About eleven o'clock
We then trotted softly away over the sward , and in about half an hour struck the road leading from Rocha to Montevideo . This we followed till daylight , scarcely pausing once from our swift gallop , and a hundred times during that dark ride over a country utterly unknown to me I blessed the little witch Cleta ; for never was there a more steady , sure-footed beast than the ugly roan that carried my companion , and when we drew rein in the pale morning light he seemed fresh as when we started . We then left the highway and rode across country in a north-westerly direction for a distance of eight or nine miles , for I was anxious to be far away from public roads and from the prying , prating people that use them . About eleven o'clock that morning we had breakfast at a _ rancho , _ then rode on again till we came to a forest of scattered thorn-trees growing on the slopes of a range of hills . It was a wild , secluded spot , with water and good pasturage for the horses and pleasant shade for ourselves ; so , after unsaddling and turning loose our horses to feed , we sat down to rest under a large tree with our backs against its portly trunk . From our shady retreat we commanded a splendid view of the country over which we had been riding all the morning , extending for many leagues behind us , and while I smoked my cigar I talked to my companion , calling her attention to the beauty of that wide , sunlit prospect . `` Do you know , Demetria , '' I said , `` when the long winter evenings come , and I have plenty of leisure , I intend writing a history of my wanderings in the Banda Oriental , and I will call my book _ The Purple Land ; _ for what more suitable name can one find for a country so stained with the blood of her children ?