le Senor Delamere
subsequently fell into the hands of Mateo, Petion's second-in-command,
who very thoughtfully sent him on to us.

"Now, Senor Delamere, being, although still very young, a naval officer
of considerable experience and undoubted courage, will be an acquisition
of the utmost value to us if we can but succeed in inducing him to join
us--and I have hopes, very great hopes of doing so. I, therefore, want
you to take him in charge for the present, showing him the utmost
consideration, and allowing him free range of the settlement,--since it
will be impossible for him to escape,--because I desire him to become
thoroughly acquainted with all our resources, and to see for himself the
perfection of all our arrangements for securing the success of our great
enterprise."

I could scarcely believe my ears when I heard Fernandez give this
extraordinary and, as I deemed it, most imprudent order. It seemed too
good to be true! Why, if the foolish man had but known it, there was
nothing I could possibly have more ardently wished for than liberty to
range freely the settlement and become fully acquainted with all its
resources! If I had ever dreamed of such a possibility as this it would
not have needed that I should be brought a prisoner to the place; I
should have been but too eager to make my way to it voluntarily. But,
of course, it was much better as it was, for now all that I had to do
was to keep my eyes and ears wide-open, learn everything I possibly
could, and, generally, make the very best use of my time before the
return of Garcia, while humouring Fernandez to the top of his bent in
his delusion that he would ultimately convince me of the advantage of
joining the band. Moreover, I believed I should not have much
difficulty in accomplishing this last; for, although I was at first
somewhat at a loss to understand his great eagerness to secure me as a
recruit, it became perfectly intelligible when I learned a little later
on that the only weak point in the entire scheme consisted in the
extreme scarcity of trained sailors capable of undertaking the more
important executive duties. Seamen, of the kind to be found in a ship's
forecastle, they possessed, not exactly in abundance, but sufficient for
their ordinary necessities; but it appeared that, apart from Garcia, his
first lieutenant, and one other, they had not a single navigator among
them; and it was easy to understand that, if anything untoward should