anybody: and the first thing, moreover, that he does when he reaches this place is to inspect the fort, and to ascend the mountain where, no doubt, he has been marking out a camp.  What brings him to Finisterra if he is neither Calros nor a bribon of a faccioso?”

I felt that there was a good deal of justice in some of these remarks, and I was aware, for the first time, that I had, indeed, committed a great imprudence in coming to this wild place, and among these barbarous people, without being able to assign any motive which could appear at all valid in their eyes.  I endeavoured to convince the alcalde that I had come across the country for the purpose of making myself acquainted with the many remarkable objects which it contained, and of obtaining information respecting the character and condition of the inhabitants.  He could understand no such motives.  “What did you ascend the mountain for?”  “To see prospects.”  “Disparate! I have lived at Finisterra forty years and never ascended that mountain.  I would not do it in a day like this for two ounces of gold.  You went to take altitudes, and to mark out a camp.”  I had, however, a staunch friend in old Antonio, who insisted, from his knowledge of the English, that all I had said might very possibly be true.  “The English,” said he, “have more money than they know what to do with, and on that account they wander all over the world, paying dearly for what no other people care a groat for.”  He then proceeded, notwithstanding the frowns of the alcalde, to examine me in the English language.  His own entire knowledge of this tongue was confined to two words—knife and fork, which words I rendered into Spanish by their equivalents, and was forthwith pronounced an Englishman by the old fellow, who, brandishing his musket, exclaimed:—

“This man is not Calros; he is what he declares himself to be, an Englishman, and whosoever seeks to injure him, shall have to do with Antonio de la Trava el valiente de Finisterra.”  No person sought to impugn this verdict, and it was at length determined that I should be sent to Corcuvion, to be examined by the alcalde mayor of the district.  “But,” said the alcalde of Finisterra, “what is to be done with the other fellow?  He at least is no Englishman.  Bring him forward, and let us hear what he has to say for himself.  Now, fellow, who are you, and what is your master