-bird, canary, and a hundred others ; of the fruits growii^g wild and in profusion in the woods— pine- apples. A BAHIAK TBADEB. bananas, mango, jachas, bread-fruit, and the rest. I should like to tell you of the people we met, the half-naked slaves, standing outside their huts, with their curious little, pot- bellied, wholly-naked children; of the proud planter, with poncho and massive silver spurs, galloping across his lands : how we journeyed on from Faira St. Anna to Cachoeira by train through plantations of sago and coffee, and thence by steamer again down a broad river to the Eeconcava. But all this would fill a volume by itself. Having been now a fortnight in port, we once more pre- pared for sea. We reiilled our rum barrel with white rum, laid in a stock of pine-apples, yams, and other vegetables j 42 THE OKUISE OF THE FALCON. and on the 6th of November weighed our anchor and sailed out of the Eeconcava. Salvoes of crackers and rockets, and the tolling of manifold bells from all parts of the city, seemed to be bidding us a farewell as we dropped slowly down the smooth bay. In Bahia every day of the year seems to be a fiesta, and dedicated to some saint or other ; keeping a saint's day here implies a terrible waste of fireworks, and clanging of church bells. All day long, for they do not even await the shades of night, the rockets ascend. There is no place in the world like Bahia for these amusements. Par out to sea you know when you are approaching this port by the sound and the blaze of the worship of its inhabitants. It is called Bahia dos Todos os Santos — the bay of AU Saints — of all of them with a vengeance. It is the most religious and most vicious city of religious and vicious Brazil The eve of our departure there stood forth an omen in the sky, which, said the sailors on shore, is but rarely seen, and only when some terrible hurricane is imminent. Inside the thin crescent of the moon was one solitary, bright star, the only one in the heavens. It was a curious appearance ; but it seemed to me not likely to be connected with terres- trial storm. Our next port was to be Eio de Janeiro, the beautiful capital of this empire. We had fresh winds from the E. to N.E,, and so completed the voyage in four days and twenty hours! We carried our spinnaker and gaff-topsail nearly all the time. At 5.30 p.m., the 6th of November, we were outside the Eeconcava, off Point San Antonio. By midday, the 7th of November, we had logged 116 miles ; the 8th of November we made 174 miles; the 9th of November 152 mUes; the 10th of November 167 miles; the 11th of November 164 miles. It was glorious, sunny weather, and bracing and pleasant was the fresh Atlantic breeze, after the rather debilitating climate of Bahia. The second night out would have seemed to some pilot of old as full of alarming portents. The mariner at times docs encounter such nights, weird and awe-inspiring, that fill his breast with vague, superstitious terror as he keeps his mid- night watches. It was an exceedingly dark night and still ; the long ocean swell roUed on smoothly, only at rare inter- vals breaking into phosphorescent spray. The air was hot THE CEUISB OF THE FALCON. 43 and stifling as before storm. The clouds that passed over- head were utterly black and assumed fantastic shapes. Arnaud recognized Gambetta's bead, and a fiend riding across the heavens on a black borse, in the slowly-floating masses of vapour. It seemed at times as if the whole sky was full of uneasy spirits, fixing up everything ready for a good old hurricane. The moon only appeared at intervals through rifts in the cloud. It was surroxmded by a beautiful triple halo of green, yellow, and pink circles. In the middle watch the sky cleared somewhat, and Arnaud and myself became the amazed spectators of several most remarkable phenomena, meteoric or electric — I cannot be certain which.. We saw first in the midst of a cloud an appearance like that of a great shell bursting. It illuminated the whole cloud and the sea for a moment, and its explosion was accom- panied with a duU thud. Again we observed several meteors that sailed across the sky like rockets, with bright tails of fire, and then burst. A mysterious night this on the warm tropic sea, and ominous of tempest, which, how- ever, did not overtake us. On the fourth night out, we kept a sharp look-out for Cape Frio, in whose neighbourhood we knew ourselves to be. There is a lighthouse on this point with a powerful light ; we made it out about two a.m. As we neared the cape the thermometer fell rapidly, till we really felt quite cold for the first time since we had left England. This sudden fall of the temperature is always experienced near Cape Frio, hence its name, the Cold Cape. I believe the phenomenon is attributed to the presence of some oceanic current of cold water which comes to the surface hereabouts. This cape is also famous for the furious squalls that sweep down from it seawards. When daylight came we discerned land once more on the starboard bow — a distant range of blue mountains, which we recognized from their sharp spire-like peaks to be the Organ Moimtains, which lie to the back of the Bay of Eio. On approaching the entrance of the gulf the water shallowed and became light-green in colour ; the sea, as is not uncom- mon on this bar, was coming in in heavy breaking rollers, which would have proved dangerous to many a yacht of the Falcon's tonnage, that I know of. We heard tkat a heavy pampero had been blowing for three or four days to the 44 THE CEUISB OF THE FALCON. south of Eio, hence the exceptionally disturbed condition of the sea when we arrived. Who can describe the grandeur of the gates of the Bay of Eio, and the wonderful beauty of the bay itself! I thought nothing could be so beautiful as the Eeconcava of Bahia ; and lo ! here is a gulf that transcends aU one's wildest dreams of the magnificence of tropical scenery. Not here are the gently sloping hills of the Eeconcava. The entrance of this bay is between stupendous and fantastically-serrated moun- tains. Steep and forbidding domes of granite fall sheer into the boiling surf. The aspect of this coast from the sea is grand and terrible in the extreme ; but once withia the bay, all changes. One moment we were running before a cool, strong breeze, rolling heavUy in the steep seas, the next moment we had passed between two walls of rock — we had entered the inland sea. Immediately the water fell smooth as glass — the wind died away, and the bracing sea-breeze was changed for the sultry atmosphere of the tropic harbour. We came to an anchor inside the island and fortress of Villegagnon. What a scene was there round us, what a variety of beau- tiful form and colour ! To give any adequate description of this bay is quite impossible. It is as extensive as, the Eeconcava of Bahia, and is studded, with the most beautiful islands, whose beaches are lined with cocoanuts and stately palms. All round the bay rise the stiipendous mountains ; some covered with gorgeous-coloured forests, others of barren crags and lowering precipice. And there stretching far along the shore is the empire-city, Eio Janeiro — the queen of South America, lying at the foot of an amphitheatre of great moun- tains. There is the huge granite crag of the Sugar-loaf, seeming ready to faU down on the suburbs at any moment. There is the Gavia, a square-headed mass of rock with a flat top like Table Mountain ; there the Tajuca and the forest- covered Cocovado, with its springs of sweet water. And all round the inland sea are little sheltered bays, the most beau- tiful imaginable, with beaches of silver-sand, and wonderful tropical forests covering the mountain sides, where the guava and mango grow in wild profusion, and there are islands in those bays too, like little gardens of Eden. Our first stroll through the city gave u« a very favourable impression of it ; we were evidently in a civilized and luxu- THE OEUISE OP THE FALCON. 45 rious capital, where we could recreate and relax very pleasantly for a few days. Eio Janeiro is a fine city of about 500,000 inhabitants, and is thus much larger than Bahia ; it is also much "whiter" than Bahia ; the negroes here are not in so overwhelming a majority as in the former city. Tramways of course are everywhere; gas and tramways are the specialities of Eio ; no town in the world is so well lit. Far beyond the city, up to the mountain-tops, through country lanes, are the tram-metals laid and the lamps planted. Far out to sea is the city visible at night by the great glare of it. Five minutes after landing, instinct led us to the establish- ment of Jimmy Graham, the well-known Yankee barman, A smart man is Graham; as you enter his place the first thing in the morning, uncertain as to what your eye-opener shall be, do not, if you be a wise man, tax your brains on the subject. Jimmy knows what will fix you up better than you do ; simply say, — " Graham, I want you to prescribe for me." " Take a seat," he will reply. He will look at your face for a moment or so with his shrewd eye, then a gleam of intelligence will flit over his expressive face. He has diag- nosed your case. " Wall, I guess I can fix you up what you want," and forthwith he will arrange for you some iced delectable poison, long or short as the case may be, which you find wiU, exactly suiii your disease and make a new man of you. But if you are that rare bird a wise man, you will forswear strong drinks in this climate, and patronize Jimmy only for the prawn curries he knows how to prepare, and the delicate rock oysters from the bay. This first evening we went up to dine at the Hotel Yista AUegre, which is out of the close city, on the healthy hill- side. Thither we travelled partly by train aftd partly up a.. very steep, inclined plane in a car which is hoisted by a chain, just like the railway from Lyons to the Croix Bousse. It was now night, and the aspect of the city and the bay from the elevation at which we were, was very strange and beautiful. Steep ravines and hill-sides sloped from our feet to the city, mountains were around us, and all were lit by- myriads of gas-jets. The crags were covered with the rich 4& THE CETJISE OF THE FALCOK. vegetation of the tropics. Tall palms towered atove the houses. A most fairy-like view, a wonderful contrast of city- streets and nature at her grandest. Eio is a lively town enough after dull Bahia, for here we have theatres, an opera-house, an alcazar, concert-gardens like those of Paris, and other dissipations. The Eua Ovidor is the Bond Street of Eio. Carriages are prohibited from tra- versing it after dark ; for it is then that the Brazilian ladies promenade this narrow thoroughfare to do their shopping. Ten p.m. is the fashionable hour. The niggers here live a very out-of-door life, and one thus acquires a very fair insight into the habits of their private life, or rather what would be the private life in the case of a white man. The negro barber carries on his profession in the middle of the street ; when a customer comes, he simply sets him down on the pavement, if no other seat be at hand, and lathers his chin and shaves away, undisturbed by the crowd of little niggers that generally admiringly surround the artist. Here sitting in a long string on the kerb-stone of a crowded street are negro slaves weaving straw hats ; listen to them ; that barbaric tongue cannot be Portuguese; no, it is an African dialect. For these are not Creoles of Brazil, like most of the slaves here, but Africans, men who have once known freedom. I had noticed that one of these half-naked hat-weavers was always treated with great respect by his fellows. He was a giant in size and had evidently been a man of uncom- mon strength, but he was now of great age, his back was bent, and his curly wool was white as snow. I was informed that he had once been one of the greatest kings of Africa, and that all Africans from his part of that continent, even over here in America, after years of slavery, observe the same form of etiquette when approaching him as they perforce did in the old times, when he was every inch a king, and the life and death of his subjects were in his hands. Barbarous indeed these savage courtiers must be thus to still revere their prince and be loyal to him, knowing well that there is not the slightest chance of his ever again recovering his freedom and his kingdom, and being in a position to reward them for their fidelity. For it is not only by mere courtesy that they show their devotion, it is customary for them to THE CEUISE OF THE EALOON. 47 quarrel among themselves as to who shall complete the aged sovereign's daily hat-weaving task, when their younger and nimbler fingers have completed their own. You can observe this amiable squabble among the poor fellows every afternoon, the old king, sitting the while blinking sleepily, taking no interest in the proceedings, apathetic beneath the burdens of his many years, and now, I should imagine, hardly remem- bering and regretting those days when — "At furious speed he rode Along the Niger's bank." Two days after our arrival at Eio, we got up anchor and sailed up the bay to the island of Paqueta, a distance of about ten miles. This is a pretty little, wooded, hilly island, with a population of about 1700. A friend of Jerdein, an ex- royal-mail officer, and now superintendent of that company in Brazil, was living here with his family, so we came to an anchor off his house, and remained there until we sailed for the Eiver Plate. A beautiful spot it was, nestling among the stately palms and bamboos, tamarinds and almonds. And very pleasant it was for us after our semi-savage life to see once more in Mr. May's hospitable home the faces of English ladies and English children. This islet of Paqueta is a lovely little corner of earth to pass a lazy time in. Here we are, for instance, in the evening sitting in Mr. May's verandah, puffing at our post-prandial cigars. The too short tropic dusk has passed, and it is night; all round us is the tropic garden of rare fruits and palms and creepers. The garden terminates on a sandy beach, on which break, with gentle plashes, the small waves of the sheltered bay ; along the sand is a fringe of cocoanut-trees, waving their great leaves gently in the evening breeze. A promon- tory of round boulders projects, a dark mass, into the water gleaming in silver arrows under the moon. Beyond the rocky islets and palmed promontories, across the broad bay is seen, looming dark against the sky, the opposite coast, with the mountains of the interior still further back, vague and misty. The faint lights of the charcoal-burners' fires are seen here and there on the far-off hill-sides, where the virgin forests are ; and to return once more to the foreground, there within a stone's throw rides the stately old Falcon at anchor. Now add to this the still, warm night-air, heavy with the odour of 48 THE CEUISB OF THE FALCON. flowers and fruits and spices, the flight of bats, the perpetual shrill cries of cicadas, the sad splash of the waves on the rocks, and you have the very surroundings for an indolent man who loves to ponder silently over his cigar and coffee, or rather not even to ponder at all, but sink into that reverie qui ne pense a rien, his mind intoxicated with the beauty of all that fervid yet lazy nature around him. But after all there are few lotos-eaters at Paqueta. Certain perspiring black savages, with a rag round the waist as their sole clothing, here pass anything but a life of ddlcefar nievie. Above the cry of cicada, and the moaning of sea, and the rustling of palm-leaves, all through the long night, from the time that the sun sinks into the fiery crimson clouds that crown the Organ Mountains to when he rises again from the Atlantic — you can hear a strange and melancholy song rising in wild bursts on the night-air; a barbaric, monotonous and sad chorus, such as Israelite bondsmen might have sung long ago in Egypt. And this tools a chorus of bondsmen, of African slaves. For there are lime-works on Paqueta Island, and by night and day, unceasingly, the native blacks toil on in batches. The night-watchers are obliged to sing this chorus at intervals, so that their master in his bed, if he chance to awake, may know that they are toiling and watching, and not falling to sleep with weariness. • This lime is made from the shells of the oysters that so thickly cover every rock in the Gulf of Eio. About Paqueta can be seen daily a regular squadron of quaint native craft, manned by naked slaves, dredging for the bivalves. The process is a very primitive one, involving a great deal of labour and very little proportionate results. The slave has