instantly receive a severe rap on my moral knuckles from my
conscience, which tells me that hs I chose to place myself
under the protection of the French flag above Njole, and a
great protection it undoubtedly was, I must, in my turn, protect
it from insult when it flies on the Lafayette in foreign
waters. Moreover, the blood of the Vikings that is in me gets
up on its own account at such treatment, and I make up my
mind to suitably correct those children forthwith, particularly
a male albino about fourteen years old,-who is clad in the
remains of an antique salt sack, which he wears unaltered, inverted
over him. Unfortunately, holes have been roughly cut
in the bottom and sides of it to let out his unnecessary head
and arms; but at this identical moment I catch sight of a
sweet-looking nun doing needle-work as she sits on the rocks.
I go up to her and pass compliments, but do not complain to
her about her flock, because she must be perfectly aware how
they are going on, and secondly I am sure she is too meek to
deal with them, even if she disapproves. Moreover, my knowledge
of Spanish consists almost entirely of expressions of
thanks and greetings— expressions which you are most in
need of when dealing with Spaniards, as a general rule. So,
finding she knows no English, I bow myself off and go my
way round the rocky point that forms the end of another
shallow bay, looking ostentatiously tired and feeble. Round
that rocky point after me come the yelling pack led by the
albino, and there things happen to those children that cause
them to prefer the nun’s company to mine. I make my way
on, and to my dismay find the sea flying and churning up
in a roaring rock cauldron at the extremity of the next point,
so that I cannot get past. There is no path up inland
that I can reach without passing the place where I have left
the nun sitting. I feel naturally shy about doing this because
of the male albino having gone off leaving his sack with me,
and I do not know the Spanish idiom for “ Please, ma’am, it
came off in my hand though doubtless this idiom exists, for
there are parlour-maids and wine-glasses in Spain, and I am
sure they employ this phrase every time when, in washing a
wine-glass, they have gripped one end like a vice and wrung the
other off. And not the albino alone has got out of repair this
side of the rock, for neither that promising young lady who
spat in my face, nor the one who threw sand in my eyes are
what they were this morning. ' There.is nothing for it then
but the dwarf cliff ; so I climb it and get into the bush and
try and strike a path. I get into a plantain plantation,
which means 'there is a village close at' hand, and on the
further side I come into a three-hut one, and find a
most amiable old lady sunning herself in the centre of
{t. Unfortunately she does not know any English, but I shed
■a box of lucifer matches on her, wishing to show that I
mean well, and knowing that one of the great: charms of a
white man to a black is this habit of shedding things. It is
their custom to hang round one in their native wilds in the
hope something will be shed, either intentionally or unintentionally.
Not, I fancy, for the bald sake of the article itself,
but from a sort of sporting interest in what the next thing
shed will be. I know it is my chief charm to them, and
they hang round wondering whether it will be matches,
leaf tobacco, pocket-handkerchiefs, or fish-hooks ; and when
the phenomena flag they bring me various articles for sale
to try to get me into working order again. My present
old lady is glad of her matches and they brighten up her
intelligence, and she begins to understand I want something.
After experimenting on me with a bunch of plantains and
a paw-paw unsuccessfully, she goes and fetches a buxom young
woman who soon comprehends I want Mrs. Ibea s house, and
instantly she and the old lady escort me down a grass path
and through some galleries of specimens of physical geography.
We are soon joined by two pretty young girls, and wind our
way back to the shore again on the further side of the point
that had driven me inland. The elders then ' take themselves
off after a mutual interchange of compliments and thanks ;
the young women come on with me. Mighty pretty pictures
they make with their soft dusky skins, lithe, rounded figures,
pretty brown eyes, and surf-white teeth showing between their
laughing lips as they dance before me ; and I cannot help
thinking what a comfort they would be to a shipwrecked
mariner and how he would enjoy it all.
On we go, climbing round every rocky point until we