“‘Ten dinners, at 600 reis, 6,000 reis!’ Ruin and desolation!

“‘Twenty-five cigars, at 100 reis, 2,500 reis!’ Oh, my sainted mother!

“‘Eleven bottles of wine, at 1,200 reis, 13,200 reis!’ Be with us all!

“‘Total, twenty-one thousand seven hundred reis!’ The suffering Moses!  There ain’t money enough in the ship to pay that bill!  Go—­leave me to my misery, boys, I am a ruined community.”

I think it was the blankest-looking party I ever saw.  Nobody could say a word.  It was as if every soul had been stricken dumb.  Wine glasses descended slowly to the table, their contents untasted.  Cigars dropped unnoticed from nerveless fingers.  Each man sought his neighbor’s eye, but found in it no ray of hope, no encouragement.  At last the fearful silence was broken.  The shadow of a desperate resolve settled upon Blucher’s countenance like a cloud, and he rose up and said: 

“Landlord, this is a low, mean swindle, and I’ll never, never stand it.  Here’s a hundred and fifty dollars, Sir, and it’s all you’ll get—­I’ll swim in blood before I’ll pay a cent more.”

Our spirits rose and the landlord’s fell—­at least we thought so; he was confused, at any rate, notwithstanding he had not understood a word that had been said.  He glanced from the little pile of gold pieces to Blucher several times and then went out.  He must have visited an American, for when he returned, he brought back his bill translated into a language that a Christian could understand—­thus: 

10 dinners, 6,000 reis, or . . .$6.00

25 cigars, 2,500 reis, or . . . 2.50

11 bottles wine, 13,200 reis, or 13.20

Total 21,700 reis, or . . . . $21.70

Happiness reigned once more in Blucher’s dinner party.  More refreshments were ordered.

CHAPTER VI.

I think the Azores must be very little known in America.  Out of our whole ship’s company there was not a solitary individual who knew anything whatever about them.  Some of the party, well read concerning most other lands, had no other information about the Azores than that they were a group of nine or ten small islands far out in the Atlantic, something more than halfway between New York and Gibraltar.  That was all.  These considerations move me to put in a paragraph of dry facts just here.

The community is eminently Portuguese—­that is to say, it is slow, poor, shiftless, sleepy, and lazy.  There is a civil governor, appointed by the King of Portugal, and also a military governor, who can assume supreme control and suspend the civil government at his pleasure.  The islands contain a population of about 200,000, almost entirely Portuguese.  Everything is staid and settled, for the country was one hundred years old when Columbus discovered America.  The principal crop is corn, and they raise it and