This consisted of some two hundred mules, laden with provisions and implements on its way to the mines.
Guarded by a hundred soldiers were a large number of natives; who, fastened together as slaves, were on their way up to work for their cruel taskmasters.
When the curiosity of the captain concerning the natives was allayed, he asked Ned where he and his comrade had sprung from.

Ned assured him that the story was a very long one; and that, at a convenient opportunity, he would enter into all details.

In the first place he asked that civilized clothes might be given to them; for, as he said, they looked and felt, at present, rather as wild men of the woods than as subjects of the King of Spain.
"You speak a very strange Spanish," the captain said.
"I only wonder," Ned replied, "that I speak in Spanish at all.

I was but a child, when I was carried away; and since that time I have scarcely spoken a word of my native tongue.

When I reached the village to which my captors conveyed me, I found my companion here; who was, as I could see, a Spaniard, but who must have been carried off as an infant, as he even then could speak no Spanish, whatever.
He has learned now from me a few words; but beyond that, is wholly ignorant." "This is a strange story, indeed," the captain said.