d up like tired dogs on the
benches, adjusted their chains so as to relieve themselves of as much
weight as possible, and fell asleep.

Chapter XLVII.

HERNANDO SPEAKS.

The governor's progress lasted about five weeks. The galley sometimes
lay at anchor for several days, and on these occasions the slaves went
ashore for a time in chained gangs for the sake of the fresh air and
the walking exercise; but they spent the greater part of the day
chained to the benches, and always slept on them at night. At one
place there had been some insubordination amongst the garrison, so the
governor paraded the whole of his gaunt, dishevelled, whip-scarred crew
through the town, in order to impress the disloyal ones with the power
and terror of the law.

During these weeks, and especially during the times of leisure in
harbour, the two Englishmen got better acquainted with their companion.
At first the Spaniard was moody and inclined to be spiteful: he could
not forget that his neighbours were English; but Johnnie's repeated
acts of courtesy and kindness, and his cheeriness at times when the
three sailors from the _Golden Boar_ got dangerously despondent, broke
down the barrier of race and creed and speech. Hernando began to talk
of himself. He had been a gentleman adventurer aboard a Spanish ship;
was hot-tempered and impatient of official control. On several
occasions whilst in harbour at Panama he had come into wordy conflict
with the authorities. A sailor aboard his vessel, who had acted as his
servant, abused his trust, and had been soundly thrashed in
consequence, had gone to the governor with a plausible story concerning
a conspiracy which he declared his master was hatching. Hernando was
in bad odour with the authorities at the time; had been certainly
guilty of rash and foolish speeches; so the story was believed, and he
was sent to the galleys. The treacherous servant was rewarded with the
post of boatswain, and he used his authority over his old master with
the most offensive vindictiveness.

The Europeans talked with one another fairly freely. Morgan and
Jeffreys were looked up to by the English section. The two stranger
sailors had both been captured in Spanish waters some years before,
and, after a period in the jail of Cadiz, sent out to the Indies; they
had been galley slaves at Panama for about two years.

One afternoon whilst lolling on his bench, no boatswain or free sailor
within hearing, Her