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3 3433 07030548 1 









YEA*li IN-»PAIN. 



/ 



A YOUNG AMERICAN. 



^V\<^^<»^ y<^ J ple-<aL>y^>cv Sd'M^U'j 



!•! aBtandimtonto 



dti danonio, y que uda da ba mayona aa pMirli a on 
poada oompoQer j imprioiir on libro, oob qua gana tanto 
lata fciiia.-^aarARTM. 



BOSTON. 
MILLIARD, ORA7, LITTLE, AND WILKINS. 



THE NEW YORK 
PUBLIC LIBRARY 



TILDEN FOUNDATIONS 
1030 L 



ASf 



DIBTTRICT OP MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT: 

Dutriet ClerkU Office, 

Bb it remembered, that oo the tweotjfifth dajr of April, A. D. 1829, in the fiUvthird year of 
the Independenee of the United Statei of America, Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Vvilkio*, of the 
•aid difltrict, have depoaited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim •■ 
proprietort, in the words following, to wit : 

* A Year in Spain. By a Yoang American. 

• Bien le lo <^im ion tentaciouei del demonio, j <{ue ana de las mayoros es ponerle a an hombio 
en el entendimiento que puede componer y imprimir un libro, con qoe gaoe tnnta fkma eonao di- 
naroe, y tantoa dinerot ooanta ikma. — CaRTAirrBs.' 

In oonformity to the act of the Congrea of the United States, entitled * An act for the encour- 
agement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and pro- 
prietors of saeh copies, during the times therein mentioned ;* and also to an act, entitled * An 
act supplemeatary to an act, entitled. " An act for the encouragement of learning, by seearing 
the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during 
the times therein mentioned ; " and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, en> 
graving, and etching historical and other prints.* 
• ^' JNO. W. DAVIS, 

CUrk ^tU Dutriet tf MutnekuaOU. 



PREFACE. 



Giving his Satanic Majesty due credit for the temptations men- 
tioned in ouri:9)otto, the present work originated in a desire to 
Gonvey some notion of the manners and customs of the Spanish 
nation. The writer found much that was peculiar and interesting 
in them, and was thence led to think, that what had furnished so 
much pleasure in the immediate study, might not be wholly unat- 
tractive, when contemplated through the secondary medium of 
description. Though this object should not be attained by the 
work now offered to (he public, it may, perhaps, serve to attract 
attention to a country, which, though inferior to none in interest, 
has been of all others the most neglected. 

The author merely proposes to enable those who have not visited 
ISpain, and have no expectation of doing so, to form an idea of the 
• country and its inhabitants, without abandoning the comforts and 
security of the fireside. As for the traveller, he may find most of 
the local information he may require, in Antillon's Geography, and 
Laborde's View of Spain. He will do well to journey with as little 
state as possible, and to keep to the popular conveyances; the 
gakruy the carro, or the back of a mule. He will be thus roost 
likely to avoid unpleasant interruption, and to have favorable op- 
portunities for observing the manners of the people. Nor should 
he fail to follow the old adage of conforming to the customs of the 
country, among a people, who, more than any other, are attached 
to their peculiar usages ; to smother his disgust at whatever may 
be in contradiction to our own habits and institutions ; above all to 
exhibit no irreverence for their religious ceremonies ; to enter 
their temples with a sense of solemnity, if not due to their forms of 



IV PREFACE. 

worship, due at least to the dread Being to whom that worship ifl 
addressed ; in short, to respect outwardly whatever they respect, 
down to their very prejudices. The traveller who makes this his 
rule of action in Spain, will not fare the worse by the way, and 
will not think the worse of himself, for this exercise of charity, 
when arrived at the end of his journey. 

To make an apology for thb volume would seem useless. If it 
has no merit, no apology will avail. If, however, it should find any 
favor among his countrymen, some mitigation of the many faults, 
which, though hidden from the author, will be obvious enough to 
nicer eyes, may be found in his disqualifications for the task. They 
are such as every one will appreciate — the inexperience of youth, 
and the disadvantages of an interrupted education. 

Some reason may, perhaps, be required for the work's being put 
forth without a name. The author's name would insure it no ac- 
ceptation ; and there would, besides, be little modesty in appearing 
as the hero of a narrative, which, to be interesting, must become 
egotistical and exclusive. If it should succeed, the author will not 
enjoy it the less, that he will enjoy it in secret. But he dreads the 
contrary — the difficulties which he has encountered in procuring 
publication are ominous of evil, and he would willingly avoid the 
odium of having made a bad book. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PR0TINCE8 OF R0US8ILL0N AND CATALONIA. 

Booth of France^— Motives for Visiting Spain. — ^The Diligence, its Cargo 
and Passengers. — ^The Pyrenees. — Junquera.— Figueras.--Fording 
the Tordera. — Catalan Village. — Coast of the Mediterranean to Bar- 
celona^-^An Assault of Arms. — ^TJie Fonda.-^The Ramhla 9 

CHAPTER n. 

