Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/81

 o'clock in the afternoon. As we neared the harbor, our pilot succeeded in running us on to mud banks three times. On the third we might have remained all night, had not a "colored lady and gentleman," sailing their own small boat, come to our assistance.

The man got on board the Triunfo and helped us into deeper water, for which we were duly grateful. He accepted from the captain some Cozumel cigars. At dusk we cast anchor in the harbor of Belize, capital of British Honduras.

We were urgently requested by Antonio the First to defer landing until after dark, because they wanted to smuggle in a few thousand cigars that were still on board, and several demijohns of Havana rum. At nine o'clock we were put ashore on a lonely wharf, with only the stars to guide our footsteps, and tendered hospitality for the night at the house of the man who owned the cigars, a tobacconist established in the city.