n notoriously pirates; one had been several
years in prison and under sentence of death, and a canoa was pointed
out, lying in front of our door, which had been often used in pirate
service.

Our house had been the headquarters of the bucaniers. It was the house
of Molas, to whose unhappy end I have before referred. He had been sent
by the government as commandant to put down these pirates, but, as it
was said, entered into collusion with them, received their plunder, and
conveyed it to the interior. At night they had revelled together in
this house. It was so far from the capital that tidings of his
misdoings were slow of transmission thither, and, when they were
received, he persuaded the government that these reports proceeded from
the malice of his enemies. At length, for his own security, he found it
necessary to proceed against the pirates; he knew all their haunts,
came upon them by stealth, and killed or drove away the whole band. Don
Juan, the captain, was brought in wounded, and placed at night in a
room partitioned off at the end of our sala. Molas feared that, if
carried up to Merida, Don Juan would betray him, and in the morning the
latter was found dead. It was more than whispered that he died by the
hand of Molas. It is proper to add, what we heard afterward, that these
stories were false, and that Molas was the victim of a malicious and
iniquitous persecution. I should add, too, that the character of this
place has improved. Broken up as a pirates' haunt it became the abode
of smugglers, whose business being now comparatively unprofitable, they
combine with it the embarking of sugar and other products of ranchos
along the coast.

We found one great deficiency at this place: there was no ramon for the
horses. At night we turned them loose in the village; but the barren
plain furnished them no grazing, and they returned to the house. Early
in the morning we despatched Dimas to a ramon tree two leagues distant,
that being the nearest point at which any could be procured; and in the
mean time I set about searching for a canoa, and succeeded in engaging
one, but not of the best class, and the patron and sailors could not be
ready in less than two or three days.

This over, we had nothing farther to do in Yalahao. I rambled for a
little while in the Castillo, a low fortress, with twelve embrazures,
built for the suppression of piracy, but the garrison of which, from
all accounts, connected themselves somewh