nce, as you say, it would
soon be wrested from the hands of a poor slave. Now that I am to be
free, the circumstances are changed; and I want gold, by which I may
revive the glories of my ancestors."

Clara could not help casting a look of astonishment at his companion.
The air of savage grandeur, visible in the countenance of the
tiger-hunter--vassal of the hacienda Las Palmas--surprised him, as did
also the pretentious manner in which he spoke about reviving the ancient
splendours of his race.

The look and its meaning did not escape the observation of the Indian.

"Friend Clara!" said he, in a confidential tone, "listen to me, while I
reveal to you a secret which I have kept for many long years--long
enough for me to have seen fifty dry seasons, and fifty seasons of rain;
and this fact can be confirmed to you by all of my colour and race."

"You have seen fifty seasons of rain?" cried the negro, in a tone of
astonishment, at the same time regarding his companion attentively, who
in truth did not appear to be over thirty years of age. "Fifty seasons
of rain?"

"Well, not quite fifty," replied Costal, with a smile, "but very near
it."

"Ah! I shall see fifty more," continued he. "Omens have told me that I
shall live as long as the ravens."

The negro remained silent, still held in surprise by the wild
declarations which his companion was volunteering to make to him.

"Listen, friend Clara!" continued the tiger-hunter, extending his arm in
a circle, and designating the four points of the compass; "in all the
space that a horseman could traverse between sunrise and sunset--from
north to south, from east to west--there is not a spot of ground that
was not once possessed by my ancestors--the ancient lords of Zapoteca.
Before the vessels of the white men touched upon our coasts, they were
sovereign masters of all this land--from ocean to ocean. The sea alone
was their boundary. Thousands of warriors followed their banners, and
crowded around their plume-bedecked standards of war. In the ocean the
pearl-banks, and on the land the _placers_ of gold belonged to them.
The yellow metal glanced upon their dresses and armour, or ornamented
the very sandals upon their feet. They possessed it in such abundance,
they scarce knew what to do with it.

"Where now are the once powerful Caciques of Tehuantepec? Most of their
subjects have been slaughtered by the thunder of the white men, or
buried in the dark mines--wh