FRINCIPALITT OF CATALONIA. 

Baicelona— Its Environs. — ^The Noria. — History of Barcelona— Its Pres- 
ent Condition. — Departure for Valencia. — ^The Team of Mules. — ^The 
Bshop of Vique.— Ride to Tarragona.— The City 26 

CHAPTER m. 

PRINCIPALITY OF CATALONIA AND KINGDOM OF VALENCIA. 

New Travelling Companions. — Departure from Tarragona.— The Ebro.— • 
Valencian Village. — Renewal and Interruption of our Journey. — ^Vina- 

- ittt, — Crosses along the Roadside. — Our Escort. — Saguntiim. — Ap- 
proach to Valencia., . . « 40 

CHAPTER IV. 

KINGDOMS OF VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE* 

Kingdom of Valencia. — Origin and Fortunes of the City. — ^Its Actual 
Condition. — ^Take Leave of Valencia.— Elevated Plains of New Cas- 
tOe. — Cbstome and Character of the Inhabitants. — Ahnansa. — El To- 
booo. — Scenes at C^aintanar. — Ocania. — Aranjuez. — ^Madrid. . . 59 



V» CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

KINGDOM OF NEW CASTILE. 

Accommodations for the Traveller inMadrid.—Don IHego^ the Impurifi-^ 
cado.— A Walk in the Street of Alcala.— The Gate of the Sun.— A Re- 
view. — Don Valentin Carnehueso. — His Gacetas and Diaries — ^His 
Person and Politeness — His Daughter — ^His House and Household — 
His Mode of Life 83 

CHAPTER VI. 

KINGDOM OF NEW CASTILE. 

Kingdom of New Castile. — Situation and Climate of Madrid. — ^Its His- 
tory. — ^General Description of the City. — The Five Royal Palaces. — 
Places of Public Worship. — Museum of Painting. — Academy of San 
Fernando.— Museum of Armour.— Charitable and Scientific Institutions. 
—Royal Library 100 

CHAPTER VII. 

KINGDOM OF NEW CASTILE. 

Social Pleasures in Madrid. — Drama. — ^Tragedy. — Sainete. — ^Theatres. 
— Actors.— Bolero.— Bull-Fight— Ancient Fight— Modern Fight- 
Corrida de Novillos. 123 

CHAPTER VIII. 

KINGDOM OF NEW CASTILE. 

The Paseo.— The Prado.— The Paseadores.— Madrilenio and Madrilenia. 

^ —Vehicles and Horsemen The Prado on a Feast-Day.— San Anton. 

—Beggars.— Blind Men.— Lottery .—Hog Lottery .—An Execution— La 
Plazuela-de-k-Cebada.— Mode of Execution in Spain.— The Verdugo 
and the Multitude.— Delay.— The Criminals.— Conduct of the Crowd. 

146 
CHAPTER IX. 

KINGDOMS OF NEW AND OLD CASTILE. 

Journey to Segovia.— Choice of Conveyance and Preparations for Depart- 
ure.— Galenu—Manzanares and the Florida.— -Galera Scenes.— The 
Venta of Guadarrama— Passage of the Moontains.— Segovia.— The 
Aqueduct— The Cathedral and Alcazar 174 

CHAPTER X. 

KINGDOMS OF OLD AND NEW CASTILE. 

La Granja.— We Tire of Old Castile.— Pedro.— Perplexitieg in the Moun- 
tains.— The Summit of the Pass.— Pedro's Aiudety.--<}uadaiTaiiuu— 
EscoriaL— Return to Madrid 187 



CONTENTS. Vtt 

CHAPTER XI. 

KINODOM OF NEW CASTILE. 

Second EzennioiL— Father Patrick— The Carro^Arrival at Araiynei. 
-^oee.— The Palaces and Gardens^— Tedious Ride to Toledo.— Pause 
at a Venta.— Renew our Journey.— Wamha.— Arrival at Toledo. 202 

CHAPTER Xn. 

KINGDOM OF NEW CASTILE. 

History of Toledo.— Present Condition.— -Father Thomas.— Cathedral. — 
Private Houses.- Alcazar and other Buildings.— Veg^ Sword Manu- 
factory, and Quemadero.— Evening Ramble.— Leave Toledo in a Coche 
de Coleras.— Amusing Ride.— Venta Scenes.— Return to Madrid. 214 

CHAPTER Xin. 

KINGDOMS OP NEW CASTILE^ lAEN, AND CORDOVA. 

Final Departure from Madrid.— Ocania.—Cacaruco and his Brother-in- 
law.— The 6uadiana.—Manzanares.—yal-de-Penias.—DiBpeniaperro6. 
—New Populations. — Fate of their Founder, Olavide. — Carolina.— 
Baylen.— The de Coleras. — Guadalquivir and Andajar.— Herds of Hor- 
ses along the Road to Cordova 233 

CHAPTER XIV. 

