"Where was it that your parents lived ?" "I know not the place," Ned said.

"But it was far to the rising sun, across on the other ocean." As it seemed perfectly possible that the boys might have been carried away, as children, from the settlements near Vera Cruz, the captain accepted the story without the slightest doubt, and at once gave a warm welcome to the lads; who had, as he supposed, escaped after so many weary years of captivity.
"I am going up now," he said, "to the mines, and there must remain on duty for a fortnight, when I shall return in charge of treasure.
It will be dangerous, indeed, for you to attempt to find your way to the coast without escort.

Therefore you had better come on with me, and return under my protection to the coast." "We should be glad of a stay with you in the mountains," Ned said.
"We feel so ignorant of everything European that we should be glad to learn, from you, a little of the ways of our countrymen before we venture down among them.

What is the nearest town on the coast ?" "Arica," the captain said, "is the port from which we have come.

It is distant a hundred and thirty miles from here, and we have had ten days' hard journeying through the forest." For the next fortnight, the lads remained at the mines.