The astounding intelligence we had received, made a deep impression
upon us. We got little sleep that night. We talked over the
past the present, and the future. We were not diffident in expressing
our opinion of Mr. Bedrick, who had thus inveigled us into a scheme
which had fraud for its basis. We one and all felt very positive that
`we had souls above soda-shops!' We were convinced thar nature
never intended us to sell foaming glasses sweetened with lemon syrup
to Spaniards or any body else, either at fourpence or twenty-five cents
a glass. In a word, we were justly indignant at the deception which
had been practiced upon us. We regretted our precipitancy in engaging
with a stranger, but every thing had seemed outwardly fair and
honorable. How to extricate ourselves from the trap in which our
ambition to see foreign countries we had suffered ourselves to be
taken, was now the great theme of consultation. Every night, when
we were alone, we would talk over the whole matter, and devise ways
and means for getting over the difficulty. In the presence of Mr.
Bedrick we were respectful, more so than we had ever been, for we
wished to prevent any suspicion of our knowledge of the true character
of his mercantile establishment.

We at length resolved, after many secret conclaves, that we would
keep quiet until we reached Buenos Ayres, and then wait upon him in
a body, represent to him our wrongs, and make a public declaration of
our independence of him, his sons, and his abominable soda-shops. I
had in my trunk a letter of introduction from my father to Colonel
Forbes, the American charge d' affaires at Buenos Ayres, and on the
strength of this we made up our minds to wait upon Mr. Forbes and
day before him our grievances in full, declare our abjuration of Mr.
Bedrick's authority, and place ourselves at his disposal and advice as
to our future movements.

When we had settled upon this plan, our minds became easier, and
we let the day pass silently, cherishing in our hearts our resolve.—
Having this power of redress, we were enabled to appear quite cheerful,
and indeed we all were in high spirits. Whenever we came across
one of the soda-fountains in the steerage, we never failed to give it an
emphatic kick expressive of our supreme contempt.

In this way the days went by, the old man unsuspicious of our
knowledge of the truth, and believing that he was leading us like

[figure description] Page 053.[end figure description]

lambs to the slaughter. But with anticipated redress in our hands, we
laughed at him. We felt a profound satisfaction in punishing him by
depriving him of the `clerks' he had taken such pains to lure away
from their native country. We anticipated with delight his dismay,
his fury, his grief!

There was a question of conscience started by Hewitt whether it
would be right and just for us to take our passage out from him now
that we had decided not to remain with him. But after discussion, it
was decided in the affirmative. Our argument was, that he had conveyed
us to South America under a fraudulent engagement, and that
he should be the loser by our passage; that if we ever returned to the
United States, it must be at an expense to us equal to our passage out;
and that, therefore, we were under no obligations to make any remuneration
to Mr. Bedriek for his expenses.

The Captain continued to warn us, from time to time, to keep our
secret, and continued a good friend to us.

We at length, as I have already mentioned, entered the river La
Plata, and began to ascend it. The morning after we passed by Cape
St. Mary's, I awoke early, anxious to behold by daylight, the land of a
foreign shore. It was just sun-rise when I reached the deck. To the
south stretched a wide waste of water like the ocean, for the opposite
shore was invisible on account of the river's vast breadth, although
we were fifty miles up it. On our right lay the northern bank of the
La Plata, about two and a half miles distant. It presented to the eye
a low range of prairie or level pampa, broken here and there into
ridges and bare hillocks. As far as the view extended this was the
feature of the scenery of the shore, save that occasionally was visible
a clump of stunted trees, which the Captain told us were peach trees.
Not a living object was to be discovered; not a sign of habitation.—
Nevertheless I gazed on the land with longing eyes, wishing that the
wind would die away so that we might take the boat and pull to the
shore. To place our feet once more upon the firm ground we all felt
would be a luxury.

As we slowly ascended the brown-colored river, the shores began to
present a less arid aspect; and about ten o'clock we discovered a human
habitation, and near it a drove of cattle. One or two human
beings were also seen riding among the cattle. Towards noon we
passed several wretched houses with flat roofs and surrounded by picket
enclosures which contained cattle; but no signs of a farm or of cultivation
were apparent.

`Those people.' said the Captain, are half Indians, half Portuguese,
who live by hunting cattle, and selling hides at Maldonado. We shall
come to this place in two or three hours. It is a small town, defended
by an old fortress, and belongs to the Republic of Buenos Ayres, as
does all this country you see, which is called the Banda Oriental, and
is the southern extremity of Brazil. The Emperor has it in his hands
now as well as Monte Video, sixty miles above Maldonado. There is
likely to be some difficulty about it, though, and I shouldn't be surprised
if the two governments should come to blows. When I was
last here they were menacing each other!'

[figure description] Page 054.[end figure description]

`What is the cause of the hostility?' asked Hewitt; for we were
all profoundly ignorant of South American politics.

