as if he had been dropt in the center of Aabia petræa. As Nicolas's journey was not a tour of curioſity, he did not amuſe himſelf with a peep Toledo, or Talavera, or even Merida by the way; for the ſame reaſon he took a circumbendibus found the frontier town of Badajoz, are croſſing little brook refreſhed his mule with the laſt draught of Spaniſh water, and inſtantly congratuated himſelf upon entering the territory of Portual. “Brava!" quoth he, parting the neck of his mule, “thou ſhalt have a ſupper this night of the beſt ſieve meat Eſtremadura can furniſh: We are now in a country where the ſcattered flock of Iſrael ſold thick and fare weil.” He now began to chaunt the ſong of Solomon, and gently ambled on in the joy of his heart.
When Nicolas at length reached the city of Liſon, he hugged himſelf in his good fortune; ſtill he recollected that the inquiſition has long arms, and he was yet in a place of no perfect ſecurity. Our adventurer had in early life acted as aſſiſtant surgeon in a Spaniſh frigate bound to Buenos Ayoes, and being captured by a Britiſh man of war and carried into Jamaica, had very quietly paſſed some years in that place as journeyman apothecary, in which time he had acquired a tolerable acquaintance with the Engliſh language: no ſooner then did he diſcover the Britiſh enlign flying on the poop of an Engliſh frigate then lying in the Tagus than be eagerly caught the opportunity of paying a vit to the ſurgeon, and finding he was in want of mate, offered himſelf, and was entered in that capacity for a cruize againſt the French and Spanards, with whom Great Britain was then at war. this ſecure aſylum Nicolas enjoyed the firſt happy moments he had experienced for a long time paſt, and being a lively good-humoured little fellow,
