FROM CORDOVA TO CATHAY.

“Come now, abandon this search for a dead man’s relics and go with me out
to my vineyard, the like of which is not elsewhere in Spain.”

I thanked my friend, but assured him that Columbus had the prior claim, and
that I must go on to Palos.

“Very well, amigo, but you may regret it; Colon must be a dry subject.
My wife will find you a boy as guide ; I’ve no patience with you.”

The boy she secured must have been the surliest specimen in Spain; but the
poor little fellow had lost an arm, early in life, and I suppose that must have
soured him; at any rate, he probably had a hard time of it in his struggle for
bread.

He led up a donkey, hooked my valise on his arm-stump, seized the rope
attached to the donkey’s nose, and then strode ahead, without a glance at me.
Don Pedro sent an emphatic Spanish word flying after him that halted him
instanter, at least long enough to allow me to scramble upon the burro’s back,
then he marched on again, pursued by the maledictions of my friend.

“What a beast of a boy, to be sure; and to think that I, Pedro Val Verde,
a respected householder of Moguer, should have been the means of putting a
distinguished American traveler in his charge — one who has come all the way
from America,
too, just to see
our little port
of Palos. Bien,
Vayacon Dios,
Senor” (God
be with thee).
“You have a
stick, let the
burro feel the
force of your
arm.”

Palos and
Moguer are at
least three

 

THE CONVENT OF LA RABIDA. %
(Where Columbus and his son asked for supper.) miles apart 3

the road be-
tween them is broad and smooth, but traversed by carts only in the vintage
season, when the wines are carried to the port of Palos. There was no saddle
on the beast I rode, and I sat astride an enormous pack of old bags, using my
cudgel as a balancing-pole, but frequently obliged to bring it down upon the
donkey’s resounding sides, at which, much pleased apparently, he would wag his
ears and amble gently onward.
The boy was abstracted, and the donkey absorbed in meditation, so I gained