The next morning--Wednesday, the 15th--the _Liberal_ left for Argelia, taking three officers and about seventy men, probably to defend that establishment against the attacks of those terrible fellows, the Colombians. One officer and the rest of the men, about thirty, remained at El Encanto to garrison it, while two more remained here to go to Iquitos upon the return of the _Liberal_, in order to spread the reports of the "victory" gained over the Colombians at La Unión.
We spent the day wandering restlessly about the establishment and the large, rolling cleared area that surrounds it. In the afternoon we endeavoured to speak to Martínez, but were not permitted to do so, probably by orders of Loayza, who seemed to spend most of his time taking Florida-water baths, drinking wine and whisky, and fooling around with his different concubines. The other upper officials followed his example more or less.
Early the next day the _Liberal_ returned from Argelia, and lay at the port all day, waiting for the report that Loayza was writing up for his chief in Iquitos. This literary labour occupied him until nightfall, when, being concluded, it was given to the captain of the _Liberal_, the infamous Carlos Zubiaur, otherwise "Paiche," and we were told to get on board, as the vessel sailed early in the morning.
In accordance with these instructions, we went down and started to embark. At the gang-plank we were met by Zubiaur, who, with an enormous stick of firewood in his hands, demanded £17 each for our passage money. As Loayza had informed us that he would give us free passages as a slight compensation for what we had gone through, both Sánchez and myself were considerably surprised at this demand, and protested loudly against it. Zubiaur was inflexible, however, and whirled his stick of firewood about our heads so violently while he informed us that nobody travelled gratis on his launch, that we were finally compelled to pay the wretch what he asked for.
Once on board, where Perkins accompanied us to say goodbye, we found that we had been done out of our dinner, for, when we finally asked for it, we were told that this meal had already been eaten and that we were too late. So after a last farewell to Perkins, who, in accordance with our decision, had decided to remain behind in order to recover our effects, Sánchez and I again made our way to the ferocious Zubiaur and asked to be conducted to our cabin.