’Ask your brother if he’ll show me round the place if I come ashore for a toddle,’ I sang out. ’Certainly, sir; he’ll be only too pleased,’ my Sub answered. ’If he dyed his hair I might ask your brother to dine with me to-night,’ I told him, as we watched them slowly splashing ashore; ’I shouldn’t recognise him with his hair dyed—not officially.’ Botheration take it! I’d never said anything about that wretched hydraulic machinery I’d been bullied into bringing across. Still, you can’t talk to Provisional Governments about packing-cases, can you? However, my Sub relieved my mind on this point. ’I told Gerald that we had a lot of things for a firm here, sir,’ he informed me. ’He’s going to tell them.’ ’Good lad! Good boy!’ I said, and went below. The commander of the cruiser wasn’t showing any signs of calling on me, in fact he was beginning to raise steam, so I got ready for my toddle ashore. ’Yes, please; usual leave to officers,’ I told the Commander, who hammered at my door (he always was noisy, thought it made him breezy—it didn’t), and sent the Comfort with my compliments to Dr. Watson, my Fleet Surgeon, and would he come ashore with me for a walk. He was so lazy that he wouldn’t be able to walk far, and would therefore act as a check on my Sub’s brother if he wanted to rush me over the country. I had thought of taking my Sub himself, but he couldn’t come, had to get out that hydraulic machinery. The Comfort and five loafing sons of sea-cooks, whom the Commander had given me as my galley’s crew, pulled us ashore, and a miserable-looking place it was, a long sloping beach covered with rubbish and stinking seaweed, dead dogs here and there, and live ones, not much more healthy-looking, prowling about in search of food. We ran alongside a crumbling wooden jetty, and Wilson was waiting for us, dressed in white duck riding gear, smart brown gaiters, and with a smart white polo helmet on his head. His arm in the sling gave just the wounded-hero appearance to complete the picture. He had a carriage waiting for us, but before we got in he pointed out a very weather-beaten pillar of granite, about five feet high, standing on the shore. ’Pizarro landed there with thirteen men in 1522 or thereabouts to conquer this country—thirteen men, their armour, and ten horses. Just think of it!’