Most of them wore only a ragged shirt over equally ragged trousers.

Their naked feet were thrust into rusty stirrups.

Some rode bare-backed, and there were among them men of every breed which the country produced; mestizoes, mulattoes, zambos, quadroons, negroes, and Indios, but all born _gauchos_ and _llaneros_, hardy and in high condition, and well skilled in the use of lasso and spear.

They were volunteers, too, and if their chief failed to provide them with a sufficiency of fighting and plunder, they had no hesitation in taking themselves off without asking for leave of absence.
When Mejia heard that a British force was being raised for service against the Spaniards, he was greatly delighted, and offered me on the spot a command in his "army," or, alternatively, the position of his principal aide-de-camp.

I preferred the latter.
"You have decided wisely, and I thank you, _senor coronel_.