Ye know it was one o' them old Spanish
haciendas?"
"I know," said the colonel loftily, "that it was held by a grant from
Charles the Fifth of Spain, just as my propahty on the James River was
given to my people by King James of England, sah!"
"That ez as may be," returned his companion, in lazy indifference;
"though I reckon that Charles the Fifth of Spain and King James of
England ain't got much to do with what I'm goin' to tell ye. Ye see, I
was here long afore YOUR time, or any of the boys that hev now cleared
out; and at that time the hacienda belonged to a man named Juan
Sobriente. He was that kind o' fool that he took no stock in mining.
When the boys were whoopin' up the place and finding the color
everywhere, and there was a hundred men working down there in the gulch,
he was either ridin' round lookin' up the wild horses he owned, or
sittin' with two or three lazy peons and Injins that was fed and looked
arter by the priests. Gosh! now I think of it, it was mighty like YOU
when you first kem here with your niggers.
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