Winding down the stony path, we entered the city before dark, and were soon ensconced in comfortable quarters.
On the following day I presented my letters of introduction to the United States consul, George Merwin, Esq., who, after giving me a kind reception, and warm congratulations on the success of my long journey, interested himself so much in procuring me a berth in an American vessel, that before twenty-four hours had passed I was comfortably settled on board the fine ship Magellan, Captain Charles King, and I once more entered upon the routine of life before the mast. A few weeks later, and we were scudding down the western coast of Patagonia, and “going around the Horn” on our journey home.
Reader, my story is told. If you have been enabled in these pages to glean a little instruction or amusement for your leisure hours, I shall feel well rewarded; and if, when in imagination you followed me in my weary journey, you, perhaps, felt some little sympathy for the hardships I sometimes experienced, I shall never regret my pedestrian trip across the “Pampas and the Andes.”
Transcriber’s Notes
Errors and omissions in punctuation have been fixed.
[Page 47]: “by order of his goverment” changed to “by order of his government”
[Page 124]: “the Santigueños” changed to “the Santiagueños”
[Page 234]: “a leather rope, the biador,” changed to “a leather rope, the fiador,”
The cover in use for the digital version was created by the transcriber from the original cover and is placed in the public domain.