a long bamboo with a small cradle fitted to one end ; this he scrapes along the rocky bottom, raising each time only a handful or so of shells, I should imagine. I will not inflict on my readers a.descriptiou of 'the lions of Kio and its neighbourhood, which of course we did : and what city on earth has such marvellous scenery in its imme- diate neighbourhood ? Why, even in the narrow streets of the city itself you come suddenly on the most lovely little oases of tropic vegetation. Here, for instance, is a gloomy and ugly old mansion in a squalid lane. It has some pre- tensions to architecture, and it is the palace of some merchant- prince, maybe, but it is as dingy and uninteresting-looking THE OUTTISE OF THE FALCON. ^9 as are the Louses near Ktzroy Square. You are passing it, when suddenly the portal of it is opened, and there is revealed a glimpse of Paradise iiseLf. Under that dark door as a frame is seen a bit of bright azure sky above, and below, a garden; but what a garden, what colour, what form ! among the dazzling creepers and bushes, stone fauns and nymphs disport themselves, and fountains splash on cool marble and tesselated pavements. And down the great garden is a drive through an avenue of immense palms, smooth and straight as columns, with their leaves joining over- head nke the aisle of a cathedral of giants. It is a glimpse into fairyland ; then the portal closes, and we might almost be in dingy London, save for the sky above and the niggers around. So pleasant was found our stay here that it was not till forty days had passed unnoticed by, that we sailed from Eio. We came in on November 11th, and left on December 21st. It was the midsummer here south of the line, but the heat on the Brazilian coast is rarely oppressive. Our thermom,eter in the cabin only onCe, as far as I remember, registered more than 95°. We found lots to do. Sometimes in the city, sometimes making pleasant excursions into the interior, some- times organiziag cruises and picnics with the Falcon in the bay, and, best of all to my mind, sailing about in the dinghy among the beautiful islands near Paqueta. Those little exploring expeditions were most delightful. There is a little archipelago of islands near Paqueta, all beautiful ; some large, with pleasant villages of peaceable mulatto folk ; others iinin- habited, but overflowing with a glorious vegetation ; others bare, mere boulders rising from the clear water with, maybe, a solitary cactus growing on the summit. Nowhere on earth is there an inland water so adapted for a cruise in a small boat. One could travel on for months, and anchor each night off some new picturesque island, or in some new bay, so extensive is this great winding guH. Here is the log of one of these little cruises : — One glorious morning I put the mast and sail in the dinghy, provisioned her with a keg of water, a bottle of wine, bread, oranges, pipe, tobacco, matches, and sketching materials, and started for a solitary sail. First I circumnavigated Paqueta, keeping close to the shore, where the palms overhang the water, steering aiuoag great boulders. These 50 THE CEUISE OF THE FALCON. boulders that rise out of the Gulf of Eio are of interest to the geologist ; they are smoothly rounded, by the action of water, into a dome shape, and nearly all of them are split down the middle as by a wedge, so that they present the appearance of so many episcopal mitres. Then passing several islets, I reached one — an uninhabited little paradise which I named Cocoanut Island, from the multitude of those graceful trees that liaed its shores — and beached the dinghy in a little sandy cove. If that island could be transported as it is to Kew Gardens, it would be one of the sights of Europe. It was hilly, and about a mile or rather more ia circumference, and covered with a dense vegetation. Mangoes and tamarinds, and the most gorgeous flowers grew on its slopes, all bound together by intricate network of lianas and purple-flowered convolvuli. Brilliant-plumaged humming-birds, and rainbow-hued butterflies seemed to be the sole inhabitants. Erom the summit of the islet one looked over the broad many-islanded bay and the far moun- tains, glowing under the blue tropic vault. In order to acquire an appetite for my picnic, I treated myself to a plentiful feast of oysters. All the rocks were covered with these up to high-water mark ; small and delicate they were too ; so I waded about in the tepid water, cutting them off in clusters with my knife. Then came lunch, for which the mangoes on the island provided a dessert. Then off again to explore further islets, all uninhabited, till I felt like a sort of Robinson Crusoe of half-a-dozen isles instead of one ; and the sun was low and it was time to beat back against the fresh sea-breeze to where the Falcon lay at anchor by the stately row of palms. One of the things to be doTie by the visitor to Eio is Petropolis, a model highland village founded by the Emperor of the Brazils, and in the midst of which he has built to himself a summer pleasure-palace. Thither one fine morning we proceeded, and a pleasant journey it was. Eirst, a steamer took us across the bay to a point where a train awaited us. After but a short voyage on the Hne, we again changed our mode of conveyance, and entered one of the six coaches that were intended to carry the passengers across the mountains to the imperial vUlage. In single file they slowly ascended the pass — a fine road in sharp zigzags, reminding one of " Les EcheUes " of the Mont Cenis— but the view THE OEUISE OP THE FALCON. 51 around was somewhat different ; not the grey crags and the snows and sombre pines of the Alps on this tropical moun- tain-pass. On either side of ns, were palms, tree-ferns, lianas, and all manner of unknown plants and flowers, with colours such as no orthodox; plants should have, stolen from the minerals. Great leaves of burnished copper strewed the ground, and the green, and silvers, and yellows, and reds of the twining creepers and flowers were as of molten and incandescent metals. The parrots, humming-birds, butter- flies, and beetles, gaudy-hued as they were, were not more so than this glorious vegetation they inhabited. From the summit of the pass the view was grand in the extreme. A vast expanse of country lay beneath us like a plan. The mountains sloped down from our feet to a dark, wooded plain ; beyond that was aU the Bay of Eio, with its islands and mountains, the Sugar-loaf guarding the entrance ; and then stUl farther the Atlantic horizon-line. Descending again, we soon reached our destination, the luxurious village nestling in a hollow of the forest-clad hills. We rattled down the main street by which flows a babbling river shaded by avenues of willows, and dismounting, introduced ourselves to Mr. MUls, of the comfortable English hotel, who forthwith proposed to mix for us the refreshing cocktail of the New World, the while dinner was preparing. Metropolis is built in the centre of a large imperial estate, the emperor, who is, as every one knows, not only one of the most hard-working monarchs in the world, but one of the most active in every scheme of benevolence, is, if nowhere else, popular in Petropolis. Some years ago, some pseudo- philanthropist sent over to Eio a large batch of German colonists. When the unfortunates landed, they found they were not wanted, there was nothing for them to do ; they lay about the quays, living on garbage, tiU yeUow fever tlmmed their ranks woefully. They would probably all have perished had not the emperor taken up the matter. He transported them en masse to his highland estate, where the cooler climate permits the white man to work without danger in the fields, and founded Petropolis. And now it stands a model village in which there is no sordid house, no poverty, all is clean, tidy, and prosperous-looking. For some miles round where the forest is cleared, are the little 52 THE CRUISE OP THE FALCON. farms of the happy and contented people. And so, as you ride along the ■well-made roads that traverse the little colony, you perceive about you everywhere comfortable-looking Teutons with blue eyes and yellow hair, and well-dressed children going to school, and comely matrons knitting at cottage-doors, as in Europe, instead of the half-naked negroes and the barbarism of the slave plantations which surround this little oasis of liberty. And now in addition to all this, a further cause of prosperity has come to the village of Dom Pedro Secundo, for a blessing seems to be on the place. The cool and healthy air has induced many of the wealthy citizens of Eio to resort here during the summer months, when the yellow fever is hanging about the hot city. It is rapidly becoming quite a fashionable little place, and several good hotels have sprung up around the imperial summer palace. We stayed at MiUs' two days, visited the virgin forest — another thing we had to do — in a downpour of rain ; I think we were done more than the forest was, for we did not appreciate its beauties under the depressing circum- stances, though we had brought some cana with us, where- with to dilute the rain. Besides, the virgin forest was a fraud, though a beautiful one, for the vegetation of it was in no wise more magnificent than that of most portions of the neighbouring country, though these gave themselves no high- sounding titles. From Petropolis we took coach to Entre Rios, a drive of about fifty miles, along a very well-kept road. The coach-mules were splendid animals, and earned us on in grand style, past the coffee plantations and the un- cleared forests. From Entre Eios, we travelled about on the Dom Pedro Eailway in rather an unmeaning way, from one uninteresting place to another. On the 15th of December we sailed from delightful Paqueta to our old berth off Kio, under Fort Villegagnon. The weather was now becoming oppressive — ninety-five in the shade, with no cool nights as a relief. The calm water in the harbour began to stink horribly ; and far from odorous was the vegetable refuse that lay about the markets — so yellow Jack found his opportunity, and there were five vessels in the harbour, with the ominous" yellow flag flying at their main. While we were at anchor here the emperor came off to the THE OEUISB OF, THE FALCON. 63 Falcon in the Wanderer's launch ; he was interested in our cruise, and, as I understand, intended to honour us with a visit. Unfortunately we were aU on shore at the time, so he merely steamed round us, and remarked that we must he very uncomfortable and very foolish to wander about the oceans in such a cockleshell. If I were an emperor I think I should be of the same opinion, and prefer something a good deal bigger if I cruised at all ; but after all, would it be half so enjoyable ? — maybe not. Por several days in succession, during our stay, a violent squall arose every afternoon in the bay. The weather would wax sultrier and sultrier from sunrise tm about three p.m., when suddenly a mass of black cloud would sweep over the sky, pouring down rain in such torrents as only tropical clouds can, accompanied by thunder and lightning. These squalls blew with very great force, lashing the bay into a mass of foam. On two occasions we had to put down two anchors, with fifty fathoms on each, to prevent driving. One day during the squall two large vessels near us fouled each other in consequence of the anchors of one dragging. Signals of distress were hoisted, and two men-of-war's boats' crews were sent to their assistance. After considerable damage had been incurred by both they were cleared. This is the old-fashioned Eio weather. Once this daily storm was so regular in its coming, that it was customary when one made an appointment with another to say, " I will meet you after or before the storm," as the case might be. But of late years the climate of Rio has changed considerably, as has that of every part of the world it seems, more or less ; and the three p.m. storm is not as punctual as was his wont of old. One of our crew here left us — Andrews — so we were now rather under-manned, and determined to pick up some one else in the Plate. It was now about time for us to leave Eio ; two of us were down with shght attacks of fever, and we all felt as if the fresh winds of the Atlantic would be beneficial as a change. We had made the acquaintance of the officers of the SS. . Norseman in Eio, the telegraph-vessel of the Anglo-Brazilian Telegraph Company. She was bound about this time for Maldonado, in Uruguay, and the captain kindly offered, if 54 THE OEUISB OF THE FALCON. he Diet us out at sea, to give us a tow if we were in want of one. Maldonado Bay, he told us was a pleasant spot, with lots of sport on shore, and in every way preferable to Plores Island as a place to spend our quarantine in; for into quarantine we were certain to be thrust as soon as we touched at any Uruguayan or Argentine port after leaving Eio. The Eiver Plate people have the greatest dread of yellow fever, their countries lie outside of the usual limits of this pest, but they have a vivid reminiscence of the fear- ful epidemic at Buenos Ayies ten years ago, when the whole city was put into rigid quarantine, aU business was at a standstill, and the horrors of a mediaeval plague, such as that of Florence, were experienced to the full in the crowded South American city; no less than a thousand people perishing a day, for several weeks. CHAPTER VI. Wb sailed out of the harbour on December the 21st the city looking very beautiful from the sea in the early morning. There was but little wind, and we progressed but slowly. It happened that the Norseman steamed out the same day, so ten hours after our departure she came up with us. The captain stopped his vessel and repeated his invitation as to the tow ; adding, as a further inducement, that we should thus reach Maldonado by Christmas Day, and we could all pass that festive season together. "We gladly accepted his offer, so the Norseman lowered a boat, and we soon got a tow-line to each of her quarters. It was as well that we did get this tow, for now that Andrews had left us we were only four on board. Of these Jerdeiri was laid up below with slight fever ; I was far from well recovering from the same ; and the boy bad also been suffering from a sort of bUious fever for some days. Under these circumstances Captain Lacy sent on board of us one of his black sailors to lend a hand at steering. He and the boy took one watch during Jerdein's illness, Arnaud and myself the other. Steering a small vessel when towing fast requires some care, so, as usual under similar circum- THE OEUISE OF THE FALCON. 