seamanship, and
your appearance, alike convict you."

For an instant the boys were too surprised to reply, and then Tom
said, boldly:

"We are, sir. We have done no wrong to any man, and we are not ashamed,
now, to say we are Englishmen. Under the same circumstances, I doubt
not that any Spaniard would have similarly tried to escape recognition.
But as chance has betrayed us, any further concealment were unnecessary."

"Take them to the guard house," the governor said, "and keep a
close watch over them. Later, I will interrogate them myself, in
the palace."

The feelings of the crowd, on hearing this unexpected colloquy,
were very mixed. In many, the admiration which the boys' conduct
had excited swallowed up all other feeling. But among the less
enthusiastic minds, a vague distrust and terror was at once excited
by the news that English sailors were among them. No Englishman had
ever been seen on that coast, and they had inflicted such terrible
losses, on the West Indian Islands and on the neighboring coast,
that it is no matter for surprise that their first appearance on
the western shores of South America was deemed an omen of terrible
import.

The news rapidly spread from mouth to mouth, and a large crowd
followed in the rear of the little party, and assembled around the
governor's house. The sailors who had been rescued had many friends
in the port, and these took up the cause of the boys, and shouted
that men who had done so gallant a deed should be pardoned,
whatever their offense Perhaps, on the whole, this party were in
the majority. But the sinister whisper that circulated among the
crowd, that they were spies who had been landed from English ships
on the coast, gradually cooled even the most enthusiastic of their
partisans; and what at one time appeared likely to become a
formidable popular movement, gradually calmed down, and the crowd
dispersed.

When brought before the governor, the boys affected no more
concealment; but the only point upon which they refused to give
information was respecting the ships on which they had sailed, and
the time at which they had been left upon the eastern coast of
America. Without absolutely affirming the fact, they led to the
belief that they had passed some years since they left their
vessels.

The governor presently gazed sharply upon them, and demanded:

"Are you the two whites who headed the negro revolt in Porto Rico,
and did so much damage to our possessio