was driving the best part of his trade by underhand dealing with the Indians, conducted, no doubt, at great and constant risk of detection and death; all this inspired me with no small respect for the abilities and the nerve of the owner of the piragua. Then I thought with what cool generalship he had conducted the retreat, not losing a moment by delay, yet taking his measures with as great composure and deliberation as if he were departing upon a pleasure cruise. Afterwards, I began to wonder that I had not observed him, when leaving the hut, take with him the amount of pearls which I felt sure that he must have amassed; but a few minutes’ reflection convinced me, from the perfect unconcern with which he had walked out of the hut, not caring to pick up any one article of those strewn about, that all the valuables which he possessed on shore, he carried constantly concealed about his person. Indeed, in the matter of such costly toys as pearls, or precious stones, a man’s own garments formed by far the safest depository to be found in the ranchiera. While brooding over these things, the night passed silently away. With the grey dawn, Peralta relieved me, and we crept in our turn under the half-deck, and slept until the sun rose high into the unclouded heaven, and the piragua was staggering along under reefed canvas, bending over to the whistling trade-wind, and leaping from sea to sea, like a hunted stag. During the day, little of note occurred. Peralta avoided taking me further into his confidence, and I had tact enough to see that I ought to refrain from seeming to intrude upon his mystery. As I watched him, however, I often saw him bite his thin lips, and wrinkle his forehead, and clench his hand, as if distressing thoughts haunted him; and at last he broke out, addressing nobody in particular, but speaking moodily to himself— ‘Those poor fellows!’ he cried, ‘those poor fellows Juan and Blanco—I would give every pearl the venture hath brought that they were safe and sound in this piragua. The Spaniards will hang them; nay, indeed, it may have been already done, and their bodies are swinging in this same sea-breeze!’ Here Jenipa interposed very respectfully, and said that no effort we could have possibly made would have sufficed to rescue the Indians, and that we had nothing to reproach ourselves with on that score. ‘No, no,’ said Peralta. ‘We could not have got them out of trouble; but we have been the cause that they fell into it.’ He pondered for a minute. Then putting his hand into his bosom, he drew it forth, the hollow of the palm filled with small pearls, all glistening in the sun, like beads of frozen milk. Then he poured the precious morsels from one hand to the other, the pearls pattering and rattling like chips of shivered glass and pebbles, and began again to speak, like a man who talks in his sleep.