55 stances, I had to do all the steering in my watches. Amaud, however, was not allowed to be idle. He was kept very constantly at the pumps, for we were towing so fast through the short seas — ten knots an hour at times — that much water came on hoard, and found its way helow through the hatch of the sail-room. We had not been towing long before we parted one of the warps : the steamer stopped and lowered a boat with another. This boat was manned by Krumen, who kept time to their oars as they came off with a queer dirge-like song. The words of this song were delightfully simple, consisting of a constant repetition of the monosyllable Bo. Some of my readers may not know what Krumen are. Well, they are a superior race of black men who inhabit a certain strip along the West Coast of Africa. They are all boatmen by profession, and are engaged by European vessels for service in the unhealthy oil-rivers, and other parts where work in the sun is perilous for the white man. Excellent fellows they are, with a far more intellectual cast of counte- nance than any of the West Indian or Brazilian blacks. These they despise, and will hold no communion with, for the Kruman boasts that he is not only a freeman, but the descendant of freemen. He is certainly a superior being to the ordinary negro, faithful and honest. Curious names these jolly blacks take to themselves. On the Norseman we had Silver, Maintop, Eopeyarn, Jibboom, and Zulu ; this latter was so called because he was taken to London to impersonate one of the Zulus exhibited at the Aquarium. He there enjoyed himself amazingly, and still receives letters from an Aquarium barmaid. Zulu was the man sent on board of us by Captain Lacy. Eather funny that we should ship an Aquarium Farini-Zulu as a hand on the Falcon ! As the sea increased a good deal on our second day out, it became necessary for the Norseman to diminish her speed to eight knots, so as to avoid straining the yacht, which towed very heavily. We had now crossed Capricorn, and were once more out of the tropics. The difference of lati- ' tude soon made itseK apparent. The wind blew from the south, cold and bracing after its passage from Antarctic seas. It was a very great change after sultry Eio) and we found pea-jackets necessary for the first time. 56 . THE OEUISB Of THE FALOOIT. The distance that the Norseman proposed to tow us was ahove 900 miles. The experiences of the voyage were such as to make me resolve never under any circumstances to undertake anything of the kind again. The Norseman had been compelled to go easy, and stop so often in order to enable us to put fresh chafing-gear on the hawsers, and to get a new tow-line on board when One was carried away, an incident which occurred thrice, so violent were the sudden jerks at times, that on the 24th of December, Christmas Eve, we were still so far from Maldonado, as to render all chance of eating our Christmas dinner in port very remote. This day a nasty short sea was running, that was con- tinually filling our deck fore and aft. The vessel pitched about with extraordinary quickness, showers of spray came over the bows constantly, half-drowning the man at the tiller, who alone stayed on deck. Everybody and everything was wet through. Poor Zulu, unaccustomed to the cold and wet, looked very miserable indeed when his turn used to come round to steer. No doubt he regretted his native wilds in the well- warmed London Aquarium, where he was wont to raise his terrific Farini war-cry, and hurl his assegai into the targets, surrounded by admiring pale-face damsels. The poor fellow was laid up for three days after his expe- rience of Falcon Hfe. About two p.m. I was at the tiller : a confused sea was running at the time, bo that it was very difficult to steer the vessel. And now a serious accident that I had for a long time foreseen as probable occurred. I must explain that the Falcon's bowsprit runs straight over the top of her stem amidships, and that the forestay leads to the bowsprit gam- moning-iron — an exceptionally strong one of course — instead of to the stem, as is, the usual method. I do not know whose idea this arrangement was, but it is obviously a very bad one ; not only is that most important support to the mast, the forestay, fitted in an insecure fashion, but the bowsprit cannot be taken wholly on board, as the mainmast is in the way of se doing. Thus we had a good many feet of bowsprit overboard when the heel of it was jammed up against the mast. The result was, after one heavier pitch than usual, and a shower of water that half-blinded me and took away my breath for a moment, I saw with constema- tion that all the maiii ri^ng and shrouds were flying about THE OBUISE 01 THE PALOON. . 57 quite slack. I knew in a moment •what had occurred — one of the hawsers had got under the bowsprit close to the bow, and wrenched the gammoningriron and stout iron hand right out of the stem, thus carrying away oiir forestay as well. I called all hands on deck, and hailed the Norseman, which at once stopped and lowered a boat to lend us assist- ance. We found that a large piece had been wrenched off our stem in addition to other damage : so we were in a fine pickle. The bowsprit itself was not broken. But a more serious mishap was now to follow, which all but put a termination to the Falcon's cruise altogether, by sending^ her to the bottom of the South Atlantic. The Norseman had stopped. Being to windward we drifted on to her. Seeing that we were getting too near, we shouted to the officer in charge to take a few revolutions ahead occasionally so as to keep clear of us. As soon as he at- tempted to do so it was found that one of the tow-lines had got round her screw, so that she could, not move, but lay helplessly rolling about in the seas. In a few moments we had drifted right down on her, and we were foul of each other. Our rigging then got entangled in the stock of her anchor, and thus having secured us, she locked us in her embrace, and, like a great sea-monster as she is, deliberately proceeded to crush us to pieces. She was rolling heavily at the time, and with every roll the stock of her great anchor and her iron sides came down on us with pitiless weight. First our main-mast was nearly wrenched out of us. • Then the great black mass of the ocean steamer leaned over us, bonding in our davits, and crushing our beautiful dinghy into matchwood. Then another great lurch, and the stock of her starboard anchor coming down between our port- shrouds carried away all the ratlines, about ten feet of bul- wark, and threatened to stave in our decks. Then our bowsprit went. We were now right across her bows, a most perilous situation ; for over the bows of a telegraph- vessel hangs an enormous iron machine, weighing many tons, used I believe, for winding in the electric cable. This rose and fell above us like a battering-ram, as the steamer pitched in the great seas. It was Indeed a " bad quarter of an hour " for us that ; not a merry way of passing Christmas Eve. We tried our best to disentangle our rigging from her anchors, and shove clear of her, a difficult and even dan- 58 THE CBUISE OF THE FALCON. gerous undertaking. One plucky Kruman was very nearly crushed while helping us. At last, almost miraculously, we fell clear of her, and settiag a bit of sail drifted some half-mile away to leeward, where the poor old Falcon lay a dismal and dishevelled wreck upon the waters. The remains of our dinghy oars and other articles were floating away, visible at times on the summit of the waves, a pitiable sight. But it was no time for lamentation ; it was important to repair the damage as far as possible without delay. On inspection we rejoiced to find that to all appearance only our upper works had suffered, the body of the vessel was as sound as ever. We passed our chain through the two hawse-pipes, set up our forestay to it as well as we could, and got everything shipshape again. In the meantime the Norseman managed to get the hawser clear of her screw, so steaming down to us she took us once more in tow. We had a most uncomfortable time of it this Christmas Eve. -The wind and sea had risen considerably, and it was very dark. I remember well what curious work it was steering that night by the rising and falling stem-light of the heavily-pitching steamer. The motion of the Falcon was at the time the most violently quick I have ever experienced. We were constantly jumped off our feet while steering. At regular intervals the vessel would take five "or six terribly rapid rolls in succession, roUing her gunwales under, and filling her decks right up with water, heeHng to such an angle as made even capsizing seem quite a possible contin- gency at times ; then she would pitch as violently as she had roUed, and we expected to see the main-mast chucked out over her bow at any moment. Water-breakers and other articles broke adrift, floated on deck, and flew about wildly with the frantic leaps of the little craft. Down in the cabin the water was a foot over the flooring, and washing over the bunks, drenching everything, notwithstanding that some one was always at the pump. Every one was wet, cold, and miserable, and bruised, too, with the banging about, against which no sea-legs availed. It was rather an anxious time, for had the weather been a little worse the steamer would have been obliged to slip us, no agreeable prospect in our half-wrecked state. So passed our merry Christmas THE CEUISB OF THE PALOON. 59 But when Cliiistmas Day broke there came a change. It was a lovely morning, bright and bracing ; the wind had moderated considerably ; the sea, too, had gone down ; so the Norseman increased her speed to make up for lost time. Towards dinner-time the steamer stopped, and Captain Lacy sent a boat with a fresh hawser to us, and an invitation to partake of the orthodox roast beef and plum-pudding on board of his vessel. He lent us two Madagascar negroes to steer the Falcon in the meanwhile. After the wet and cold of the last few days we thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas dinner in the comforable saloon of the steamer. In the evening we returned to the Falcon once more to renew our duties. Throughout the night the sea was smooth, and all went well. On the morning of the 26th of December we perceived the loom of land on our starboard side, the coast of Uruguay. On neariug it we were enabled to discern what manner of country this was that we had now reached. The climate, the colour of the clear sky, and the aspect of the vegetation showed us that we had indeed left the tropics. Very different all appeared after torrid Eio, one thousand miles to the northward. It was a low shore with sandy dunes and hiUs of no great altitude in the background ; a desert-looking country where thistles and aloes seemed especially to thrive. Of ill-repute too is all this wild coast from here to the Brazilian frontier, and a terror to mariners. The currents of the ocean hereabouts are powerful and inconstant. There are few landmarks, and disasters to vessels are frequent. On the shore among the surf one can perceive the skeletons of many iU-fated ships, as one coasts along the dreary sand-banks. And woe betide the mariners who are wrecked on this inhospitable land ; for the only inhabitants of it are wild gauchos, pro- fessional and skilful wreckers when not employed in the almost as lucrative pursuit of pillaging and ravaging all over their native country under the banner of one or the other of those rival guerilla chieftains who are ever contesting who shall next be the chief magistrate and arch-robber of poor revolutionary Uruguay. These land sharks are bold in the extreme in their malpractices, and of course commit all sorts of atrocities with absolute impunity, for the Government cannot be troubled 60 THE CEUISE OF THE FALCON. with inquiry into sucli little peccadilloes as wrecking and piracy. These brave gauchos must be humoured, or they will join the other side in politics, and lend their lances to a rival cut-throat. At about sunset we were in sight of our port. As we approached the land, the whole vessel was enveloped in a dense cloud of dragon-flies, which completely covered our rigging. That very common phenomenon in the River Plate, a mirage, was observable along the whole coast. All the inland hills seemed to have turned upside down ; and these floated at some height above the plain, midway in a band of lovely pink sky. We rounded Pt. Este, and sailing inside Lobos Island, famous for its many seals, entered Maldonado Bay. This little harbour seemed but little protected, should the wind choose to blow hard from seaward. It is but a shallow bay surrounded by sand-banks, with one little island called Goriti, overgrown with wild asparagus, and inhabited by rabbits alone^ in the centre of it. It was here that H.M.S. Agamemnon, Nelson's old vessel, was lost. The town or village of Maldonado is situated a few miles from the shore and is hidden from it by the sand-hiUs. Only a few little houses are to be seen on the beach at the extremity of the bay. Not a very prepossessing spot, but Captain Lacy promised us plenty of sport on shore by the lagunas which Ue beyond the sand-hiUs. " Partridges, snipes, teat, geese, &c., are to be found here in amazing numbers, at times," he said. Just before sunset we perceived a dismasted vessel far out to sea, a derelict evidently, for she had no signals flying. Unfortunately a mist came on just then, or the Norseman would have steamed after her and brought her in. A wind arose in the night that carried her far away before morning. The Norseman put to sea again the day after our arrival, and proceeded towards Chuy, as the submarine cable required repairing somewhere therealDouts. She did not return for two days. This time we spent in repairing as much as possible the damage the collision had inflicted on us. We naturally were desirous of going on shore and having a look at the country, but of course could not do so until we had THE OBUISE OP THE FALCON. 61 received pratique. We waited twelve hours, and no one came off to us. Tliere was no sign of life anywhere : there were two small craft anchored in the bay, hut no one was on board of them ; the shore might be a bit of the central Sahara for loneliness. Twenty-four hours passed, and still no one. At last a solitary horseman appeared on the summit of a sand-hill and looked at us. Hope revived in our breasts ; but after remaining a few seconds only, he galloped away again. Forty-eight hours passed away, and we waxed im- patient. "We hoisted all manner of signals, but no one paid the slightest attention to them. "Where were all the Mal- donadans ? Had they gone away revolutionizing ? or seeing from afar that imposing brass gun of ours, had they t9,ken the peaceable Falcon for a pirate, and betaken themselves in terror to the inner wilds '! These two days a south-west wind blew fresh and squally right into the bay, and brought into it a sea that made us far from comfortable at our anchorage. Waxing impatient, I took the collapsible dinghy, and went off to the desert islet of Goriti to shoot rabbits. Here I made the acquaintance of the only inhabitant, a sociable horse, who followed me about everywhere ; walked on when I walked on, sat down when I sat down, and standing on the beach gave me a plaintive farewell neigh when I ultimately rowed off. Of rabbits I sa!w no traces save their habitations. They too, I suppose, had gone revolutionizing. There were several old iron cannons lying about on the island, for it was strongly fortified in the days of the Spanish, when there was a viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres. On the third day the Norseman came in again ; and at last the inhabitants took notice of us, for a boat came off with a gentleman most gorgeously uniformed and much sabred, who politely told us that he was the captain of the port. Hearing we had come from Kio, he gave us two days' quarantine. " But," I suggested, " we have already been two days here." " Ah ! indeed ! " he replied ; " then it is well ; your quarantine is over." We went on shore, scampered up the sand-hills, and were surprised, on reaching their summit, to behold on the other side a wild but pleasant-looking country; an undulating Pampas of grass and thistles, aloes and cactus, lay between 62 THE OEUISB OF THE TALCON. us and tte distant hills, diversified with little lakes, hogs, and sandy wastes. In the foreground was Maldonado town, a small congregation of white-washed, flat-roofed houses, with a street or two, in which it seemed as if no man ever walked. We were introduced to the aristocracy of the place. Krst to a store-keeper, who is also a commandant, or something of the kind; next to a portly major-general in the Uruguayan army, who is also a butcher ; and to an ex- high-admiral of the Uruguayan fleet, who is willing to pilot us to Montevideo in consideration of a smaU. gratuity. Truly a republican country ! The latter grandee is an ex-admiral at present because his politics are not those of the party now in power. For with a change in the Govern- ment of a South American republic every one goes out of office — admirals, generals, telegraph clerks, policemen, crossing-sweepers — to make room for the friends of the new presidents, and the friends of those friends, and the friends of all their sisters, their cousins, and their aunts, and so on. One rises and falls pretty rapidly out here — admiral to-day, ordinary pilot to-morrow. "We stayed two days more in Maldonado Bay, and had some pleasant rides over the country with the ofiicers of the Norseman : but I cannot say that we shot quite so many partridges, snipes, &c., as we anticipated. However, we had a very good time of it, thanks to our friends on the Norseman and on shore. On December the 31st we got up anchor, and saUed for Montevideo, which is about seventy mUes from Maldonado. We took the ex-admiral with us as pilot ; not that a pilot was reaUy necessary, but the old gentleman seemed anxious to come with us, and was very companionable and jovial in disposition. * We were now in the estuary of the Eio de la Plata, for the limit of the river and the ocean is held to be a line drawn between Maldonado and the Cabo San Antonio, 150 miles across. At Montevideo the river is sixty-four miles wide. At Buenos Ayres, 210 miles higher up than Maldonado, it is thirty-four miles wide. All this gigantic estuary is obstructed by shoals and sand-banks ; the depth of water is hardly anywhere upwards of three fathoms. Luckily the bottom is generally of soft mud : hence there is little risk, to a vessel that runs ashore unless the weather be THE CRUISE OP THE FALCON. 