In The Evening I Was Visited By Mr. Phillipi, Who Informed Me That
He Had Ordered A Cabriolet To Call
For me at the inn at eleven at
night, for the purpose of conveying me to Bonanza, and that a
Person there who kept a small wine-house, and to whom the chests
and other things had been forwarded, would receive me for the
night, though it was probable that I should have to sleep on the
floor. We then walked to the beach, where there were a great
number of bathers, all men. Amongst them were some good swimmers;
two, in particular, were out at a great distance in the firth of
the Guadalquivir, I should say at least a mile; their heads could
just be descried with the telescope. I was told that they were
friars. I wondered at what period of their lives they had acquired
their dexterity at natation. I hoped it was not at a time when,
according to their vows, they should have lived for prayer,
fasting, and mortification alone. Swimming is a noble exercise,
but it certainly does not tend to mortify either the flesh or the
spirit. As it was becoming dusk, we returned to the town, when my
friend bade me a kind farewell. I then retired to my apartment,
and passed some hours in meditation.
It was night, ten o'clock; - eleven o'clock, and the cabriolet was
at the door. I got in, and we proceeded down the avenue and along
the shore, which was quite deserted. The waves sounded mournfully;
everything seemed to have changed since the morning. I even
thought that the horse's feet sounded differently, as it trotted
slowly over the moist firm sand. The driver, however, was by no
means mournful, nor inclined to be silent long: he soon commenced
asking me an infinity of questions as to whence I came and whither
I was bound. Having given him what answers I thought most proper,
I, in return, asked him whether he was not afraid to drive along
that beach, which had always borne so bad a character, at so
unseasonable an hour. Whereupon, he looked around him, and seeing
no person, he raised a shout of derision, and said that a fellow
with his whiskers feared not all the thieves that ever walked the
playa, and that no dozen men in San Lucar dare to waylay any
traveller whom they knew to be beneath his protection. He was a
good specimen of the Andalusian braggart. We soon saw a light or
two shining dimly before us; they proceeded from a few barks and
small vessels stranded on the sand close below Bonanza: amongst
them I distinguished two or three dusky figures. We were now at
our journey's end, and stopped before the door of the place where I
was to lodge for the night. The driver, dismounting, knocked loud
and long, until the door was opened by an exceedingly stout man of
about sixty years of age; he held a dim light in his hand, and was
dressed in a red nightcap and dirty striped shirt. He admitted us,
without a word, into a very large long room with a clay floor. A
species of counter stood on one side near the door; behind it stood
a barrel or two, and against the wall, on shelves, many bottles of
various sizes. The smell of liquors and wine was very powerful. I
settled with the driver and gave him a gratuity, whereupon he asked
me for something to drink to my safe journey. I told him he could
call for whatever he pleased; whereupon he demanded a glass of
aguardiente, which the master of the house, who had stationed
himself behind the counter, handed him without saying a word. The
fellow drank it off at once, but made a great many wry faces after
having swallowed it, and, coughing, said that he made no doubt it
was good liquor, as it burnt his throat terribly. He then embraced
me, went out, mounted his cabriolet, and drove off.
The old man with the red nightcap now moved slowly to the door,
which he bolted and otherwise secured; he then drew forward two
benches, which he placed together, and pointed to them as if to
intimate to me that there was my bed: he then blew out the candle
and retired deeper into the apartment, where I heard him lay
himself down sighing and snorting. There was now no farther light
than what proceeded from a small earthen pan on the floor, filled
with water and oil, on which floated a small piece of card with a
lighted wick in the middle, which simple species of lamp is called
"mariposa." I now laid my carpet bag on the bench as a pillow, and
flung myself down. I should have been asleep instantly, but he of
the red nightcap now commenced snoring awfully, which brought to my
mind that I had not yet commended myself to my friend and Redeemer:
I therefore prayed, and then sank to repose.
I was awakened more than once during the night by cats, and I
believe rats, leaping upon my body. At the last of these
interruptions I arose, and, approaching the mariposa, looked at my
watch; it was half-past three o'clock. I opened the door and
looked out; whereupon some fishermen entered clamouring for their
morning draught: the old man was soon on his feet serving them.
One of the men said to me that, if I was going by the steamer, I
had better order my things to the wharf without delay, as he had
heard the vessel coming down the river. I dispatched my luggage,
and then demanded of the red nightcap what I owed him. He replied
"One real." These were the only two words which I heard proceed
from his mouth: he was certainly addicted to silence, and perhaps
to philosophy, neither of which are much practised in Andalusia.
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