Under the Southern Cross   By: Elizabeth Robins (1862-1952)

by

Elizabeth Robins

Author of "The Magnetic North," "The Open Question" etc.

Illustrated & Decorated by John Rae

[Illustration: "FRUITS AND FLOWERS WERE SHOWERED UPON US" Page 3 ]

New York Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers

Copyright, 1907, by Frederick A. Stokes Company October, 1907

Contents

PAGE I. OUR AGREEABLE FELLOW PASSENGER 1

II. MY INTERPRETER AT MAZATLAN 39

III. I AM LECTURED 65

IV. I DRINK COCOANUT MILK AND GO FISHING FOR PEARLS 101

V. THE BARON IS CRAZY WITH MADNESS 133

VI. THE BARANCA 165

VII. THE INCA EYE 199

Illustrations

"FRUITS AND FLOWERS WERE SHOWERED UPON US" Frontispiece

"LOOK, SEÑORITA!" Facing page 48

"THE BARON HAS FOUND A PEARL!" " " 112

"YOU MUST TAKE ME BACK!" " " 210

CHAPTER I

[Illustration: Chapter One]

OUR AGREEABLE FELLOW PASSENGER

In the same spirit in which a solicitous mamma or benevolent middle aged friend will sometimes draw forth from the misty past some youthful misdeed, and set the faded picture up before a girl's eyes, framed in fiery retribution for an object lesson and a terrible example so will I, benevolent, if not middle aged, put before the eyes of my sisters a certain experience of mine. I expect my little act of self abasement for the instruction of my sex to have this merit: the picture I will show you is not dim with age, and not cut and cramped to fit the frame of a special case. The colours are hardly dry, and both picture and tale are quite unvarnished.

I am a plain American girl of twenty. I am not so plain, as I come to think of it, as one or two others I know not being distinguished even by unusual or commanding ugliness. I spent last winter in San Francisco with relatives, and intended returning home as I came overland. But the invalid friend who was asked to chaperon me back to New York, was advised by her physicians to take the trip by sea via Panama, for health's sake, and I was easily induced to change my arrangements and bear her company.

It was on a sunny April morning that our friends met us at the wharf of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to bid us God speed on our month's voyage from the Golden Gate to the harbour of New York.

Fruits and flowers, boxes of salted almonds and Maskey's best bonbons, as well as books, from Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico" to the latest novels, were showered upon us, with the understanding that it was to be a long and tedious voyage, and we should need all the comfort obtainable to support existence, with the knowledge that if we survived, we might be the better for the journey. The signal for visitors to leave the ship had been given, and Major Sanford, turning to go, stood face to face with a tall, foreign looking young man, who smiled with quick recognition, showing small white teeth like a woman's.

"You raimembair me, Major?"

Major Sanford did "raimembair," and, turning to me, presented "Baron de Bach."

" he knows all our good friends, was here four years ago on his way round the world in his steam yacht glad to think you'll have such good company. Good bye!" And Major Sanford was the last to run down the gangway. How little he knew what entertainment he was providing in coupling my farewell to him with "hail" to Baron de Bach!