at closely with the pirates.
It was now garrisoned by a little Meztizo tailor, who had run away from
Sisal with his wife to avoid being taken for a soldier. The meekest
possible tenants of a fort, they paid no rent, and seemed perfectly
happy.

The next morning, when we opened our door, we saw a sloop lying at
anchor, which we soon understood was the balandra of Don Vicente
Albino. Don Vicente was already on shore, and, before we had time to
make many inquiries, he called upon us. We had heard of him before, but
never expected to see him in person, for our accounts were that he had
established a rancho on the island of Cozumel, and had been murdered by
his Indians. The first part of the story was true, but Don Vicente
himself assured us that the last was not, though he told us that he had
had a narrow escape, and showed us a machete cut in the arm as a token.

Don Vicente was the person of all others whom we wished to see, as he
was the only one who could give us any information about the island of
Cozumel. While he was with us another vessel came in sight, standing in
toward the shore; which, when still two leagues distant, lowered a
boat, and then stood off again. Don Vicente recognised her as a
Yucatecan brig of war. The commandant came ashore; we had already
invited Don Vicente to dine with us, and feeling it incumbent upon us
to entertain visiters of distinction, I invited the commandant to join
us. This was a rather bold attempt, as we had but one spare plate,
knife, and fork, but we had all been in worse straits and were
accommodating.

Amid the excitement in the port caused by the arrival of these
strangers, the inhabitants were not suffered to forget us. A large
sea-bird, prepared by Doctor Cabot with arsenic, and exposed to the sun
to dry, had been carried off and eaten by a hog, and the report got
abroad that a hog sold that day had died from eating the bird. This
created somewhat of a panic, and at night all who had partaken of the
suspicious meat were known throughout the port. A scientific
exposition, that even if the hog had died from eating the bird, it did
not follow that those would die who had eaten of the hog, was by no
means satisfactory.

The next day we completed laying in our stock of provisions, to wit,
chocolate, sweetened bread, beef and pork in strings, two turtles,
three bushels of corn, and implements for making tortillas. We had one
other important arrangement to make, which was the d