mules had been unloaded, and the baggage was lying in disorder before the small inn at which we had taken up our quarters. Don Mateo, who knew the necessity of precaution from the serious loss he had so unaccountably sustained, was ordering our peons to dispose the things in a safer and more compact form, when the officer commanding the troops, coming up and over-hearing his remarks, which he considered directed against his men, immediately repelled the attack with the bitterest epithets, accompanied with the most threatening gestures. The noise of words continued; the officer had drawn his sword, when Don Mateo stepped up to him, and muttering two or three short sentences in his ear, in which I could distinguish the words "Su Majestad Britanica," the former became suddenly pacified, and, approaching me respectfully, said, he was far from intending any affront to myself or my companion; only he would never allow the character of his soldiers to be called in question, who,
