"I had begun to think that we should not get on shore to-day," Harry said
as they neared the landing-place. "What with three hours' waiting for the
medical officer, and another three for that bumptious official whom they
call the port officer, and without whose permission no one is allowed to
land, I think everyone on board was so disgusted that we should have liked
nothing better than to pitch the fellow overboard. It was rather amusing
to watch all those boatmen crowding round shouting the praises of their
own craft and running down the others. But a little of it goes a long way.
It is the same pretty nearly at every port I have entered. Boatmen are
harpies of the worst kind. It is lucky that we had so little baggage; a
tip of a couple of dollars was enough to render the custom-house officer
not only civil but servile."

As they mounted the steps they were assailed by a motley crowd, half of
whom struggled to get near them to hold out their hands for alms, while
the other half struggled and fought for the right of carrying their
baggage. Accustomed to such scenes, Harry at once seized upon two of them,
gave them the portmanteaux, and, keeping behind them, pushed them through
the crowd, telling them to lead the way to the hotel that the captain had
recommended as being the least filthy in the place. They crossed a square
covered with goods of all kinds. There were long rows of great jars filled
with native spirit, bales of cinchona bark, piles of wheat from Chili,
white and rose-coloured blocks of salt, pyramids of unrefined sugar, and a
block of great bars of silver; among these again were bales and boxes
landed from foreign countries, logs of timber, and old anchors and chains.
Numbers of people who appeared to have nothing to do sauntered about or
sat on logs. In odd corners were native women engaged in making the
picanties upon which the poor largely exist; these were composed of fresh
and salt meat, potatoes, crabs, the juice of bitter oranges, lard, salt,