ce and broken rib of the child, and to conceal
him in the house of a Spanish crone in Havana, who cured the maladies
of credulous seamen by witchcraft!

After nightfall the master of the British vessel came aboard to claim
his boy; but as he was petulant and seemed disposed to carry matters
with a high hand, my temper rose in resistance, and I refused to
release the child until he sealed with an oath his promise to treat
him better in future. But the cruel scoundrel insisted on
_unconditional_ surrender; and to end the controversy, I was compelled
to order him off the schooner.

British pluck of course would not allow a captain to be deprived so
easily of his property, so the British consul was invoked to appeal
to the captain of the port. This personage summoned me before him,
and listened calmly to a story which added no honor to English
mariners. In my last interview with the boy he implored my continued
protection and concealment; so that when the Spanish official
declared--notwithstanding the officer's conduct--that the vessel was
entitled to her crew, and that I must surrender the child, I excused
myself from complying by pleading utter ignorance of his whereabout.
In view of this contingency, I directed the woman to hide him in a
place of which I should be ignorant. So I told no lie, and saved the
boy from his tyrant.

The inquiry was dropped at this stage of proceedings. When the British
vessel sailed a few days after, I caused the youth to be brought from
his concealment; and, with our captain's consent, brought him aboard
to serve in our cabin.

I have narrated this little episode in consequence of my love for the
boy, and because _he was the only English subject I ever knew to ship
in a slaver_.

I requested the Areostatico's owners to pay him liberally for his
fidelity when he got back to Havana; and I was happy to learn next
year, that they not only complied with my request, but sent him home
to his friends in Liverpool.

CHAPTER VIII.

When I got back to Bangalang, my first movement was to take possession
of the quarters assigned me by the Mongo, and to make myself as
comfortable as possible in a land whose chief requirements are shade
and shelter. My house, built of cane plastered with mud, consisted of
two earthen-floored rooms and a broad verandah. The thatched roof was
rather leaky, while my furniture comprised two arm-chests covered with
mats, a deal table, a bamboo settle, a tin-pan