And now," continued Martin, climbing into his hammock
again and addressing the hermit, "since you won't allow me to go out
a-hunting to-day, I would like very much if you would tell me something
more about this strange country."

"An' may be," suggested Barney, modestly, "ye won't object to tell us
something about yersilf--how you came for to live in this quare,
solitary kind of a way."

The hermit looked gravely from one to the other, and stroked his beard.
Drawing his rude chair towards the door of the hut he folded his arms,
and crossed his legs, and gazed dreamily forth upon the rich landscape.
Then, glancing again at his guests, he said, slowly; "Yes, I will do
what you ask,--I will tell you my story."

"An', if I might make so bould as to inquire," said Barney, with a
deprecatory smile, while he drew a short black pipe from his pocket,
"have ye got such a thing as 'baccy in them parts?"

The hermit rose, and going to a small box which stood in a corner,
returned with a quantity of cut tobacco in one hand, and a cigar not far
short of a foot long in the other! In a few seconds the cigar was going
in full force, like a factory chimney; and the short black pipe glowed
like a miniature furnace, while its owner seated himself on a low stool,
crossed his arms on his breast, leaned his back against the door-post
and smiled,--as only an Irishman can smile under such circumstances.
The smoke soon formed a thick cloud, which effectually drove the
mosquitoes out of the hut, and though which Martin, lying in his
hammock, gazed out upon the sunlit orange and coffee-trees, and tall
palms with their rich festoons of creeping-plants, and sweet-scented
flowers, that clambered over and round the hut and peeped in at the open
door and windows, while he listened to the hermit who continued for at
least ten minutes to murmur slowly, between the puffs of his cigar,
"Yes, I will do it; I will tell you my story."

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THE HERMIT'S STORY.

"My ancestors," began the hermit, "were among the first to land upon
Brazil, after the country was taken possession of in the name of the
King of Portugal, in the year 1500. In the first year of the century,
Vincent Vanez Pincon, a companion of the famed Columbus, discovered
Brazil; and in the next year, Pedro Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese
commander, took possession of it in the name of the King of Portugal.
In 1503, Americus Vespucius discovered the Bay of All Saints, and to