Carlist movement. What precise object they imagined we had in view it would be difficult to say, but the officials soon satisfied themselves that we had no intention of making an armed landing and seizing the island, or of bombarding Arrecife. Their fears being thus allayed, their behaviour thereafter was courteous and hospitable in the extreme.

CHAPTER III.

ISLAND NIGHT'S ENTERTAINMENT.

Arrecife-Our reception ashore-Description of the town-Our Christmas dinner-Beyerle and I seek dissipation and find a club-Beyerle's little joke-Loyal toasts-A distinguished visit and a breakdown-A magic-lantern show-A medical discussion and its sudden ending-A Spaniard's dignityWe bribe the officials and give a concert-I receive an official and professional visit-Parting counsel-Adios!

LANZAROTE is the most easterly and the most northerly of the Canary Islands, and, like the rest of the group, of volcanic origin. One volcano, about twelve miles distant inland from Arrecife, is still hot at the crater, and constitutes the 'lion' of the place, the sight which all the good inhabitants are desirous of conducting strangers to see. At a distance all the mountain slopes look barren and uncultivated, but as one approaches nearer one can see that the rich red soil is fertile in the extreme, and one learns without surprise that immense quantities of onions and tomatoes are produced for exportation. Grain also is grown to supply the needs of the island, and vines are cultivated, but the wine is of indifferent quality. There are no textile industries, nearly all their manufactured goods being imported from England, their timber from Scandinavia,

while their fans, which adorn (?) their walls, and aid the coquetry of their maidens, bear a distinctly Teutonic imprint.

Of course, we were anxious to go ashore as soon as possible, and in the afternoon a party of us landed, including the Major and the Captain. We immediately directed our steps to the telegraph-office to wire home our Christmas greetings. The reception from the townspeople was embarrassing in the extreme, especially from the younger members thereof, who awaited our landing on the quay as if we had been distinguished visitors, and escorted us through the streets wherever we went. If we went into a fonda, or hotel, to taste the wine of the country, our bodyguard waited below, or thronged the entrance to the hostelry, what time we dispensed largesse from the upper floor in the copper coin of the realm.

The houses are built in the Hispano-Moorish style of architecture, with flat roofs, the windows mostly opening on to the patio, while those that overlook the street are protected with green jalousies, through the little flap-shutters of which many a pair of dark eyes peeps coquettishly out upon the passer-by below. The streets are very uneven, and very badly paved with rough lava blocks, with here and there a trottoir of cement in the principal thoroughfares. Of any system of drainage there is none visible, household refuse being thrown into the street in the primitive manner of their forefathers of long ago.

There is no public supply of water, the storage of that useful fluid being left to individual effort. A well is, therefore, to be found in the patio of nearly all the larger houses, and when the rainy season comes in December and January, there is every possible con

trivance to make the most of it. The rain that pours down upon the flat roofs is carried off by troughs and pipes, which empty themselves into the well below, to be drawn up by buckets when required. And these two months of rain are what they call their winter

season.

Eatables and liquid refreshments are subject to octroi on entering the town, and the mule-drawn carts conveying them are only allowed to go along certain streets that are marked Transito de Consumo.' The object of this regulation is presumably to make the collection of the tax an easier operation, and if any cart so laden be found proceeding through any other streets, the owners are fined.

Horses are to be seen in the island, but are kept principally for pleasure, while the humble donkey is, of course, much in evidence. Camels are there also, brought over, probably, from the Spanish settlement of Rio de Oro in Africa, and are used for the heavier kind of burdens.

I took snapshots of a group of these ungainly beasts, that were grunting and growling on the quayside, by way of protest against being loaded-as is their playful habit-and afterwards Sabbah and I mounted one of them, one on each side, and gave the owner half a dollar to take us for a short ride. Little thought I then that before many weeks should have passed I should have had enough camel-riding to satisfy me for the rest of my natural life, and free of cost to myself except considerable bodily pain and weariness of spirit.

Young women are seldom met with in the street, taking their views of the outside world chiefly from the terraces of their houses, and through their shuttered

windows. Like their sisters in Spain, they wear the graceful black lace toca, or mantilla, and are probably as anxious to be serenaded by the caballeros of the little island when the sun has gone to his rest, and the moon comes up from the sea, as any bella niña in Sevilla or Cadiz.

At home in England people were perhaps trudging through the snow or fog, or maybe keeping indoors all day before a roaring fire, and here were we revelling in the balmy sunshine of the Fortunate Isles, and sitting down to our Christmas dinner with the windows of the saloon open to catch the evening breeze. Englishmen carry their customs with them, and our steward was able to put upon the table that evening turkey and sausages, plum-pudding, and mince-pie. And what matter if both turkey and sausages had seen the inside of the preserving-tin much more recently than Leadenhall Market so long as a good old English custom was faithfully observed? And if anything else were wanting to make glad the heart of man, was there not on board some excellent fizz' and some fine old tawny

port?

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The next day it was deemed fitting that the party for shore should land in such state as befitted distinguished visitors, and the engineers were busy early in getting ready the steam - launch, the engine of which had got out of order and had not been repaired while we were at Antwerp. Neither of the engineers seemed to be making much progress with the work, until Watling, who knew something of launch engines from his up-Thames experiences, took his coat off and buckled to. The coal-lighters were alongside by this time, and the yacht was practically in the possession of a crowd of grimy coal-heavers, so that it was a