e gang cultivated peppers,
tomatoes and mint. The premises being reviewed, I returned with my
ill-favored guard to take a lesson in piratical cookery.

It is astonishing how well these wandering vagabonds know how to toss
up a savory mess, and how admirably they understand its enjoyment. A
tickled palate is one of the great objects of their mere animal
existence, and they are generally prepared with a mate who might pass
muster in a second-rate restaurant. The _dejeuner_ we served of
codfish stewed in claret, snowy and granulated rice, delicious
tomatoes and fried ham, was irreproachable. Coffee had been drunk at
day-dawn; so that my comrades contented themselves during the meal
with liberal potations of claret, while they finished the morning with
brandy and cigars.

By two o'clock the breakfast was over, and most of the gorged scamps
had retired for a _siesta_ during the sweltering heat. A few of the
toughest took muskets and went to the beach to shoot gulls or sharks.
Gallego and myself were dispatched to our grove-kitchen to scullionize
our utensils; and, finally, being the youngest, I was intrusted with
the honorable duty of feeding the bloodhounds.

As soon as my duties were over, I was preparing to follow the
siesta-example of my betters, when I met Don Rafael coming out of the
door, and, without a word, was beckoned to follow towards the interior
of the island. When we reached a solitary spot, two or three hundred
yards from the _rancho_, Rafael drew me down beside him in the shade
of a tree, and said gently with a smile, that he supposed I was at
least _surprised_ by the events of the last four days. I must confess
that I saw little for any thing else but astonishment in them, and I
took the liberty to concede that fact to the Don.

"Well," continued he, "I have brought you here to explain a part of
the mystery, and especially to let you understand why it was that I
passed myself off last night as your uncle, in order to save your
life. I was obliged to do it, boy; and, _voto a Dios_! I would have
fought the _junta_,--bloodhounds and all,--before they should have
harmed a limb of your body!"

Don Rafael explained that as soon as he caught a glimpse of my face
when he boarded the _galliot_ on the morning of our disaster, he
recognized the lineaments of an old companion in arms. The resemblance
caused him to address me as particularly as he had done on the night
of the piracy, the consequence of which was t