ng he might not observe me, I raised my hat upon my walking
stick, as a signal for him to approach. The quick-scented dogs
were soon on the start, and when I saw that they resembled blood
hounds,[G] I had serious apprehensions for my safety; but a call
from their master, which they obeyed with prompt discipline, put
my fears to rest. The man was a negro, mounted on a kind of mat,
made of the palm leaf, and generally used for saddles by the
plantation slaves on this Island.--When within a few rods of me
he dismounted, approached with his drawn sword (machete) and
paused in apparent astonishment; I pointing to the sores on me,
fearing from his attitude he might mistake me for some highway
robber. He now began to address me in Spanish, of which I knew
only enough to make him understand I had been shipwrecked; on
which he made signs for me to mount the horse. This I attempted,
but was unable to do, until he assisted me. He then pointed in
the direction of the path for me to go on, he following the
horse, with his sword in his hand.

[Footnote G: The Cuba dogs are chiefly descended from the ancient
blood hounds, originally imported to hunt down the natives.]

After travelling nearly three miles, I discovered a number of
lights, about half a mile distant; and when we came up with them
we halted near a large bamboo grove, where, with his aid, I
dismounted, and by a signal from him, set down until he went to a
hut and returned with a shirt and pair of trowsers, with which he
covered my nakedness. He now took me by the hand and led me into
a large house, occupied by his master, the owner of the
plantation. A bench was brought me, on which I seated myself, and
the master of the house, a grey headed Spaniard, probably turned
of seventy, came toward me with an air of kindness, understanding
from the black I had been shipwrecked. As the old man was
examining my sores, he discovered on my arm a handsome impression
of the _Crucifix_ that had been pricked in with indelible ink, in
the East Indies some years before, which he kissed with apparent
rapture, saying to me, "Anglois very much of the christian,"
supposing me to be a Roman Catholic.--This drew around me all the
members of the family, who kneeled in succession, kissing the
image and manifesting their sensibility by tears, at the
sufferings which they perceived by my sores and emaciated
appearance, I must have endured. I was then conducted by an old
lady, whom I took to be hi