63 bad. But, unfortunately, bad weather is very common indeed off tbe Kiver Plate. It is a region of storms and extraordinary electric disturbance. The pampero, the storm- wind from the Pampas, is frequent, and blows with great ' violence ; often being, indeed, a true hurricane in its fury. The ocean tides do not affect to any great extent the waters of the Eiver Plate, but strong sea- winds cause it to rise con- siderably. The water is fresh almost as far as Montevideo, where, indeed, it is occasionally drunk on the vessels in the roads, so slightly brackish it is. A desolate waste of, choppy, muddy waves, flowing between dark mud-banks, with here and there little floating islands of lilies, and trees drifting seawards from the great rivers of the interior ; such is the mouth of the La Plata, the widest river of the world; and the one which, with the exception of the Amazon, discharges the greatest volume of water into the ocean. At daybreak on the 1st of January we were in sight of Montevideo. Prom afar off we observed that there were many men-of-war of different nations and sizes in the har- bour and in the roads — some twenty, at least. Furthest to seaward of all we perceived a British squadron of five huge vessels at anchor. These we soon recognized as the Bacchante and the four other men-of-war composing the flying squadron, now bound on a voyage round the world with the two sons of the Prince of "Wales. Montevideo presents a very pleasing appearance from the sea, looking very much like an Eastern city with its whitewashed, low, flat-roofed houses. Like an Eastern city, it looked very clean and bright from a distance. We afterwards found that, unlike an Eastern city, it proved as clean and bright on closer inspection. "We came to an anchor well up the little bay which answers as an apology for a harbour here — a very poor harbour in bad weather, as we afterwards found — and hoisted the yellow flag for the health officer. When that functionary came off, he expressed great dissatisfaction at the conduct of his colleague in Maldonado. "Two days' quarantine is insufficient for a vessel coming from Eio ; you must sail to Elores, and pass three more days off that island before I can permit you to land here." But now a steam launch, with some other gorgeous officer, came off; and hearing how matters stood, took our part, and argued that in the case of so small a vessel, with so few men 64 THE CRUISE OF THE PALOON. on board, it was hardly necessary to inflict the full allow- ance of quarantine. After some parley the first doctor gave in, and we were granted pratique, to our great delight, for tliree days off Flores was not a pleasant prospect. Monte- video was having a good time of it with all these men-of- war in the roads, no fewer than nine of which were British. EuU-fights, masked-haUs, hells, and other dissipations were not wanting to relieve the mariner of his hard-earned cash. They told me that there were frequently 5000 men-of-war's men and marines on shore at a time. A walk through the streets and squares of the capital of Uruguay soon showed us how very different were these people that we were now among from the Brazilians in every respect. No two cities could be less alike than these two capitals of neighbouring states. Not here the lofty houses of Eio, but clean streets of one-storied glaring white houses, built in the style of a Pompeian dwelling. A square, flat- roofed building, with an open courtyard, or patio, in the centre, on to which all the rooms open ; a fountain and a flower-garden in the patio ; towards the street the windows, if any, small and heavily barred with iron — such is the residence of a South American Spaniard, a retiring sort of a dwelling, shutting itself jealously from the outer world with a Mussulman-like love of seclusion. The populace, too, how different from that of a Brazilian city ! No negroes here, and no ugly-looking Portuguese ; but handsome and dignified Spaniards, with a good deal of Indian blood in the veins of the lower orders of them. Cleanest of cities is Montevideo, with straight streets cutting each other at right angles in the American chess-board fashion. In the evening of -New Year's Day we visited the fine Plaza de I'lndependen^ia, where an excellent military band was playing. Here we were enabled to study the different orders of the populace. The ladies floated by with stately Spanish walk, looking well in their black silk dresses and mantillas ; but why wiU every South American lady so besmear her face with powder, however good her complexion be ? Officers of the army strutted by in gorgeous uniforms, and with the clash of sabres on the pavement ; a motley crowd of the lower orders loafed about — Basques, Italians, Greeks, and the native gauchos in their barbaric but be- coming costume. Here was a group of British blue-jackets THE OETJISE OP THE FALOON. 65 slightly overcome by cana. The native soldiers were every- where, dressed in their hideous parody of Zouave uniforms. And here v^ere two of the Spanish bull-fighters in their picturesque off-duty dress and pigtails ; smart, wiry, neat-cut feUows they were, and rather foppish in their general get up. The young native swells hung round them admiringly, were proud of their acquaintance, were delighted when allowed to sit at the same table as the matador at a cafe and treat him to champagne — in short, courted them and made much of them, much in the same way as English gentlemen did prize-fighters not so long back, and the young Eoman patrician the crack gladiators of his day when he wanted to be considered as a fast man about town. CHAPTEE VII. The climate of the Eiver Plate is exceedingly changeable and trying. The day we came in it was quite cold. The day before the thermometer registered 102° in the shade. When the south wind blows from over the cold Antarctic seas the weather is bracing and cool. But with the north wind coming as it does from over thousands of leagues of parched Pampas and tropical jungles, the atmosphere is hot, dry, and oppressive as that of North Africa when tne khamsin blows. All skippers that have been unfortunately compelled to put into Montevideo for repairs to their vessels, anathematize it ; we were not exceptions to this rule. A wretched German, who called himself a ship's carpenter, undertook to repair the damages to our stem and bulwarks. He not only made a miserable job of it, but detained us seventeen days, and finally presented us with a most exorbitant bill. Never having been a witness of a bull-fight, curiosity led me to visit the arena one Sunday. It was a glorious day — true Eiver Plate weather — that is, with a cloudless, pale blue and peculiarly clear sky overhead. The clearness of the atmosphere in this land of the Pampas is very remark- able, and it causes the vault of the heavens to appear to be much farther off and vaster than in other lands. The stars, too, at night shine with an exceeding brightness. They seem to be at a far greater distance off than those over our 66 THE OEUISE OP THE FALCON. hemisphere, and one can see more of them, further np into the heaven as it were, so pure is the sky; stars hehind stars, archipelago hehind archipelago of them, to infinity. On this day a great slaughter of bulls and horses had been promised to the populace ; so the glaring white streets that led out of the town to the amphitheatre were -thronged with the thousands of pleasure-seekers who were on their way to the cruel games. It was like the road to the Derby without the rowdyism. In carriages, trams, and on foot the crowds poured on, while over the balconies of the houses leaned the pretty Montevidean girls, fanning, and laughing, and flirting as they looked down on the human flood. We entered a tram-car — for of course, being a South American city, Montevideo has scarce a street down which the tram- way-rails are not laid — and drove some miles through the pretty suburbs of the town, where nestling iu lovely gardens are gaudy villas of pseudo-classic and Italian style, generally painted outside in delicate tints of pink, yellow, and blue, which suits the climate well enough. At last we reached the amphitheatre, gay with the flags of Uruguay and Spain. We paid our dollar and a half for a sombra seat^ — -that is, one on the shady side — and entered the huge structure. It was just the Roman amphitheatre over again. Uncovered to the blue sky was the great circus, with the flights of bare stone steps sloping down to the arena, on which the common spectators sat. And there, too, was one scarlet-draped box, in the which sat a bloated grandee iu bright uniform and much be-medalled — president or great minister, I know not which, with his sycophants around him ; just as bloated ginperor or consul sat in his purple-draped box long ago, under as blue Italian skies, while beneath him the gladiators fought to the death, or Christians fed famishing lions. And no wit less brutally savage was the spectacle, and no less cruel and ready with the " polUae verso " were the spectators on this fine Sunday afternoon, in this civilized city of Monte- video, in the year of grace 1880, than in the Eoman circus of 2000 years ago. There was a very full house, and there was no small number of our ruddy blue-jackets and marines among the sallow Spaniards. I was pleased to see that; contrary to my expectations, only two women were present, and these were foreigners, and evidently members of the demi-monde. Constant communion with strangers has THE CEUISB OP THE FALCON. 67 possibly softened the manners of the women of this hranch of the Spanish race; for it is certainly not the thing in Montevideo for a lady to assist at a hull-fight. But on the other hand, there "were a great many young children of both sexes present that had been brought hither by their fathers, and the bloodthirsty little dears enjoyed themselves amazingly. I had never seen a buU-fight before, and in my ignorance imagined that there might be something more in it than mere cruel brutality — some good sport or display of skill. I do not know that such may not be the ease in Spain, but in Montevideo this amusement is merely the ordinary business of an abattoir glorified by music and gay costumes, and a strong spice of unnecessary cruelty. Danger to those engaged in the fight is reduced to a minimum. After waiting about half an hour there arose a martial fanfare of trumpets, a door opened, - and there galloped forth a picturesque procession. First rode the proprietor in his black velvet dress, mounted on a fine coal-black horse, then came the toreadors, picadors, and matadors in the gaudy and beautiful costumes peculiar to their respective duties ; and lastly came four horses drawing a yoke : this to drag out the carcases of bulls and horses that were to be massacred during the games. Three times, to the lively strains of the band, this pro- cession galloped round the arena, and then went out again ; the door- closed, and there were left alone in the centre two picadors on their horses, each with his long lance, and a group of footmen with scarlet cloaks over their arms, and the cruel little .darts in their hands. Then came a suspense and a pause in the chatter from the stone steps for a few moments, and quickly another door opened, and out rushed, head down, a savage little bull of the Pampas, who made it pretty lively for every one for a short time. But between his wild rushing hither and thither, the being dazed by the scarlet cloaks that were thrown across his head, the loss of blood from lance wounds, and the eight little darts that -were sticking in his flanks, the poor beast after a few miautes became weak and showed disinclination to continue the unequal combat. But this was not what was intended by his cowardly foes — he must kill a horse or two ere he be permitted to gasp out his life on the blood-stained sand of 68 THE OEDISE OF THE PALOOIJ. the arena and be at peace— tlie people wanted the smell_ of more gore, and the pleasant spectacle of prolonged dying agonies before they could let him go. It was now the duty of the picador to place the horse on which he was riding across the path of the bull as much as possible, and no longer to avoid him. It was a disgusting spectacle. The picador himself, with his legs thickly padded with lead and cloth, could suffer no injury from the animal's horns — while his wretched horse had bandages over his eyes, that he might not perceive the infuriated bull that charged him, take alarm and run away. Neither horse nor bull were quite up to the scratch, for the former heard and trembled though he could not see, and the latter was now weak and faint. So we enjoyed the elevating spectacle of attendants whipping up the poor horse, and others stabbing and torturing the dying bull into one last infuriated charge. Maddened by his tormentors, at last he did charge ; the picador kept his horse broadside on to the attack, and loud cheers of bravo, toro ! saluted the bull as he ran his horns into the beUy of the poor animal, that then rushed wildly away, almost unsratinq his rider in his agonized plunges, with his bowels dragging over the ground as he went. The bull had yet the horse of the other picador *to disembowel, or blind, or tear asunder in some other way, before his turn came to die. He lay crouching in a comer, with the blood pouring out of his nostrils with every heavy gasp; still at bay though, and ready to stagger to his feet and defend himseK on the ap- proach of an enemy, only to fall again with half his life gone out with the exertion. Then came up the matador, with scarlet cloak on the left arm, and rapier in the right hand. He came deliberately up to the buU, and after a little dodging deftly run the long steel into his brain, and the poor beast was free at last. The work of the matador is the most merciful to the bull, and the most dangerous to the man, of the whole performance ; for when the buU, as often happens, has still a good deal of life left in him, the slightest divergence in the rapier-thrust might be fatal to the unskilful swordsman. Seven bulls were tortured and slain this fine Sunday afternoon, and some fourteen horses, till the white sand was red and reeking with the blood and entrails of the poor beasts. "When a horse was not killed outright by a buU — only disembowelled, or with shoulder THE OEUISB OW THJJl FALCON. 