serves to be----. Gentlemen, I give you Aunty Seacole!"

And so the orator sat down amidst much applause. It may be supposed
that I did not need much persuasion to return thanks, burning, as I
was, to tell them my mind on the subject of my colour. Indeed, if my
brother had not checked me, I should have given them my thoughts
somewhat too freely. As it was, I said:--

"Gentlemen,--I return you my best thanks for your kindness in drinking
my health. As for what I have done in Cruces, Providence evidently
made me to be useful, and I can't help it. But, I must say, that I
don't altogether appreciate your friend's kind wishes with respect to
my complexion. If it had been as dark as any nigger's, I should have
been just as happy and as useful, and as much respected by those whose
respect I value; and as to his offer of bleaching me, I should, even
if it were practicable, decline it without any thanks. As to the
society which the process might gain me admission into, all I can say
is, that, judging from the specimens I have met with here and
elsewhere, I don't think that I shall lose much by being excluded from
it. So, gentlemen, I drink to you and the general reformation of
American manners."

I do not think that they altogether admired my speech, but I was a
somewhat privileged person, and they laughed at it good-naturedly
enough. Perhaps (for I was not in the best humour myself) I should
have been better pleased if they had been angry.

Rightly, I ought to have gone down to Gorgona a few weeks before
Cruces was deserted, and secured an hotel; but I did not give up all
hope of persuading my brother to leave the Isthmus until the very last
moment, and then, of course, a suitable house was not to be hired in
Gorgona for love or money. Seeing his fixed determination to stay, I
consented to remain with him, for he was young and often ill, and set
hard to work to settle myself somewhere. With the aid of an old
Jamaica friend, who had settled at Gorgona, I at last found a
miserable little hut for sale, and bought it for a hundred dollars. It
consisted of one room only, and was, in its then condition, utterly
unfit for my purpose; but I determined to set to work and build on to
it--by no means the hazardous speculation in Gorgona, where bricks and
mortar are unknown, that it is in England. The alcalde's permission to
make use of the adjacent ground was obtained for a moderate
consideration, and plenty of material was procurable