`Why, you see, when Buenos Ayres, a few years ago, declared herself
independent of Old Spain, and went to war with her, she possessed
both sides of the river,—Banda Oriental on the north, and
Paraguay on the south side, in which the city of Buenos Ayres is situated.
But not being able to defend the Banda Oriental against
Spain, she entered into a treaty with Don Pedro, the Emperor of
Brazil, with whom the Republic was on friendly terms, to keep the
district and city of Monte Video against Spain until the war was
ended. What the Republic was to pay the Emperor for this service,
I never learned. At alll events, he consented to oblige them; and as
the first step, sent round from Rio Janeiro a fleet of twenty vessels of
war, conveying twelve thousand troops to Monte Video, the capital of
the Banda Oriental. If you will look at the map, you will see that
Monte Video forms a natural southern out-post to Brazil, and a very
convenient port for the empire. Don Pedro had doubtless learned
this lesson in geography before the Republic proposed to him to keep
the city from falling into the hands of Old Spain. Well, the Buenos
Ayrean patriots secured the independence of their country after a long
contest, at which Don Pedro quietly looked on. After the Buenos
Ayreans had made peace with Spain, they called upon Don Pedro and
very civilly thanking him for the good care he had taken of Monte
Video, desired him to send back his troops to Rio, and surrender to
them the charge of the city. Upon this the wily Portuguese thrust
his tongue into his cheek, and very cavalierly told them `to come and
take it!'

`Is it possible such treachery can exist!' exclaimed Hewitt, his
cheeks flushed with resentment. `Don Pedro is no better than a
blackguard!'

`Doubtless the Republic thought so when they got his answer, and
saw how thoroughly they had been taken in!'

`Quite as grossly as we have been,' repeated Hewitt with earnestness.

`Not a word of that, young gentlemen,' said the Captain. `Wait
till you get ashore, and then you may say and do what you like! But
it was pretty much like your case. The Buenos Ayreans having just
closed a protracted war, were in no condition to commence another,
and so they quietly bore this injustice, but at the same time began to
make warlike preparations. This was the state of things when I last
was out here!' continued the Captain; `and I dare say by this time
they are pretty nearly ready to blaze away at each other. I have no
doubt but before you are six months in the country, you'll see some
fighting!'

The idea of witnessing a battle was quite exciting to us, who had
hitherto only read of such a thing. The reflections that when we
reached Buenos Ayres we should find the country at war gave us all
fine spirits; for there is nothing that has such a charm to a young and
ardent mind as war! We thanked the Captain for initiating us into
the politics of the country, and then began to talk about entering into

[figure description] Page 055.[end figure description]

the patriot service if we found the country in arms. This billigerent
notion did not very readily take with Hewitt, who was of a pacific turn
of mind, but the rest of us entered into the discussion of the affair
with great animation.

The shores now presented a most interesting appearance, being
varied with clumps of trees, enclosures, and a few cottages with low,
flat roofs. At length we came in sight of the port and houses of Maldonado,
and about five in the afternoon came abreast of the place. It
was a small hamlet, without much beauty of situation, but still it was
novel to us, as the first Spanish town we had ever seen. A few fishing
boats were anchored off the old fort, and one of them rigged with a
small lateen sail, run along side of us, and offered to sell us fish. We
all ran to the gangway to gaze upon the man and his boat. He was
tall and slender, with a face as dark as an Indian's, black glittering
eyes, and teeth like ivory. Upon his head he wore a sugar-loaf shaped
woollen cap of a scarlet color, and a striped shirt was bound about his
waist by a leathern belt, at the same time kept up a pair of cotton trowsers
fringed at the bottom. He addressed us in Spanish.

`Here now, young gentlemen,' said Captain Pright laughing, `here
now is a good chance for you to try your Spanish on him.' We were,
however, something diffident of our powers; but Hewitt ventured a
Spanish phrase, which he read to him off his grammer with a pronunciation
that was never approached. The phrase was, I believe, `What
o'clock is it?' which, put to a man who probably had never seen a
watch, was laughable enough.

`No entiendo,' answered the man, smiling and showing his teeth.

`He must be a Portugee Indian,' said Hewitt, in defence of his
prouunciation; it is plain he don't understand the pure Castillian.'

`Let Mr. Bedrick try him,' said Fairfax. `He is a Spanish
scholar?'

At this, Edwin, of the spectacles, looked a little red, and after some
hesitation asked the man how he sold his fish.

The man did not understand him, and Bedrick declared that the
fellow did not know a word of Spanish, as he had asked him in good
grammatical Spanish. We, however, questioned whether he himself
did not know less; for our progress in the language had showed us that
he had but a mere smattering of the tongue he professed to understand,
as he said, like his mother-dialect. As it did not require any Spanish
or English to take fish and pay money for them, we made a purchase
of a few, and also bought some vegetables from a boat that came off
to us. Emboldened by the failure of Bedrick, our teacher, we all
four went desperately the Spanish at the latter boatman, whom we
succeeded in making comprehend our horrible `Castillian,' by means
of a few English words judiciously thrown in, and some aid from expressive
signs. It is true, we did not understand more than a word in
six of his replies, but as he seemed to understand all that we said, and
a great deal more, we were perfectly satisfied. We made abominable
work in the attempt to ask him intelligibly what the news was, and
whether Don Pedro and the Patriots were likely to go to war. But
the poor man, although he guessed we must mean something, and tried

[figure description] Page 056.[end figure description]

very hard to comprehend what it was, did not convey to our minds any
clear idea that he understood what we wanted to learn of him. So we
parted from him as wise as we met him, and proceeded on our way.—
At sundown we were within fifty miles of Monte Video, which the
Captain said we should reach by morning if the wind held. With this
prospect, therefore, of soon seeing a large walled city, full of troops,
and the harbor with vessels of war, we retired for the night, determined
to be up early to enjoy the sight; for it was not our intention
to stop there; but the Captain had promised to sail by elose to it that
we might have a good view of it.