69 ripped up, or the like — lie was taken out, doctored and patched up, his wounds sewn up and plastered over to slay the flow of blood, and then, he was brought on again half an hour afterwards, weak and staggering, to face and be ultimately killed by another buU. During the course of the afternoon, one incident gave great pleasure to the spectators. A savage little yellow bull charged with such fury that he tossed a horse and picador clear into the air. The man fell, half-stunned, with the horse on the top of his legs. The bull then stood over them and commenced to deliberately gore his prostrate enemies to death. It was splendid sport for the people, and a loud cry of bravo, toro ! bravo, toro ! went up ; no horror, no sym- pathy for the wretched man was expressed on auy face of that large crowd of Spaniards — merely fiendish delight in the horrible scene. The people stood up and shrieked with frantic joy, and laughed to see the cruel horns bury them- selves in the soft flesh. The picador was not killed, for his comrades diverted the bull, and rescued him. I am sure that many of the spectators looked on this as very unfair— they had been defrauded of the best part of their entertain- ment — how exciting to have seen a man slowly gored into shreds ! Brutal our prize-ring was, no doubt ; but what can be said of this torturing of the noblest of dumb animals, that I have attempted to describe as I saw it myself this day ? Throughout our stay at Montevideo the weather was abominable. Violent squalls occurred daily, and it blew a gale of wind three days out of four — an exceptional state of things in midsummer. "We rolled and pitched so much at our anchorage in this unprotected port, that the carpenter was unable for ten days at a stretch to get his stage along- side, in order to fit on our new stem-post. Indeed, we were occasionally running our bows right under in the short, nasty seas. Nor was he able to effect the repairs on deck during this time, for the wretched fellow got sea-sick as soon as he stepped on board of us. Thus it was not until the 20 th of January that we got aU straight again. On the 21st of January we weighed anchor at noon, and proceeded out of the harbour under all plain canvas to sail to Euenos Ayres. It is customary for strangers to take a pilot from Montevideo to Buenos Ayres, but we did not consider this necessary in the case of a small vessel like ours. 70 THE OEUISB OP THE PiiLOON. There was a fresh E.S.E. wind hlowing, so that we were enabled to set our spinnaker, and kept up an average speed, of seven knots throughout the voyage. At ten p.m. we made the Chico light-ship, and then, keeping the lead con- stantly going, sailed over the fiats in about three fathoms of water, until, at seven a.m. on the morrow, we reached the guard-ship, which is moored about twelve miles or so from Buenos Ayres. From here we could see the long line of the houses of the city and the vessel in the inner roads. "We hove-to off the guard-ship in order to await the doctor's boat and obtain pratique before sailing into the town. Many large vessels were at anchor around us, rolling heavily in the rough pea-soup-coloured water, for no vessel of con- siderable draught can approach nearer to the shore than this ; indeed, none of our big men-of-war could come anywhere near Argentine "Waters. The royal mail steamers have been known to ground even so far out as these outer roads, as they are called. For where the vast plains of the Pampas terminate in the sea, so gradual is the incline that it is really difficult to say where sea begins and land ends. The gnarled mangroves grow far out into the water from the swampy shores. So flat are these alluvial plains that a rise of one foot of water only will overflow the land miles inland in many places. At ten we received pratique, and proceeded towards the city. As we sailed in, the water very gradually shoaled until we reached the inner roads where lay a large number of vessels whose lighter draught enabled them to come thus far in. We proceeded still further, and came to an anchor in fourteen feet of water off the Catalina Mole in the midst of a crowd of lighters, shallow coasting schooners, river steamers, and other small craft ; still, however, a considerable distance from the shore. "We got into our dinghy and proceeded to sail towards the end of the pier. So shallow became the water long ere we reached it, that even our little boat bumped continually against the bottom. For half a mUe or more we sailed through a large fleet of carts and horses ; for in this extraordinary port of Buenos Ayres merchandise has to be transhipped three times between the vessel, fourteen miles out in the outer roads, and the railway tracks on shore — from vessel to lighter, from lighter to carts drawn by am- phibious horses, and so to the railway. This port, if it THE ORUISE OF THE FALCON. 71 can be called such, of Buenos Ayres, is a very unpleasant place to lay in, whether one be in the outer, inner, or small craft roads. For this coast is quite open to the Atlantic on the south-east, and when the wind blows hard from anywhere near that quarter a very short, dangerous sea soon rises on these shallow waters. The Argentine Republic is very unfortunate in the matter of its ports ; save far south, in Patagonia, where there is little if any commerce, there is no harbour worthy of the name. Just to the south of the city of Buenos Ayres a small river runs into the sea — the Eiachuelo. This has been dredged sufficiently to admit smaU craft. It is the head-quarters of the Italian river schooners, which are here buUt and fitted out. A large town has now sprung up around this port — the Boca, inhabited almost exclusively by Italians and Greeks, a rather cut-throat place by reputation. INorth of Buenos Ayres, and_ some ten miles from it, is another river, the Lujan, one of the many channels of the intricate delta of the Eiver Plate. Near one of its mouths is the little town of San Pernando. Here the Argentine Government has constructed docks, and here are the naval stores and workshops. It is a sort of Argentine Chatham ; but unfortunately the entrance of the river is impeded, like aU others hereabouts, by a bar, and there are times when the water is so low that a vessel drawing only eight feet has to wait weeks before it can cross it. Once within the river there is plenty of water. To lie off Buenos Ayres was, of course, impossible, so we had to choose between these two harbours for the Falcon during our stay here. We decided on the latter, or rather on the Eiver Tigre, which is a branch of the Lujan. On its banks, and close to the Tigre railway- station, is the, boat-house of the English rowing club. Our friends recommended us to drop our anchor close to it) as being a quiet spot where we would be unmolested, and where we would have the advantages of trains running into the city at short intervals. We lay at anchor off the Catalina Mole during the night, tossing about very uncomfortably in the short seas. On the morrow, the 23rd of January, we weighed anchor at one p.m., and proceeded in charge of a pilot to the Eiver Tigre. A fresh wind was blowing from the E. by S., and we sailed rapidly along the low coasts. The pilot kept the lead con- 72 THE OETJISE OF THE FALCON. stantly going. As we approached the mouth of the Lujan the water gradually shoaled, for here the alluvial matter hrought down by the many rivers of the delta have formed a great bank known as Las Palmas, that stretches far out to sea. From two fathoms we shoaled to ten feet, then to nine, then to eight. The pilot looked anxious. "How much did you say you were drawing?" he asked. " Seven feet six inches," was the reply. " Well, we may do it. We'll hit the channel soon, and be in deep water. Besides the mud is soft here, we can drive her through it." Another cast of the lead showed us we were in seven feet of water. Bump, bump the vessel went, as she sailed over the mud, before half a gale of wind, with aU canvas set. "We shall be in deep water soon," said the pilot; "but the river is precious low j there should be more than eight feet here by rights." Another cast of the lead indicated a depth of only six feet, and the Falcon, after vainly attempting to force her way a little further, stuck firmly, to the great disgust of the pUot, who seemed to be surprised that a vessel drawing nearly eight feet of water could not sail where there was a depth of six. We quickly lowered all the canvas on deck, while Jerdein who had promised himself a pleasant evening in town with some old friends, admonished that unhappy pilot with his usual eloquence. There was no particularly pleasant evening for any one that night. We got two anchors down, and proceeded to wait until some sea-wind, or flood, or otheJ phenomenon, should cause the waters to rise, an event whicli might be in an hour or in a month, as far as we could tell, and the pilot could not enlighten us. The water was still going down, for in three hours after we struck we found that there was a depth of only five feet round us. The wind now freshened considerably, and howled and whistled through our rigging. It was a weird and melancholy scene from the Falcon's deck. A few miles to the port hand was the low leaden- coloured shore of mud, a leaden sky was above, and the choppy seas of dirty water that were around us were of still THE CRUISE OP THE FALCON. 73 more dismal a shade. Towards evening the rain commenced to fall heavily, and the wind increased till it blew a gale from the south-east. This made matters look rather serious for us, for this coast is a lee-shore to this wind, which blows straight from the Atlantic. The seas became higher and. higher, and occasionally washed over us, and had we Lumped about throughout the night in the manner we did at first, the Falcon, strong though she be, might possibly have broken up. But this south-east wind, blowing straight into the estuary from seawards, is the wind of all others to cause the waters of the Plate to rise rapidly, for it stops the currents from proceeding out to the ocean, and drives them back towards the delta. In about an hour the water had risen upwards of two feet, and we were afloat once more, riding safe to our two anchors, only striking the bottom with our keel at long intervals, after some higher wave than usual had passed by. "We remained at anchor during the night, rolling about very heavily ; but we had good holding ground under us, and good ground tackle to hold on by, else we should have felt more anxious than we did, riding out a gale of wind on this lee-shore. In fact we got off very well considering everything, and much better than some others did, for we afterwards found that two schooners had been driven ashore at Buenos Ayres that night, and broken up. At daybreok the wind moderated and came round from the north-east, while the water commenced to fall again.- We, weighed anchor, and proceeded to cross the bank towards a buoy that marks the entrance of the channel — not without touching the ground occasionally. At last we found ourselves in deep water once more, and sailed into the Lujan, which we found to be a narrow river, with low banks overgrown with forests of willows. After ascending the stream for about two miles we reached the junction of the Tigre and the Lujan, and pro- ceeded up the former river a few hundred yards till we reached the rowing-club house. "We brought up alongside the bank, put out an anchor ahead, and one astern, and took a warp to a tree on shore. On looking around us we were very contented with our new berth. It was the snuggest that the old Falcon had known for a very long time. The banks of the river were thickly grown with graceful willows and other trees, while 74 a?HE UKUISB Of THE FALCOlir. handsome villas were scattered here and there, with beautiful gardens of sub-tropical shrubs and flowers stretching from them to the water's edge. The captain of the port of the. Tigre came off to us, inspected our papers, and gave us pra- tique, so we were free to take train, into Buenos Ayres. On fanding and looking around us we found that we were in a very different sort of country from any we had yet visited. This delta of the Parana is one vast flat jungle, scarcely raised two feet above the level of the water, and intersected by innumerable creeks and channels, that flow sluggishly be- tween islands of every size, only a few of which are inhabited, or for the matter of that have even ever been trodden by the foot of man. The richest portion of this mosquito-infested labyrinth, and the most thickly peopled, is in the neighbourhood of the Tigre. This indeed is a beautiful region, called the Venetia of South America. Here the many islands are covered with a prodigal natural vegetation and very forests of peach-trees, for the fat alluvial soil is as rich as that of the Nile banks, and the river is con- tinually overflowing it to leave fresh deposits. French and Italian immigrants possess many of these islands, and cultivate on them millions of peaches and splendid vegetables of all kinds. Very pleasant little farms these are. Each family has a little island to itself, sur- rounded by narrow creeks — a secluded little paradise among the drooping willows. The house is built invariably on piles, so as to be above the level of the waters^ in time of flood. The most lovely roses and other flowers grow luxuriantly around the homestead. The only means of communication is by water, and every morning can be seen canoe after canoe laden with fruit and flowers floating slowly down the willow- shaded canals to market, the light-hearted owner singing merrily as he stands up in the stern propelling his little craft with one long oar, as they do in the Venetian gondolas. There is a peculiar dream-hke beauty about this enchanted region that strikes all visitors to La Plata. The citizens of Buenos Ayres are very proud and fond of the Tigre. Its banks are a favourite resort on Sunday, and many a pleasant picnic party and fete cliampetre enlivens the isles in the summer days. Before any one decides to purchase land and settle among the channels of the delta, he should first consider one or two THE CEUISE 01^ THE PALCOIT. 75 rather serious drawbacks. In the first place, the mosquitoes are terrible j in the second place, real property hereabouts is by no means an " immovable." These islands and creeks arc ever changing. If you buy an island one year, it may have grown to double its original size by the next, or it may have disappeared altogether ; where houses once stood, deep waters now roll ; and on the other hand, the peach-trees grow thickly where the river schooners were wont to sail a few years back. CHAPTEE VIII. And now, my readers, I am going to take you with me fai away from the salt seas, nut to return to them again until you have followed me over many thousands of miles of inland travel extending over nine months of time. For the Falcon was now to sail up the great fresh-water rivers to the central wildernesses of the continent, where no yacht had ever been before; and again she was to be left for months at anchor, while her crew changed their sailor life for that of the gaucho, and rode across the great Pampas, through the arid monies of St. lago, to the great Cordilleras and tropical forests of Tucuman. A few months before our arrival, Buenos Ayres had passed through one of these periodical revolutions, without which no South American Hepublic is long happy. The bumptious- ness of the province of Buenos Ayres provoked the 'contest ; for the Portenos, as the Buenos Ajrreans term themselves, wished to raise by force their own man to the office of President, in despite of the votes of the other thirteen provinces. These revolutions are a great nuisance to the esf.anfieros (cattle-farmers) in the camps ; for while they last the country is overrun by irregular troops and marauding gauchos, who requisition and rob in a most promiscuous fashion. Eobbery is after all the whole object of these civil discords ; the two parties fight their little game out, and the winner enjoys the monopoly of swindling the nation for the term of the presi- dential office ; bloodshed is avoided as much as possible. This time, however, one serious engagement was fought in Buenos Ayres ; for the rival armies met by accident, and 76 THE CRUISE 0¥ THE PALOOlfi about 2000 of the Buenos Ayreans were slain by tbe wild Indians and half-breeds of the provincial army. This battle, so they say, was entirely due to bad generalship, for all the rival forces desired was to keep apart and plunder in different directions. Unfortunately, it came to pass that the two armies came across each other, and were plundering at the same time in the same locality. It was exceedingly awkward, They could not very weU wink at each other and continue to plunder on different sides of the street. They could not ignore and cut each other dead, so were obliged, if only as a matter of form, to do a bit of fighting. I suppose they got warmed up when they once commenced, for it was a serious business as long as it lasted, and the butcher's bill was longer than the Government liked to confess afterwards. "We loafed about Buenos Ayres until we were bored; were " welcomed on Change " — Anglo-Portenos wiU know what that means ; visited several estangias in the southern camps and elsewhere, acquiring an insight into the unnecessarily brutal way in which horses are broken in and cattle worked in this part of the globe ; were interested in the ostrich farms, which promise to be as remunerative here as in South Africa; and then considered whither we should next go. Our chief object in coming out to this part of the world was to ascend some of the tributaries of the great La Plata, as far as was possible in the yacht ; for from all we had heard and read, such a voyage would not fail to repay us with the enjoyment of strange and marvellous scenery and splendid sport ; nor were we altogether disappointed in our expecta- tions. But for the present the river voyage was not to be thought of. It was now midsummer, and even as far south as Buenos Ayres — by the shores, too, of the refreshing sea — the ther- mometer did not rarely indicate 100° in the shade. Those at Buenos Ayres who knew the Parana and Paraguay, advised us to postpone our cruise till the winter, and drew alarming pictures for us of the intolerable torment of the mosquitoes, that would render our life a misery to us on the inland waters at this season. We therefore determined to leave the Falcon at her safe moorings in the Tigre in charge of the boy, purchase a horse each, and undertake an expedition into the interior of the continent of about two months' duration. Our plans wore JHE CEUISE OF THE FALCOX. 