"Go and inform the master that I bring a traveller with me," cried my guide, "and be sure not to forget to tell Black Elk that he is a Frenchman." "How do you know that?" I asked, a little annoyed, for I piqued myself upon speaking Spanish with great purity. "_Pardi!_" he said laughing, "we are almost compatriots." "How so?" "_Dame!_ I am a Canadian, you understand, and I soon recognised the accent." During the exchange of these few words, we had arrived at the door of the hacienda, where several persons waited to receive us. It appeared that the announcement of my quality of Frenchman, made by my companion, had produced a certain sensation. Ten or twelve domestics held torches, by favour of which I could distinguish six or eight persons at least, men and women, coming forward to welcome us. The master of the hacienda, whom I recognized as such at once, advanced towards me with a lady hanging on his arm, who must have been a great beauty, and might yet pass for handsome, although she was near forty years of age. Her husband was a man of about fifty, of lofty stature, and endowed with a marked, manly countenance; around them clung, with staring eyes, five or six charming children, who resembled them too strongly not to belong to them. A little behind them, half concealed, in the shade, was a lady of about seventy and an old gentleman apparently not far from a hundred. I took in at a glance the whole of this family, the aspect of which had something patriarchal in it that attracted sympathy and respect. "Sir," said the hacendero kindly, seizing the bridle of my horse to assist me to dismount, "Esa casa se dé a vm (This house is yours); I can only thank my friend Belhumeur for having succeeded in bringing you to my house." "I must admit, señor," I said with a smile, "that he had not much trouble in doing so, and that I accept with gratitude the offer he was so kind as to make me." "If you will permit it, señor, as it is getting late," the hacendero replied, "and particularly as you stand in need of repose, we will go at once into the eating room; we were on the point of sitting down to table when your arrival was announced." "Señor, I thank you a thousand times," I remarked with a bow; "your kind welcome has made me forget all my fatigue." "We can easily recognise French politeness," said the lady, with a pleasing smile. I offered my arm to the lady of the house, and we proceeded to the eating-room, where, upon an immense table, was served an Homeric repast, the appetizing odour of which reminded me that I had fasted for nearly twelve hours. We took our seats. Forty persons, at least, were assembled round the table. In this hacienda was kept up the patriarchal custom which is now falling into desuetude, of allowing the servants to eat with the masters of the house. All that I saw, all that I heard, charmed me in this abode; it had a perfume of kindness about it which made the heart beat responsively.