ised by any
persons who knew me. The letters I carried were couched in such
language, that had they fallen into the hands of the Spaniards I should
still have been safe. They spoke of me as a young Englishman of fortune
who had come over to see the beauties of the country, and who proposed
to spend a short time at Bogota on his way down the Magdalena to
Cartagena, from whence he expected to embark for England. They
requested that the friends to whom they were addressed would render him
every assistance in carrying out the objects of his journey, especially
in obtaining any information he might desire. They were mostly
addressed to well-known Royalists, still better to conceal my real
object.

I cannot stay to describe the numerous incidents of the journey. The
first night we stopped at the house of the padre of a village. I found
him to be a man of liberal sentiments, from what he said to Mr Laffan;
though, keeping up my character, I did not venture to speak. At first I
felt surprised at this; but I afterwards discovered that he possessed a
Bible, which he constantly studied.

"You Englishmen appreciate the book," he observed to my tutor; "but I
have, on several occasions, been compelled to hide it, lest I should be
accused of being an enemy to Spain."

Continuing our journey, we travelled along the base of the Cordilleras,
which towered to the skies on our right. The scenery was most
magnificent. From a height we had reached we cast our eyes over the
beautiful valley, with one or two large villages near us, and the pretty
town of Calli in the distance. We made our way towards it, though it
was somewhat out of our direct course. The inhabitants were generally
supporters of the Liberal cause, and had suffered greatly from the
Spaniards. As we got close to the bridge we stopped to inquire which
was the principal inn in the place. Crossing the bridge, we rode
through the streets of the neat little town in search of a posada, at
which we agreed that it would be more prudent to stop than with a
resident, as I might thus be able to gain much more information from the
conversation of the visitors than I could at the house of a private
person. Everywhere the town exhibited traces of the visit of an enemy.
Many of the houses were deserted, others had been burned to the ground.
Several were in ruins, and the walls, in many places, were bespattered
with bullet-marks.

Domingo took our horses round to the shed wh