7/ rather vague -when we left the capita], but Cordoha, the ancient Jesuit city in the heart of the Eepublic, was to be our immediate destination ; and Eosario, the second city of this country and 280 miles higher up the river than Buenos Ay res, our starting-point. From Cordoba we would journey either to the tropical provinces to the north, or westward' to the Andes, -as we might consider best. Jerdein, Arnaud, and myself met at the Esta9ion Centralo one delicious February morning. Our luggage was simple and business-like ; each took with him a saddle, saddle-bags containing spare flannel shirts, &c., top-boots, a blanket, a revolver, a poncho, and a wide native belt of carpincho hide ; while a broad-brimmed felt hat was on each head. After a three hours' journey in the comfortable American cars of the Campana Railway Company, across treeless, dusty plains of pasture whose monotony the rare agave and cactus alone relieved, we reached Campana, a small port on one of the many channels of the great delta of the La Plata. This is the terminus of the railway, and here we had to embark on David Bruce and Co.'s steamer Provedor. These steamers run between Campana and Eosario, a distance of about 200 miles, thus connecting Buenos Ayres with the Central Argentine Trunk Eailway, whose southern terminus is at Eosario. We were enabled to form a good idea of what was in store for the good ship Falcon, from what we saw on this short voyage up the great Parana. We steamed all that afternoon and throughout the night up a broad stream of muddy water, winding across an alluvial plain flat as a pancake. This stream was broad and deep, as a huge river should be, and yet this was but one minor branch of this tremendous watercourse, which, with its sister the Amazon, drains the huge southern continent ; and whose head- waters are in the unexplored tropical forests and savannahs, in close proximity to those of that other mighty river. The Paraguay, the Parana, the Uruguay, and a dozen other mighty streams pour their waters into the common estuary of the Eio de la Plata, and it is estimated that the volume of water brought down hourly by this river exceeds that of all the rivers in Europe put together. As we steamed up we could perceive the main land on neither side of us, for this was but a comparatively narrow channel betv/een two huge islands. And what a strange country was this intricate 78 THE OEUISB OF THE FALCON. network of island and channel. On our starboard hand, for instance, the mainland was thirty mUes away ; between us and that were islands numberless, rising not more than two feet or so above the average level of the water — an unknown wilderness of swamp and jungle, uninhabited save in rare spats, by the shores of the more commonly navigated channels. The islands are thickly overgrown with a rank A GAUCHO'S HOME IN THE SWAMPS. and ever-verdant vegetation. "Willows, great reeds, the gnarled seibo-tree, with its bright green leaves and scarlet blossoms ; strange bushes, all interwoven with rich convolvuli, render these wilds impassable save to the Carpincho or river- hog, the tiger, and the lion (as the natives call the jaguar and the puma), and deadly snakes of resplendent colour. Near Eosario, the islands are frequently inhabited. Enter- prising foreigners cultivate rice successfully on some of them, and on others, as I read from the Buenos Ayres Standard THE ORUISE- OP THE FALCON. 79 .certain not desirable people are to be found : gauchos, who have given up the horse to take to the cainoe— a lawless set, •who make frequent raids on the estangias of the mainland, fishermen by profession, but pirates and banditti by practice. For those good old-fashioned ruffians, the buccaneers, are by no means extinct on the tributaries of La Plata. There are districts on the banks of the Parana, for instance, near Corrientes, a thousand mUes from the sea, that have acquired a very evil reputation ; cut-throat crews have often come out in canoes from the secluded riachos of the Chaco, seized and plundered the passing Italian trading-schooners, and mur- dered the men. Most of these trading-schooners now carry a small cannon in addition to their muskets. The Falcon, though much smaller than any of these vessels, would, I think, be quite as capable as any of them of resisting the pirates successfully, for we are incomparably better off as regards arms. On the following morning we found that we had reached the main stream of the Parana. On our port hand was the mainland, on our starboard a string of islands about three miles away. The river itself is still very wide, for the Entre Eios shore is quite forty mUes off, an unexplored wilderness of shallow streams and long green isles intervening. There is now a considerable navigation on the Parana. Vessels from Iforth America and Europe load with hides, bones, and alfalfa (a sort of lucerne) at the quays of Eosario; but the navigation above this is almost exclusively in the hands of the Italians. Their vessels are handsome schooners, of little draught, but great beam, with enormous spread of canvas, and great square top-sails high aloft to catch the wind above the trees. The running-gear is generally of plaited hide, a very excellent substitate for rope. They go up against the stream, laden with wines and European produce, even as far as the centre of the Brazilian province of Matagrogso, about 2400 miles from the sea — the voyage there and back occupying about a year. They return to Buenos Ayres and Montevideo with cargoes of cedar and valuable hard woods from the virgin forests of the Chaco, of oranges from Paraguay and other produce of those rich but little cultivated countries. At last we came to an anchor off Eosario, the second city of the Eepublic, stretching along the banks of a river which 80 THE CRUISE OF THE I'ALCON. even here, so many hundreds of miles from the sea, is so broad that from a ship's deck the horizon between the many- islands is of water, the further coasts being invisible. Such are the sea-like expanses that stretch between isle and isle. Mr. Keenan, the popular host of the English hotel at Eosario, .=oon made us at home in his comfortable hotel. He already knew us by reputation, having read about our wanderings in the papers. If you study any old atlas, and net so very old either, you will not be able to discover such a place as Eosario on the map of South America, yet you will most probably see Santa Fe, its neighbour, marked in prominent letters, though this is but a little village to the tirst-named large and wealthy city. For Eosario is one of those mushroom cities that rise so rapidly in this new Western world. Its prosperity is of yesterday ; it is bran-new — painfully new from an artistic point of view; a money-making, tramwayed, prosperous place, that has doubled its population in ten years, and wiU, in aU. probability, double it again in another ten years ; for it cannot but always be a most important place, being as it is the terminus of those great railways that will in time open out all the rich regions between the Bolivian forests and the Pampas, the Pacific and the Atlantic. Now that the influx of foreigners into the Argentine Eepublic is augmenting so amazingly, and revolution is waxing feebler and feebler before it, who can foresee limits to the increase of the com- mercial enterprise and wealth of these wonderful countries 1 Even now the produce that lies on the quays of Eosario ready to be put on board ship will give us an insight into what is yet to be. There are the sugars — the valuable cabinet woods of Tucuman — the hides and beef from the estan9ias of the Pampas — wines from the eastern slopes of the Andes, the vintage of Mendoza and San Juan ; minerals, t"o, from the Cordilleras, and from the Sierras of Cordoba, where gold and silver and copper abound, and only await the adventurous miner. There is but little to say about these modern Spanish South American cities. They are very uninteresting. In describing one you describe all. The same straight streets drawn at right angles to each other, with the dismal one- storied, flat-roofed houses. Tramways everywhere. A square or two. A cleanly, prosperous look about the whole, THE OEXJISB OP THE FAIOON. 81 inhabitants included. Here you have everything. This chessboard-like, block system of laying out cities produces one effect that eminently strikes the stranger. In any of these long, straight streets one has an uninterrupted view right through the town. At Buenos Ayres, and more espe- cially at Montevideo, the sea terminates the view as a rule. Here it is the Pampas. If you stand in the centre of Eosario where any two streets cross, and look up and down them, you will see that each abruptly terminates far off in a sort of mist, for no straggling suburbs surround the town. At the end of each street is the desert. The mist you perceive is the dust of the immense plain that commences at the verge of the city and stretches unbroken for a thousand leagues. The suddenness of the exit from the thickly thronged street into the roadless wilds is very remarkablo in many of these cities, and is doubtless a relic of the old days when Indian raids were frequent, and the first few founders of the pueblo crowded their habitations together for mutual protection, and surrounded them with a common stockade. It is indeed a marvellous contrast ; a wilderness untUlcd, inhabited by wUd half-breeds clad in a barbaric costume, coming up to the very streets of cities, where every article of European civili- zation is to be found, and whose citizens are delicate in their lives and fastidiously dressed in the height of the latest Parisian fashion. It is curious to see the jjimcho from the Pampas stroUing through the busy streets; (o out of place with his striped poncho, his laced drawers, and nis hide bolt ornamented with coins. He does not evince any interest or curiosity, but from his looks evidently hates and despises towns and their pale inhabitants. Life in the saddle, on the Pampas or in the Monte (bush), is the only life he knows or cares for. Horse-stealing and cattle-lifting, in his opinion, are the only pursuits worthy of a man. One more day we pottered about the glaring hot city and its environs. In the morning we visited an ostrich farm on the river-bank ; in the evening attended a public ball. Por the carnival was approaching, and South Americans onlj requiring^an excuse to commence their favourite pastime, generally open the masked balls weeks before the orthodox time, so as to get into full swing for that fearful Terpsi- chorean orgie which they celebrate once a year. The Indo- Spanish race, lazy ia all else, is certainly indefatigable in S2 THE OBDISE OB THE FALCON. dance. For nigMs in succession these people ■will tread unwearied their graceful native figures with supple limbs. The head — every limb — indeed the whole being, seems to 'be entering into the measure, inspired with a species of phienzy. At three theatres here there were public masked balls this night attended by all classes, from stately white ladies in Parisian costume, to the simple little copper-coloured chinas Avith pink dresses of common stuff and black mantillas, ever- laughing faces, and perpetually shaking fans. There are, by- the-bye, some not uncomely faces among these dusky half- breeds — the Indian blood producing a much handsomer type than the negro, when crossed with the Spanish or Por- tuguese. Before starting on our expedition we had to exchange the notes we had brought from Buenos Ayres for the money current up country. Every province of this republic has a circulation of its own not current in the other provinces, which accounts for the enormous number of money-changers one com"es across in every city. There is a common standard throughout the whole country, called a patacon, which is about th'e value of four shillings ; but this patacon has no real existence, it is a purely imaginary quantity ; there is no coin or bank-note which professes to be one or more pata- cones, or any fraction of the same ; but I suppose it serves as a standard whereby to compare the variously fluctuatiug provincial moneys. In the province of Buenos Ayres gold or silver is unknown, paper money being the only currency. The original paper dollar was intended to represent a Spanish silver dollar or peso ; but between revolution and what not this paper peso gradually depreciated tiU it reached its present value of about twopence. This seeming somewhat unsatisfactory to the sage rulers of the country, they issued another superior sort of paper dollar which they called the peso fuerte, or hard dollar, to be of the fuU value of the original four and twopenny silver coin before mentioned. This is now current in Buenos Ayres by the side of the twopenny paper dollar, or peso corriente. But, alas ! the peso fuerte has also terriKly depre- ciated by this time; whether the Government will issue an extra-fuerte, and then when that goes down a fuertissimo, and so on, is beyond my power to say. The Government of Santa Fe, the province in which we THE OBUISB OF THE FALCON. 83 now are, issues a paper dollar of tlie vakie of about threo shillings. The Cordoban paper dollar is worth a little more, and does represent some fixed value — the silver dollar of Bolivia. In the remoter and poorer provinces there is no paper money ; but quaint old silver Bolivian coins, PeruviarJ and Chilian dollars, and the like foreign money are the solo currency. I have said enough to show how confusing this system is, and how the unfortunate traveller must lose in the frequent exchanges while travelling through this republic. It is rather a curious fact that in the wealthier republics of South America metallic currency is quite unknown, while the poorer countries like Paraguay and Bolivia have nothing else. I suppose the fact is that no one would have anything to do with the paper of these untrustworthy states, had they the impudence to issue any. About seven leagues from Eosario, on the Central Argen- tiae EaUway, is the small town — I must not risk offence by calling it a village — of Cjarcaranal. Hearing that this was a likely place to purchase horses in, we took train thither on the second morning after our landing at Eosario. This rail- way is carried ui a perfectly straight line, without curve or gradient, for hundreds of miles across the Pampas — and strange these vast plains seemed to us as viewed to-day for the first time from the windows of the car. "We saw aa interminable pasture, roadless, treeless, stretching aU around ; here and there a great cattle farm, either unfenced or sur- rounded with a wire fence; vast herds of sleek cattle and troops of haK-wild horses roamed over the plain. Here and there were partial deserts of bumt-up earth and sand ; here muddy lagunas ; while at long intervals, like oases in this treeless waste, rose small isolated clumps of eucalypti, marking the sites of the estanfias. Under the intense blue eky the horizon seemed to be infinitely far oif, trembliug and rolling like the waves of a distant sea with the mirage, while the distant eucalypti were raised by it, and seemed to be rooted in mid-air. At Carcarafial we found a little inn, kept by a hospitable dame from old Gaul, who made us very comfortable. A curious little camp-town this : merely a straight row of clean flat-roofed white one-storied houses ; ia front a lane of small acacias, and all around and beyond, glaring under the cloud- less implacable sky, the arid plain with its short dried-up 84 THE CEUISE OP THE FALCON. grass ; a cloud of dust over all, dust of the finest and most penetrating nature, dust that will find its way through all your clothes to your skin in no time, dust that is as had as an Egyptian plague, irritating, blinding, pore-closing, parch- ing, — stay, let us at least give it justice — it did prepare us to thoroughly enjoy the brimming cups of cafia and water, flavoured with some delicate essence of fruit, that our land- lady mixed for us. There is use in everything, even in dust. A funny collection we were in the little hostelry' after dinner. At one table was our party playing at euchre in shirt-sleeves ; at another several natives in camp garb gambling desperately at monte, with a very greasy pack of cards. In the next room we could perceive through the open door a merry wedding-supper party — gringos these, English, German, French, and Italian colonists. "We had arrived here very opportunely ; for as soon as these people had dined they cleared the room for a jolly ball, which was energetically kept up all night to the merry music of a three-tuned barrel-organ. As is the free and easy fashion of this country, all strangers were welcome to join them in their merry-making. Wedding garments were by no means de rigueur, but it seemed the j^roper thing to take off one's coat while dancing. In the middle of the night we heard in a lull in the revelry a shouting of many voices in the distance, and then the tread and lowing of numerous cattle. This turned out to be a vast herd of many hundred head that was being driven down to Rosario from some far northern province, where a long seca had been prevailing, and where all beasts were dying for want of water and pasture. As soon as the peons had rounded in these cattle outside the town for the night, the head-man and a few others came in to seek hos- pitality. Attracted by the sound of the haile they entered the inn, and were soon dancing away with the best of us, in despite of the fatigue and stiffness of a month in the saddle. They danced in their camp dress, top-boots, silver spurs, chiripas, poncho and all, so that one might almost imagine oneself at a fancy-dress ball at home, such was the variety of costume. THE CRUISE OF THE FALCON. 