A general trader again

Abstract

Ledger’s old friends had rented a nice house for him with some land on the outskirts of Cachi in the province of Salta. He had already been in that small city in 1856 with the alpacas, where — among other things — he had arranged his first loan with Messrs Boardman, Dickson & Co. and was subsequently let down by them. The small estate was called Palermo, and one is left to wonder how the name of that Sicilian town, recently conquered by Garibaldi in the fight for a united Italy, was chosen by those who had built the house. Perhaps the first owners had been of Sicilian origin, or wished to commemorate Lord Nelson who had also been there at the turn of the century. (Readers will recall James Johnson whom Charles had met in the house of the old Englishman, Don Romano Cruz (Cross) in Molinos, only 50 km from Cachi, who had maintained that if a woman was fit to be Queen of England, she must be the daughter of Lord Nelson!)