n our day.

It was here where the last stand of the Royalists was made in New
Spain--where the bloodiest foot-prints were left since the days of the
Incas and Pizarro--and it was in this same castle, where the brave
Rodil, with a handful of devoted followers, clung to the soil of their
royal master with a tenacity and determination amounting to
heroism--where horse meat sold for a gold ounce the pound, and a chicken
for its weight in the same precious metal: when, hemmed in on all sides,
by sea and land--surrounded but not dismayed--they still kept their
assailants at bay, until gaunt famine stalked before them, and they were
forced to furl the well-worn colors of their King![7] A score of Rodils,
and another century might have intervened before South American patriots
could have wrested the continent from the old Spaniards.

If tired of contemplating these bloody reminiscences--or bathing under
the sheds and awnings, where all resemble, in their saturated black
frocks and trowsers, watery nuns; or if your temper is destroyed by the
fleas, you can fly to the harbor, where are sturdy merchantmen reeking
in guano, smoking steamers, and heavy ships of war--and thick fogs at
night--or, what is more diverting, you may watch the motions of swarms
of gulls that frequent the Port. Our good surgeon, who professed to be
an ornithologist, called them platoon birds. They fly in regular
battalions and divisions, in strict military apportionments--led and
apparently commanded by their chieftains. The reviews generally began
with fishing. At some understood, feathery signal, while sailing over
the bay, they wheel like a flash, and strike the water simultaneously
like a shower of bullets, and not with the eyes of Argus is it possible
to detect the smallest irregularity in movement, nor a stray winged
soldier out of the ranks.

However, all these amusements are, at best, dull recreation, and it is
a great relief to get quit of Callao. Omnibii encumber the uttermost
ends of the earth--so we go to the office, when the smiling
administrador behind a railing exclaims, "_Ah! Capitan!_ you want
_ascientos_! Ah! you give me one Spanish dollar--ah! _bueno!_" "Any
thieves?" we timidly ask. "_Ah, si_, yes; but you give him gold
ounce--no kill you, ah!" "Charming fellows, certainly; but suppose we
give him an ounce of some other metal!" _Ah! cuidado amigo!_--have a
care, my friend!

With five horses ahead, crack! crack! goes the thong of the n