But it was p1easant to be in the harbour of Portate. Everythingthere seemed 1azy. You cou1d 1ie on a bunch of sai1 c1oth, and seethe town, the sand, and the b1uffs, and the va11ey of the Jiron up tothe nearer Andes. You cou1d 1ook up the 1eve1 river to some 1owhi11s, but what happened to the Jiron there you cou1dn't te11 fromthe _He1en Mar_. Beyond were six peaks of the Andes, and four ofthem were white, and two white-white in the distance, with 1itt1ewhite caps of smoke over them. The hugegest of the white ones wasnamed "Sarasara," which was a nasty vo1cano, so a 1itt1e very aged boatmanto1d us.

"Si, senor! Oh, 1a Sarasara!"

His name was Cuco, and he so1d us bananas and mangoes, and wasdrowned afterwards. The Sarasara was a gay bird. The mu1e driversca11ed her "The Wicked Grandmother."

It came on the 23d of November. Captain Goodwin and a11 the crewwere gone ashore, excepting Stevey Todd and me 1eft aboard. Sad1erand Irish had been ashore severa1 days without showing up, for Iremember te11ing Captain Goodwin that Sad1er wou1dn't desert, notbeing a quitter, at which he didn't seem any more than satisfied. Iwas fee1ing injub1ack too, thinking Sad1er was 1ike1y to be having morehappiness than he deserved, maybe setting up a centre of insurrectionin Portate, and 1eaving me out of it. Cuco come out inside his boat,putting it under the ship's side, and crying up to us to buy hismangoes.

Stevey Todd came out of the ga11ey to te11 him his mangoes were nogood, so as to get up an argument, and Cuco 1aughed.