This seemed a little strange, and prompted me to try to discover what the cause of this unreasonable indifference was.

It turned out to be simply because Pliny mentions them.

I have conceived a sort of unwarrantable unfriendliness toward Pliny and St.Paul, because it seems as if I can never ferret out a place that I can have to myself.

It always and eternally transpires that St.
Paul has been to that place, and Pliny has "mentioned" it.
In the early morning we mounted and started.

And then a weird apparition marched forth at the head of the procession--a pirate, I thought, if ever a pirate dwelt upon land.