85 CHAPTER IX. Not Toeing able to find what we wanted in the way of horses at Carcaranal, we again took train to Canada de Gomez, another camp-town a few leagues higher up the line. We found this to he a typical little camp settlement, the mush- room growth of a few years — new and prosperous, with an astonishing amount of civilization, too, considering where it is. We entered thefonda, or general store where the camp- man comes down to buy all he wants, groceries, powder, and especially carta, I fear. The proprietor, Schnack, is an old Dutchman, a sailor, whose long service in British ships accounts for his perfect knowledge of our tongue. He put an upper room at 'our disposal to sleep in. He could not feed us, only lodge and drink us, he said ; hut there was a restaurant at the railway station opposite, so that mattered little. A wonderfully cosmopolitan continent this South America is. Having left our Dutchman for the restaurant over the way, we found the proprietor of this was an old French soldier, of the Garde Imperiale, and a maitre d'escrime. Then we went to the |)arber to be shaved, and found that he was a citizen of Naples : his razors, I imagine, came out of the torture-chambers of the Inquisition. This is indeed a very civiHzed little town. We not only have our restaurant and our barber, but also our judge ; also a half-finished church — this the common condition of a camp-town church, for the priests, after squeezing a certain amount of dollars from the pious, start building on an over-ambitious scale, run short of funds, and then comes a standstill in the work, until the little dribblets of offerings enable further progress. There is also a prison here, this being an imposing pair of stocks consi- derately placed under the shade of the pretty 9ina-9ina trees, in. front of a grog-shop. The court-house where justice is dispensed, and which is also the residence of the judge, belongs to friend Schnack. The Government is a bad pay- master, and our host teUs me that after many vain applica- tions for arrears of rent he has been obliged to evict the poor judge and Mistress Justice to seek a roof elsewhere. Peaceful and civilized though this little place appears, the untamed Indian tribes are not so far off. It is tfow but twelve years since the Indians roade a raid here, and carried 86 THE CRUISE OF THE FALCON. away 10,000 head of cattle, and many women, for the aboriginal has the good taste to prefer the white to the dusky beauties of his own race. But the camps of the white men have advanced many leagues further into the Indian territory since that time, and Canada de Gomez has little to fear now. Schnack's was a type of the regular camp-town store; loafing about the bar, drinking caSa, gin, and cocktails, was the usual crowd from the camp. Natives in their picturesque dress, and English estan9ieros — these, many of them, in the native costume also, but mostly in shirt-sleeves, top-hoots, broad felt sombreros, and hide belts with six-shooters and knives stuck ostentatiousjy therein. The Englishman of the province of Santa Fe rather affects this brigand-like get up ; but I believe there is good reason for it, as there are no few bad characters about, and the hand of justice being almost impotent hereabouts, each one must look out for himself. When the men standing at the bar heard of our proposed ride, they of course overwhelmed us with advice. "When in reply to their queries we said that we thought of riding through Cordoba to Tucuman, first one, a Yankee, said, — " Take train from here to Cordoba, and commence your ride from there. There is nothing to interest you between here and that city." Said another, a Britisher, — " No ; ride from here to Cordoba ; that will be all very well. To go beyond that will be madness ; you will lose yourselves and die of thirst in the Salinas, salt-deserts where there is no water — salt and cacti and sun, salt and sun. and cacti, nothing more.". Said a third, a native, — " My advice is, don't go at alL It is too hot to ride this time of the year ; what pleasure can you find in galloping through the eternal salt and sun and cacti that my friend here speaks of ? " I tried to persuade this last, that we were a scientific expedition, that had been sent hither by the English Govern- ment to inspect sun and salt and cacti, and send home returns thereon ; but he would not swaUow this, and set us down as harmless lunatics. We -were not a little laughed at, too, when we informed our friends that we intended to accomplish our journey with THE OEUISE OP THE FALCON. 87 one horse each — taking no remounts. This was pronounced as impossible. In this land of cheap horseflesh it is the universal custom to travel with a tropilla — four or even eight horses to each man. A mare, the madrina, with bell tinkling at her neck, is also taken, and all the spare horses follow her like sheep do the bell-sheep, as she leads the way. It is only necessary to hobble the madrina when the party encamps for the night ; the troop of geldings can he left to graze at will, for these animals will not stray far, but keep near the lady, with an affecting Platonic tenderness. This method of travelling by tropilla is certainly by far the fastest. The fashion here is to go at full gallop, leap from one horse to another, as they in turn weary, and get ove^ about -one hundred miles a day^the South American caring little if he lose a few of his animals by the way. We however preferred our own quieter mode of travelliDg, which our experience in other lands has taught us was certainly possible. One horse well looked after wiU carry a man for a journey of months ; at a very fair pace too. The result proved that we were right, for we reached, later on, lands where there was no pasture, and where hard food for our horses had to be purchased at extravagant prices. Had we been travelling with thirty instead of four horses we should have found it rather expensive work. Many a long yarn was spun this night for our benefit by our revolvered friends on the dangers of our Way. They told us of the monteneros of Santiago, who would cut our throats and steal our horses ; of the salt-deserts, where we would perish of thirst — deserts in whose midst two tropillas have been known to meet and fight to the death for the little skin of water that was aU. left to one party ; of the deadly chuchu, or fever, of the northern provinces ; of jiggers that would bring mortification to our toes, and the bicho Colorado that would lay eggs in our legs ; and so on. About thirty miles from here is the estan9ia of Las Eosas, the property of the well-known Mr. Kemiss, whose horned cattle and horses are the pride of the Plate, an enterprising man who has introduced blood from England, and whose horses carry all before them on the race-courses of South America. On the morning after our arrival at Canada de Gomez we procured a trap and two horses and drove up to this estan9ia, A pleasant drive it was, too, through the clear 88 THE CEUISB 0¥ THE FALCON. exhilarating air of the plains ; beneath our feet were flowers of every hue, chief among -which that commonest flower of the Pampas, the scarlet verbena. The grasses hereabouts were long and of various species. All of them were now capped with plumes of silver seed, so that on the horizon the white stretches of it were exactly like the sands of a distant desert. "We followed the tropilla-track to the north, which consisted merely of the ruts made by the huge waggons of the caravans that have for ages wended their slow way by this route. In places which are apt to be swampy in wet weather, the ruts become very deep, so that the waggons have to avoid them and make a slight circuit : thus new tracks are formed parallel to the old, till in some softer parts of the country the road is a band of a thousand ruts, a mile or so in breadth. Such are all the roads of the Pampas — roads to the construction of which man has contributed no labour. The pastures we crossed to-day were some of the richest of this province. Here you have a typical view of the camp as we saw it when we unharnessed our horses and allowed them a rest and a roll at midday. First, just before us stretched the muddy tropilla-track, a dark line through the bright grasses. Across it lay the huge clumsy walnut wheel of a broken-down waggon ; the bones of cattle were frequent, and a little further oB: we could see a crowd of mangy vultures feeding on the carcass of a horse. At the entrance to the numbetless bizcacha holes, among the wild pumpkins, sat, solemnly blinking, the grey owls, generally in twos, sociably. Why, by-the-bye, does the bizcacha always plant pumpkins and owls at his door 1 Looking further away we perceived on one side the silver stretch of a laguna a league or so off, with many cattle and horses by it — also numerous plover; the grass by it not yellow and partly burnt as elsewhere, but of a vivid green. Beyond that, afar off, stretched the unbroken horizon of the plains, a long line of smoke rising IVom it in one place, showing where some leagues of camp were on fire. Turning round in the other direction we could perceive some shy gama, the deer of the Pampas, playing under the shade of a solitary ombu ; beyond that on the horizon the waving sea of the mirage, and two tall columns as of a waters spout dark against the bright sky — two dust- whirls that broke THE CRUISE OE TflB PALCOIT. 89 and vanished as suddenly as they had arisen. A strange solemn land this lonely Pampas ; still, too, save for the sound of the dry north wind sighin'g in the grass. At last we reached the wire fences and passed through the strong gates on to the lands of the great breeder of horses, and drove up to the hospitable house. A pleasant place this, and possessing what is very rare on the Pampas — a garden of flowers and one of fruit and vegetables. The native estan9iero is far too lazy a man to cultivate these ; he breeds his cattle in his rough brutal way ; and yet, though he number them by thousands, butter and milk are unknown luxuries in his house. He is content to eat his perpetual asado stridpiichero without vegetables or bread or seasoning ; alfalfa and maize being the sole produce he condescends to raise from his estate. The locusts had been playing considerable havoc in Mr. Kemiss' gardens of late : the peach-trees stood stripped of all leaf and fruit, the stones alone hanging bare of flesh from the skeleton twigs. The blue gum-trees and the prickly pears, of which the hedge round the garden was composed, had alone resisted the ravages of these destroying swarms. As the sun set we perceived what is a common sight enough on the Pampas in summer. All around the horizon, at five diiferent points, were long bands of ruddy flame. These camp fires sometimes bum and smoulder on for months, devouring league after league of pasture. We had an opportunity of seeing how these fires are extinguished while we were in this neighbourhood. The method is one which will illustrate as much as anything the value of horseflesh in this country. The peons of the estate which we were visiting perceived a fresh fire breaking out on the verge of their mnster's lands : immediately they galloped off to it. There happened to be a troop of mares close by grazing tranquilly. In almost less time than it takes to describe it, two of these were lassoed, thro'WTi on their backs, killed, and their stomachs ripped right up with the long knife every native carries ; lassos were attached to the legs of the animals, and the mounted men dragged the bleeding carcasses across the burn- ing grass — and a very efiicacious method it proved to be, for the conflagration was thus got under in a few minutes. On the morrow we borrowed horses from Mr. Kemiss, and galloped all over the country to see if any neighbouring 90 THE CEUISE OF THE MLCON. estan5iei'os had horses fit for our expedition to sell us. We rode to the estanfia of Las Tres Lagunas, then to that of Las Lomas, and that of California — where three brothers from Central California were trying their fortunes, — but all in vain ; save one tropilla of unbroken young riscos from the Entre Eios camps we could find nothing. So the next morning we drove back to Canada de Gomez in our trap. It was a sultry day, heavy with storm. When we had about half-completed our journey the sky be- came overclouded, and vivid fork lightning flashed in the distance. The horses trembled : their instinct evidently told them what was coming ; for nothing is more terrible than a storm on the Pampas. All animals, and man himself, are struck with terror when they find themselves overtaken on the unsheltered wilderness by these terrific tempests. The blast sweeps over these thoiisands of leagues of plain with force unchecked, meeting no obstacles of hill and dale to de- flect and break its strength. The wind drives all before it, the vast herds of lowing cattle till they fall one on the top of the other into the swollen rivers, and are drowned. Clouds of dust are stirred up that make day as dark as night, and have been known to bury great herds — even as does the dreaded sand-storm of the Sahara — and the hailstones fall so large and with such force that they kill man and horse ex- posed to their fury, and, as I have myself seen, break through the tiled roofs of houses like so many round shot. But curiously enough, where there comes but only a little and rare cultivation and civilization, the climate of a country changes. Of old the dust-storm used frequently to rush into Buenos Ayres — now it does so rarely and to a limited extent. And wonderful though it may seem, they tell me that the presence here in the wilds of Santa Fe of a few scattered estanfias, with their eucalypti, has greatly contributed to break the fury of the desert tempest, and that to see it in all its horrible majesty one must now go further out into the wilder regions of the Pampas ; for not only the Indians, but drought and the hurricane itself retreat before the ad- vance of the white man. But the storm we experienced this day was quite enough for us. It came on with amazing sud- denness ; one moment it was hot, sultry, and calm, the next moment a wind of hurricane strength rushed down on us, and we shivered with cold, so rapidly the temperature fell. The THE CEUISE OP THE EALCON. 91 dust rose in clouds, the hurricane threatened to capsize our trap and roll it over the plain before it. We had to turn it to the wind and heave-to as it were, stooping down with our heads buried in our ponchos; then the rain came down sharp and stinging — a rain of mud, for it gathered up all the dust from the skies as it descended — a rain, too, of sticks and stones and grass, and millions of prickly thistle- heads. This deluge luckily did not last long, and the fury of the short-lived tempest soon subsided; but it left us most miserable objects. We were drenched ; an inch of' mud covered our clothes, as thickly studded with thistle-heads as a plum-pudding is with plums ; and we were not sorry when we found ourselves once more under Schnack's hospitable roof. Not being able to purchase horses in this neighbourhood, we took train to the camp-town of Fraile Muerto which is in the province of Cordoba. Before reaching this place we observed that the aspect of the Pampas was gradually changing. ITor we were nearing the region of the monte, or bush, which stretches hence to the tropical forests of the north. The camps, no longer mo- notonous wastes of grass and thistles, were covered, save in some open patches, with mimosas and thorny bushes ; commonest and most imposing among which rose the al- garobbas, noble trees of the mimosa species. The algarobba is a tree of great importance in South America. In the first place it is used in the place of coal on the railway engines, and its wood serves for sleepers. In the hot pro- vinces of Santiago del Estero it bears fruit every year ; but here, in more temperate Cordoba, but once in four years. This is a large bean-like pod fuU of saccharine matter. It is excellent food for cattle ; and horses, when hard-worked, thrive on it as well as on maize. Even human beings ex- tract nourishment from the algarobba pod. The poor of Santiago almost entirely subsist on cakes made from it, and the children seem to be perpetually chewing the hard sweet seed in its raw state. An enterprising Frenchman attempted to prepare sugar from it, but failed to compete with, the cane sugar of Tucuman. However, a very palatable spirit is ex- tracted from it. The algarobba is of the same species as the locust-tree of Cyprus and Asia Minor. 