Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-03-15

could distinctly recollect that some
sixty years ago, when he was boy,
Simon Bolivar, the famous guerilla
chief, stopped at his fathers house
and asked for a guide to the Rio
Negro settlements. The old gar
dener was sent for, and told Bolivar
that for the last ninety years no.
body had ever attempted to cross
the swamp estuary of that river in
winter time, but that he would un-
dertake to pilot him through the
Sierra by a circuitous march of
four or five days. Bolivar accepted
the proposition, but almost relin-
quished his project when he learned
that his would-be guide was more
than a hundred years old. at is
an objectionable SIM" he said, "to
saddle an old patriarch like him
with such a job. The State ought
to give him pension, aud let him
enjoy his remaining days in peace"
The remaining days of the old gar
dener turned out to be longer than
those of Bolivar's young son, who
accompanied his father on that ex-
pedition, and had been dead and
buried for twenty years now, while
Miguel Soils was thinking of adding
another lot to his farm.
HAS he never changed since
you knew him ?" asked the doctor.
The haciendero smiled. 81 have
often tried to find an answer to
that question:" he said, "but | have
tried in vain. He may have a hair
or two less; l have an impression
that he looked a little shaggier
once; but If he has changed in any
other way the change must have
been so gradual that failed to per-
ceive it. Ny father hired him when
his hair was black, but he was an
old man even then, and claimed to
have passed his ninetieth year"
"Is there any proof fer that?"
coral tradition, supported by
circumStantial evidence and one
documentary proof. There is a
franciscan monastery near San
Sebastian that was founded in 1712,
when Philip V was king of Spain
and Bogota only a little hamlet.
In that monastery they have i list
with the names Of all persons who
helped to defray the expenses OF
building their convent, and the
fourth name is that Of Miguel Soils,
ranchero prieto IA colored farmer),
who contributed twenty dollars.
The monks never lost sight of him,
and the present abbot is ready to
stake his eternal salvation that the
same Miguel Soils who lives now on
his hermitage in the Sierra Mesilla
had passed his homage in the sum
mer Of 1719, so that he must be at
least 1876 years old"
Additional information which
DIR. Hernandez obtained in Santa
Cruz and in the Indian settlements.
and confirmed his own impression
that the contemporary of Peter the
Great and Queen Anne was still in
possession Of his full mental and
bodily vigor. El Cabrou, the Old
Buck, his Indian neighborS called
him, notas an allusion to any hab-
itual abuse Of his virilc privileges,
but because he had a penchant for
clambering like a billygoat about
the rocks and crags of the upper
Sierra, and could boast even now Of
being a match for the boldest young
hunters Of the Frontera mountains.
If it was not for his white hair he
would seem to be proof against the
blight Of old age, said the Indians /;
and it appeared as if incurable sick
ness in others was something he
could not realize. Twenty years
ago he paid a monthly viGit to the
Hacienda del Rio. a large coffee
plantation Oh the Magdalone river,
TO have chat with an old English
man, the oyerseer Of the Hacienda,
for whom he had conceived an al
most passionate friendship. When
the overseer was about to die (hav-
ing reached his SEVENTEEN Year,,
his old friend passed days and nights
at his bedside, wringing his hands,
and repeating in a ooaxing whispers.
" Como no te Salvas, hermano, como
no te salvas-do something about
it, brother, why don't you?'
Olllce Iney knew MIN ne had
never been sick, nor had he ever
been drunk or in serious trouble,
though they could not SOY what
might have been his habits in bis
younger days. He was The son, or
rather one Of the sons, of q Fran
ciscan friar and an Indian girl of
the Northern Sierra, and q century
Ego the province had been full Of
bis brothsrs and half-brothers, but
they had all died long ago, aud his
only surviving relative, the grand
nephew of his mother, was now a
lecFepit old man. His father, they
believed, had destined him for the
convent, and he had actually been
on probation" in the monastery
of San Sebastian for a year; but
.he instinct of freedom prevailed, |
md he went back to the Sierra with |
. ~