tired and ravenous, leaving the newly-formed camp in charge of the
white men and Capt. Bombay.

The Mission is distant from the town a good half mile, to the
north of it; it is quite a village of itself, numbering some
fifteen or sixteen houses. There are more than ten padres engaged
in the establishment, and as many sisters, and all find plenty of
occupation in educing from native crania the fire of intelligence.
Truth compels me to state that they are very successful, having
over two hundred pupils, boys and girls, in the Mission, and,
from the oldest to the youngest, they show the impress of the
useful education they have received.

The dinner furnished to the padres and their guest consisted of as
many plats as a first-class hotel in Paris usually supplies, and
cooked with nearly as much skill, though the surroundings were by
no means equal. I feel assured also that the padres, besides being
tasteful in their potages and entrees, do not stultify their ideas
for lack of that element which Horace, Hafiz, and Byron have
praised so much. The champagne--think of champagne Cliquot in East
Africa!--Lafitte, La Rose, Burgundy, and Bordeaux were of
first-rate quality, and the meek and lowly eyes of the fathers
were not a little brightened under the vinous influence. Ah! those
fathers understand life, and appreciate its duration. Their
festive board drives the African jungle fever from their doors,
while it soothes the gloom and isolation which strike one with awe,
as one emerges from the lighted room and plunges into the depths
of the darkness of an African night, enlivened only by the wearying
monotone of the frogs and crickets, and the distant ululation of
the hyena. It requires somewhat above human effort, unaided by the