Domingo took our horses round to the shed which served as a stable, while we entered the public room, the centre of which was occupied by a long table with rough benches on either side, at which several persons—merchants, small traders, and carriers—were seated. Mr Laffan requested to be supplied with food, and asked if we could have a room in which our hammocks could be slung up.
The landlord assured him that the whole house was at our command.
“Yes,” said Mr Laffan, “but we would rather have a room to ourselves. This young English milord likes to be quiet.”
The landlord examined me with a curious look, and said he should be happy to clear out a room at present occupied by some of his family.
I asked Mr Laffan to tell me what the landlord had said, and in reply begged to assure him that I would not on any account put his estimable family to so much inconvenience; that we would, therefore, sling our hammocks at the further end of the hall.
He was not long in placing a very fairly concocted olla-podrida before us. It consisted of beef, fowls, bacon, mutton, and a variety of vegetables, all cooked together, and tolerably free from garlic. The landlord remarked, as he tasted it before us, “I am aware that the English do not like much of that root, as I discovered by observing the expressions of disgust exhibited by the countenances of some British officers for whom I had prepared a dish with rather more, perhaps, than the usual allowance of seasoning. One of them declared that he was poisoned, and compelled me, at the point of his sword, to eat the whole of it; while another clapped the dish upside down on my head, and insisted on my producing some other food of a less savoury character. I have remembered ever since that Englishmen do not like garlic.”
While the landlord was talking, I endeavoured to listen to the conversation going on at the other part of the table. I gathered from it some satisfactory news. Bolivar was again in arms, and at the head of a considerable force, with which he had been successful in Venezuela, and was marching towards New Granada. I earnestly hoped that he might capture Bogota before the Spaniards had put our friends to death. Once or twice I was tempted to ask questions, and only recollected just in time that I was supposed not to understand Spanish. Some of the men at the supper-table eyed me, I fancied, narrowly; but whether they suspected who I was, or were considering whether it would not be profitable to rob the young English milord, I could not make out.
Mr Laffan and Domingo having secured our hammocks, we turned in, with our pistols by our sides, while Lion took up his usual post under where we lay.