shing drinks they had.

My thirst began to be abnormal. We bought a dozen cocoanuts, and I drank
the milk from them, and made up my mind to go ashore at the next port;
for after nine days with only thick black coffee and bad warm water to
drink, I was longing for a cup of good tea or a glass of fresh, sweet
milk.

A day or so more brought us to Guaymas, another Mexican port. Mrs.
Wilkins said she had heard something about an old Spaniard there,
who used to cook meals for stray travellers. This was enough. I was
desperately hungry and thirsty, and we decided to try and find him. Mrs.
Wilkins spoke a little Spanish, and by dint of inquiries we found the
man's house, a little old, forlorn, deserted-looking adobe casa.

We rapped vigorously upon the old door, and after some minutes a small,
withered old man appeared.

Mrs. Wilkins told him what we wanted, but this ancient Delmonico
declined to serve us, and said, in Spanish, the country was "a desert";
he had "nothing in the house"; he had "not cooked a meal in years"; he
could not; and, finally, he would not; and he gently pushed the door to
in our faces. But we did not give it up, and Mrs. Wilkins continued to
persuade. I mustered what Spanish I knew, and told him I would pay him
any price for a cup of coffee with fresh milk. He finally yielded, and
told us to return in one hour.

So we walked around the little deserted town. I could think only of the
breakfast we were to have in the old man's casa. And it met and exceeded
our wildest anticipations, for, just fancy! We were served with a
delicious boullion, then chicken, perfectly cooked, accompanied by some
dish flavored with chile verde, creamy biscuit, fresh butter, and golden
coffee with milk. There were three or four women and several officers in
the party, and we had a merry breakfast. We paid the old man generously,
thanked him warmly, and returned to the ship, fortified to endure the
sight of all the green ducks that came out of the lower hold.

You must remember that the "Newbern" was a small and old propeller,
not fitted up for passengers, and in those days the great refrigerating
plants were unheard of. The women who go to the Philippines on our great
transports of to-day cannot realize and will scarcely believe what we
endured for lack of ice and of good food on that never-to-be-forgotten
voyage down the Pacific coast and up the Gulf of California in the
summer of 1874.

CHAPTER V. THE SLUE

At