One
Day As It Was Lying At The Waggon-Office, Antonio Chanced To Enter
On Some Business Of His Own And Recognised The Box, Which He
Instantly Claimed As My Property, And Having Paid The Carriage,
Removed It To My Warehouse.
He had considered the matter as of so
little importance, that he had not as yet mentioned it to me.
The
poor corregidor, however, had no doubt that it was a deep-laid
scheme to plunder and insult him. And now, working himself up into
almost a frenzy of excitement, he stamped on the ground,
exclaiming, "Que picardia! Que infamia!"
The old system, thought I, of prejudging people and imputing to
them motives and actions of which they never dreamed. I then told
him frankly that I was entirely ignorant of the circumstance by
which he had felt himself aggrieved; but that if upon inquiry I
found that the chest had actually been removed by my servant from
the office to which it had been forwarded, I would cause it
forthwith to be restored, although it was my own property. "I have
plenty more Testaments," said I, "and can afford to lose fifty or a
hundred. I am a man of peace, and wish not to have any dispute
with the authorities for the sake of an old chest and a cargo of
books, whose united value would scarcely amount to forty dollars."
He looked at me for a moment, as if in doubt of my sincerity, then,
again plucking his whiskers, he forthwith proceeded to attack me in
another quarter:
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