p his mind, I dare say, to
bring more horses and drag his bigger prize away, anyhow, and was
starting off for the settlement a mile or so away for the
reinforcement when I discovered myself to him, at which he seemed
displeased and disappointed. "Buenos dias, muchacho," I said. He
grunted a reply, and eyed me keenly from head to foot. Then bursting
into a volley of questions,--more than six Yankees could ask,--he
wanted to know, first, where my ship was from, and how many days she
had been coming. Then he asked what I was doing here ashore so early
in the morning. "Your questions are easily answered," I replied; "my
ship is from the moon, it has taken her a month to come, and she is
here for a cargo of boys." But the intimation of this enterprise, had
I not been on the alert, might have cost me dearly; for while I spoke
this child of the campo coiled his lariat ready to throw, and instead
of being himself carried to the moon, he was apparently thinking of
towing me home by the neck, astern of his wild cayuse, over the fields
of Uruguay.

The exact spot where I was stranded was at the Castillo Chicos, about
seven miles south of the dividing-line of Uruguay and Brazil, and of
course the natives there speak Spanish. To reconcile my early visitor,
I told him that I had on my ship biscuits, and that I wished to trade
them for butter and milk. On hearing this a broad grin lighted up his
face, and showed that he was greatly interested, and that even in
Uruguay a ship's biscuit will cheer the heart of a boy and make him
your bosom friend. The lad almost flew home, and returned quickly with
butter, milk, and eggs. I was, after all, in a land of plenty. With
the boy came others, old and young, from neighboring ranches, among
them a German settler, who was of great assistance to me in many ways.

[Illustration: A double surprise.]

A coast-guard from Fort Teresa, a few miles away, also came, "to
protect your property from the natives of the plains," he said. I took
occasion to tell him, however, that if he would look after the people
of his own village, I would take care of those from the plains,
pointing, as I spoke, to the nondescript "merchant" who had already
stolen my revolver and several small articles from my cabin, which by
a bold front I had recovered. The chap was not a native Uruguayan.
Here, as in many other places that I visited, the natives themselves
were not the ones discreditable to the country.

Early in the