ing an Indian lad, and
from the other had just been taken a dead man, whose new grave we had
seen at the campo santo.

The major domo was a short, stupid, well-meaning old man, who
apologized for the confusion on account of the death and burial that
had just taken place. He was expecting us, had his master's orders to
treat us with all due consideration, and we directed the rancho to be
swept out. As night approached, we began to feel that our discomforts
might be increased, for our carriers did not make their appearance. We
had no apprehensions of robbery. Bernaldo was with them, and, knowing
his propensities, we supposed that he had stopped at some rancho,
where, in waiting to have some tortillas made, he had got belated, and
was unable to find the road; but, whatever the cause, we missed the
comforts of our travelling equipage. We were without candles, too, and
sat in the miserable rancho in utter darkness, listening for the sound
of the approaching carriers, until Albino procured a broken vessel of
castor oil with a wick in it, which, by faintly illuminating one
corner, disclosed more clearly the dreariness and discomfort of the
scene.

But worse than all was the prospect of sleeping in the flea-infested
hammocks, from one of which the body of a dead man had just been taken.
We got the major domo to remove them and hire others, which, perhaps,
were in reality not much better. Albino and Dimas had to lie down on
the earthen floor, but they could not remain long. Dimas mounted
lengthwise upon a log, and Albino doubled himself up in a bano, or
bathing-tub, which kept him from the bare ground, but not above the
jump of a flea. Fortunately, we suffered excessively from cold, which
prevented us from being thrown into a fever, but it was one of the
worst nights we had passed in the country.

Early in the morning Bernaldo made his appearance, he and the carriers
having had a harder time than our own. They had been lost, and had
wandered till ten o'clock, when they came to a rancho, where they
learned their mistake, but were too much tired to carry their loads any
farther, and, with an Indian from the rancho to guide them, had set out
two hours before daylight.

The rancho of Macoba had been established but four years. It was
situated in the midst of an immense forest; as yet it had been used
only for the cultivation of maize, but the cura intended the ensuing
year to commence a plantation of sugar. His inducement to es