915 THE CEUISB OF THE FALCON. On arriving at Fraile Muerto station, which is some way from the settlement, we found that civilization had progressed so far that there were two coaches to meet us. The driver of one, a sharp Indian, pounced on us first, and claimed the oaballeros as his own. "We drove at a gaUop across a plain of alternate pasture and hrushwood ; then over an iron bridge that spanned the Carcavanal, a typical river of the Pampas, flowing rapid and muddy between two steep forty-feet-high banks of earth, glittering with particles of diamond-like mica — banks that were topped with evergreen mimosas, while the interspaces of the bush were full of lovely flowers, and the lofty pampa grass with its plumes of silver feathers. Fraile Muerto is a prosperous-looking little camp-town. It for the most part consists of one big square with a double row of trees round it. Whenever a new pueblo is founded in South America, the native colonists commence by laying out an immense square. At first it is a mere waste, with only three or four ranches, maybe, scattered along its lines, while all round is the tiger-haunted jungle. The next thing they do is to cut a race-course through this jungle, and then they sit down and rest — they have done enough — let Pro- vidence do the rest. From this nucleus a great city may spring or it may not, Quien sabe ? As a rule it does not ; but where there is much of energetic foreign blood about, cities do spring up very rapidly indeed in South America — so is it with Fraile Muerto, which is fast becoming quite a considerable little village. The Spanish American mind always seems to run in squares. His cities are built in cuadros aU of a size ; he even measures length by squares, and speaks of so many cuadros where we should say so many dozen rods. The Portuguese American prefers lines to squares and irregularity to sym- metry. The net-work of streets in a Brazilian city is puzzling in the extreme. You do not find there the chess- board arrangement the Argentine people, are so fond of. Again, when Brazilians found some new village in the in- terior, they prefer to make one long irregular street of it, stretching along the high road. They do not understand concentration around a central square. At Faira St. Anna, for instance, there is one street only, with no others branching off it. Yet this town is of considerable size, and THE CRUISE OF THE FALOOH 93 the ono street it does boast is, I am afraid to say how many miles in length. There is a cafe at either end of it. If you breakfast at one, and walk briskly to the other, you will reach it just in time for dinner — at least, so the natives say ; but the story seems hardly probable. I should like to see the man who performed this pedestrian feat, for there happens to be a tramway running all down this one-streeted town, and what Brazilian would walk ten yards when he could drive, or even when he couldn't ? for in that case he would remain in the end of the town he was born in, and decline to venture to the unknown further end of the street. We drove into the courtyard of the fonda of Don Pepe. Our host came forth to meet us. Don Pepe is a great character in his way — a Roman of noble family, they say, and an ex-bandit of Calabria ; he is a fine, handsome, white- haired old ruifian, and a terrible swearer. His sister, a most stately Eoman dame, assists him in preserving order in his, at times, rather noisy establishment. This lady rolls oif the sonorous Spanish and blood- curdUng Italian oaths as volubly as her brother. FraUe Muerto is associated with the fortunes of the ill- fated Henley colony. About twelve years since there came hither from England a strange crew of young English gentle- men with the ostensible object of cattle farming. If energy and skUl in cana drinking and horse- racing are the sole re- quisites for a cattle farmer, then none could be better than these. These young men, unsteady, fresh from school and coUege and regiment, without any practical knowledge of anything, arrived at Eosario in a batch, and considerably astonished the natives by their manners and customs. The Henleyites came dovm on the land in the fashion of a hostile army. They had a uniform of which a helmet was not the least conspicuous article; each was provided with a regulation rifle, revolver, and sabre, not to speak of the very arsenal of wonderful weapons he took on his own ac- count in addition. They were encamped for some time in a village of wooden huts, while lands were being apportioned out to them ; and here they soon showed what manner of colonists they were going to be. Drinking, gambling, and horse-racing was the order of the day. The capital they had brought with them took unto itself wings, for let the 94 T'HE OEtJISE OF THE PALCOlir. gringo, however knowing in his own land, skin his eyes ere he match himself on the turf with the simple gaucho of the Pampas. So things went on, and the natives smiled at the ways of the locos Inglesas, won their money, acquired their mortgaged lands, while the colonists diminished woefully in number. Many of these gentlemen ultimately were driven to take any menial work they could get; some died of delirium tremens, others self-despatched with their own revolvers ; the remainder settled down, after the first wild burst was over, with diminished means to the business they had come over to undertake. This prosperous little town of Eraile Muerto has been built for the most part on the spoils that have been wrung from the ill-fated Englishmen by publicans and usurers. Fiascos in the way of emigration are frequent out here, and bring discredit on this fine country ; whereas it is the folly, or worse, of people at home that is really to blame. There have been schemes of this nature in South America that have turned out far more unfortunately than even this one of poor, well-meaning, but misguided Mr. Henley. The Paraguayan Lincolnshire farmer scheme, for instance. During our ride I happened to see a navvy working on a remote portion of the Tticuman railway line. On my asking him the way, or some such question, he proved to be a fellow-countryman. He rested his foot on his spade, and started a chat with me : — "Eight glad I am to have a chance of talking the old language now and again," he said. He told me he had been a jockey in his youth ; then a groom in London. " And how came you out here ? " I asked. " Oh, I came here as a Lincolnshire farmer," he replied, with a humorous twitch about the corners of his mouth. " As a Lincolnshire farmer ? I don't quite understand." "Ha! ha! Well it do seem rum, don't it now? But that's right — a Lincolnshire farmer. Why, you know, I saw a grand emigration scheme advertised in the papers, Lincoln farmers to go out to Paraguay and grow tobacco on land that had been bought dirt cheap from the Govern- ment ; splsndid climate, and so on. Bueno. I did not know a rap where Paraguay was, and didn't care ; but I was main tired of town, and times was bad, so I scraped some THE CEUISM OF THE TALOON. 95 money togetlier, and off I went ; and here I am, less of a Lincoln farmer than ever, I guess." But his case was light enough. The misery that wretched Lincoln farmer scheme brought on hundreds is inconceivable. In the first place these emigrants, who were supposed to be experienced agricidturists from the rich lowlands of East Anglia, were anything but that, farmers, forsooth ! No more so than, and as useless in their way as, the young gentlemen of the Henley colony ; roughs from London, the offscourings of the Dials and Whitechapel, rusty acrobats, race-meeting minstrels, and the Hke, not unaccompanied by a large following of dirty, noisy women and puny children. Well, this motley crowd was packed off a thousand miles inland to grow tobacco in the tropical climate of Paraguay. They reached the lands assigned to them, an uncleared jungle alternating with swamp. Here, as any one could have fore- told, fever fell on the miserable, uncared-for wretches; living as they could amid deadly miasma ; so helpless and ignorant that they could not eveb. put their hands to building huts to cover them. So they perished by dozens, the little children, weak with privation and fever, being literally devoured by mosquitoes and jiggers, tiU they died of putrefying sores. The remnant had to be sent south again by the exertions of private charity ; and, would it be believed, the men of this melancholy relic — independent, helpless, surly British work- men as they were proved to be — refused to carry from the bakers the biscuit charity had provided for them and their starving families, unless they were paid for doing so ! ' Some of the specimens of the British working-man one sees in South America are verily strange beasts, arid not calculated to do credit to their fatherland. But there was one emigra- tion scheme that I know of that beats all the others. A peculiarly pestilential district, in a state adjoining this one, was the locaUty chosen. The originators of the scheme were sleek, godly men of the city of London, who richly deserve to be brought out and delivered over to the tender mercies of those that have been deluded by their plausible prospectus. 96 THE OBUISB OP THE FALCON. CHAPTER X. Carnival was in full swing at Fraile Muerto when we arrived. Buckets of water were being thrown liberally over passers-by, and every one was armed with the inevitable iwmito, or squirt, of Florida water. The dark-eyed little rogues under the black mantillas made it very hot, or rather, wet and cool, for the Falcons with the aid of these detest- able instruments. The night was one of revelry ; the twang of the guitar was heard through many an open door, and at least a dozen hailes were under way in different parts of the town; indeed, there were as many balls as there were houses, for all the estan9ieros, rancheros, and gauchos for leagues around had flocked into Fraile Muerto for the occasion. Thoroughly the laughing little camp girls threw themselves into the spirit of the wild and beautiful native dances. Horse-racing, cock-fighting, and dancing are the only amuse- ments of the Pampas, and the last is the only one which the fair sex can share with the sterner. They certainly are not stingy in their preparations for carnival in these parts ; many pretty masquerade dresses were to be seen among the •revellers. This afternoon a grand procession of clumsy waggons, drawn by handsome oxen, slowly perambulated the glaring, dusty streets. Waggons and oxen were taste- fully decorated with flowers and coloured draperies. In one waggon was a band of musicians clad fantastically in yellow coats, that recalled the penitential dress of the victims of the Inquisition ; while two men worked a huge squirt, or fire- engine, pouring volumes of water right and left — rather too rough carnival play this, but all good-naturedly taken. Another waggon was full of pretty chinas, dressed in a uniform of red and black, laughing and squirting scent. At the Union Club, for we boast a club in our village, was the grand affair of the evening, the masked ball for the aristocracy. Thither we repaired. The club turned out to be merely a fair-sized room on the ground-floor of a house. This was a particularly select entertainment, yet where the exclusive grandees of Fraile Muerto drew the line I did not exactly perceive. The door of the ball-];oom was on the street, and was wide open ; all who wished could look in and behold the spectacle, could even, as far as I could see, THE CEUISE OP THE FALCON. 97 enter and join the dancers. The commandante was there with his pretty daughters ; the storekeeper, too ; and the shoemaker, with his lady and family — these exhausted the list of the native aristocracy. Then came people with whom " one did not like to mix," and on whom the daughters of the above swells turned up their little noses — gauchos from the camp, murderers and cattle-lifters many of them — wild fellows in native dress and of savage mien. Mate seemed to be the only refreshment provided, and nothing there ie that will better pull together the wearied dancer than this invigorating decoction of the Paraguayan yerba. On the morning after our arrival P^pe insisted on taking us round his establishment. This caravanserai of the Pampas consisted of a large square courtyard, round three sides of which was a low, one-storied building — simply a series of small rooms with doors opening on the said court ; on the fourth side were stables and a blacksmith's forge. "That forge,'' said he, "has only recently become my property. It belonged to a Prenchman; poor fellow, he drank it all away in absinthe ; got drunk ' on tic,' as you English say, at my bar ; so now it is mine." " And now," said Pepe, " come, and I will show you my museum." He took us into a small room, surrounded with cases of arms and other curiosities. " These," said he, " are chiefly the spoils of your country- men, taken by me in lieii of bad debts ; all represent so much cana drink." It was a melancholy spectacle — Westley Eichards, Cogs- well and Harrison, and the like names were to be seen on many a fine arm in this collection. Here were the best lihot-guns and rifles out of Enghsh and Prench workshops : Martini-Henrys, Sniders, Winchester repeaters, Colt's and Smith and Weston's six-shooters, swords, sabres, and so on — the relics of the ill-fated Henley colonists. Here, too, were strange-made Italian stilettos, some such as are served out by the secfet societies to their initiated, — all pawned for drink. But do not imagine from all this that Pepe is a sort of Fraile-Muertan Shylock, an unpitying, grasping usurer ; on the contrary, he is a very kind-hearted old fellow, who has done many a good turn for our countrymen, as well as bis 98 THE CEUISE OF THE FALCON. own, who have come to grief here. He is heloved by all, save the authorities, who entertain a wholesome dread of him ; for P^pe holds very strong opinions as to his fonda being his castle, and more than one British ne'er-do-weel or Italian cut-throat has found a harbour of refuge in this hostelry. When the serenos come to seize the refugee, old Pepe will stand at his door and swear sonorous oaths, and with a hundred horrid blasphemies, threaten to rip up the iripos of any who venture to cross his threshold against his will. Carnival was now over, so it was possible to promenade the streets with a dry coat ; and the natives once more began to attend to the little business they ever trouble them- selves with. We let it be known throughout the village that we were in want of four good horses — five-yeaf-olds that were accustomed to eat maize and other hard food, for the camp-horses will not do this, and a fortnight's starvation, at the least, is necessary before they can be induced to touch it. A pure-blood Indian offered his services; he said he knew every horse for ten leagues round, he would gallop over the camps and bring every animal in that he thought would be likely to suit us. ■ A curious old ruffian this was, short, stumpy, with straight, long, black hair, laughing, groggy eyes, bandy legs, and a sort of duck's waddle ia the place of a walk — as is that of all horse-Indians. Por three days he galloped about and brought horse after horse to us for inspection, while other ragged and wild-looking fellows, who had heard of our wants, came in with tropillas and single animals. We pitted the rival vendors against each other : it was amusing to listen to their voluble lies and denunciations. After inspecting one tropilla of twenty we picked out the best two, and made a bid of thirty Bolivians for them. The owner laughed us to scorn. "Why forty will be dirt cheap for these two splendid thoroughbreds ; the Colorado is the fastest horse over four cuadros in the whole province — besides, you spoil my whole tropilla by taking these two out." And so he argued after the manner of one that sells a horse, in all times and among all peoples. After some hagghng we brought him down to thirty- two Bolivians for the two, that is about fifty-five shillings each —