od on foreign soil, and very soon I was undeceived as to the
cleanliness, and comfort, and beauty of the habitations; and many a
house which looked so very picturesque at a distance was found, on a
nearer inspection, to be a very dirty domicile. Still the views from
them were beautiful. Nature has done everything; it is graceless man
who is in fault that all is not in accordance with it. At the corner of
one of the streets we saw a number of horses, and mules, and donkeys,
standing together with their attendant drivers--_arrieros_.

"Wouldn't you like a ride, Mr Brand?" exclaimed Gerard, looking towards
them. He had not to look twice before the whole _posse commitatus_ of
men and boys rushed forward, and seizing us _vi et armis_, carried us
off in triumph towards their sorry-looking beasts. Which party would
have us seemed a question. Who ever heard of sailors who didn't want to
ride? Ride we must; but as there were thirty or more beasts, and only
three of us, it was difficult to say which of them should have the
honour of carrying us. The _arrieros_ got one of Cousin Silas's legs
put on the back of a horse, and another on that of a mule, while a
little wicked donkey began kicking and plunging directly under him. At
last he sprang on to the back of the horse, and Gerard and I found
ourselves somehow or other on the saddles of two mules, when their
respective owners, catching hold of their long tails, and giving them a
prong with their iron-pointed sticks, away we started from out of the
crowd, who all hallooed and shouted after us, till we had shot some way
up one of the steep rocky heights over which the bridle-paths of the
island lead. "Arra burra--arra, arra, arra!" sung out the crowd.
"Arra, arra, arra!" repeated our _arrieros_, goading the unfortunate
animals with their sticks--"Arra, sish, sish!" It is hopeless to
imitate the sounds emitted by our drivers. Up we shot like pellets from
popguns, through the narrow rock-strewn gorges which are called roads.
Up, up, up the animals scrambled. They seemed to enjoy the fun, or,
perhaps, wiser than men, they felt a pleasure in performing their daily
duty. We, too, enjoyed the magnificent views we got over vineyards, and
fields, and orange-groves, and olive-plantations, with often deep
precipices below us, and the blue sparkling sea in the distance. We
passed several buildings, once convents and nunneries; but when the
constitutional government was establishe