* KINGDOM OF CORDOVA. 

Kingdom and City of Cordova.— Introduction of the Saracens and Crea- 
tion of Western Caliphat— Its Day of Glory— Decline and Downfal.^— 
Present Condition and Appearance.— The Cathedral 253 

CHAPTER XV. 

KINGDOMS OF CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. 

Excursion to the Desert of Cordova*— The Hermano Mayor.— The Her- 
mitage—Its Garden.— Return.— Start for Seville with Tio Jorge. — 
Cross the Guadalquivir— Galera Party.— Azhara.—Ecija and her little 
Ones.— Decayed Condition of Andalusia. 968 

CHAPTER XVI. 

KINGDOM OF SEVILLE. 

Arrival in Seville.— Casa de Pupilos.— History of Seville.— Its General 
Appearance and Remarkahle Edifices. — Cathedral and Giralda.— 
Amusements.— Murder of Ahu-Said.— Isabel Davalos.— Guzman the 
Good.— Italica.— A Poor Officer.— Seville at Sunset 383 



▼ni CONTENTa 

CHAPTER XVn. 

KINGDOM OF BBVILLS. 

Steamer Hernan Ck>rte8. — Guadalquivir. — Bonanza*— Petplezftlei «l 
Santa Maria.~Arrival at Cadis— Its Situation and Early History— Its 
Destruction by Eaaex— Present Condition— Appearance^— The Gadi- 
tana. dOO 

CHAPTER XVin. 

KINGDOM OF SEVILLE. 

Leyanter.-— The Tartana and her Company.— Leave Cadis.— Retnm and 
take Horse.— Leon, Carraca, and the Sacred Salt Pans.— Chiclana and 
Vegel. — Night Ride in Uie Mountains.— The Nightingale.^— Morning 
Ride, and Robber SceneB.^First View of Gibraltar.—The Mouth of 
Fire.— Contrast 316 

CHAPTER XIX. 

KINGDOM OF SEVILLE. 

Gibraltar.— Early History.— Under Saracen DominatloiL— Under Span- 
iards and British.— Spanish Attempts at Recovery.— The Late Siege. — 
Advantages to Possessors.— The Town.— The Crazy Greek.— Amuse- 
ments.— The Alameda.— Europa.— Moorish Castle and Excavations. — 
Excursions to the Summit.— St Michael's Cave. — A Ship. .... 39Q 

CHAPTER XX. 

GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

Physical Character of the Peninsula.— Soil, Climate, and Productions.— 
Early History. — Rise and Overthrow of Gothic Power.— Saracen 
Domination.— Consequences of its Subversion.— Present Population.— i 
Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce. — Arts and Sciences. — 
Government — Finances. — Military Power. — Stata of Parties and 
Social Diviaions.^Clergy.— Royal Family.— Spanidi Character ; its 
Provincial Peculiarities. — General Characteristica. — National Lan- 
guage. — ^Manners. — Conclusion. 360 



A YEAR IN SPAIN. 



CHAPTER I. 



In consequence of its not having been convenient for the au- 
thor to attend the press, several misconceptions of his manuscript 
have occurred, especially in the Spanish phrases and proper 
names, for which indulgence is asked. 



a coarse, rude, soheming, yet brave, sturdy, and laborious population ; 
the North, wet, smoky, and hypochondriac, with inhabitants, after 
the manner of Englishmen, busy, bustling, and great drinkers of 
strong beet ; the East assimilating itself, by turns, to the neighbour- 
ing countries of Netherlands, Germany, or Switzerland; Dauphiq^ 
more beautiful than Italy ; the valley of the Isere, worthy of being 
oaUed the valley of Paradise. All this I was in a measure prepared 
Ar, and it therefore brought no disappointment But in the South of 
Fiance 1 was doomed to have all my expectations reversed. I had been 
taught to ttSBOciale it with whatever is lovely in nature ; I had cast the 
foee ef Ike country into a succession of hill and dale ; I had watered 
it with many streams ] the hill-tops were crowned with forest trees, 
and the slopes devoted to fruit orchards, with the vine stretching it- 
self abroad in festoons from tree to tree, while the vallies were spread 
oat into meadows of the brightest verdure, and animated by joyous 
kerds of cattle. The villages, too, were to be neat, and the houses 
well whitewashed ; eac)|y with iu little arbour and clambering gvape 
2 



10 ROUSSILLON AND CATALONIA. 

vine. Nor was this Arcadian region to be peopled with unworthy 
inhabitants; the women were to be beautiful, and well-made younflr 
men were to be seen everywhere leading them off, in the graceful 
mazes of the dance. This picture was not entirely gratuitous ; for my 
^ide-book had sanctioned the most extravagant reveries, by telling me 
m doggrel aild impious rhyme, that, if God were to take up his abode 
upon earth, it would surely be in Roussillon. 

Such, however, I did not find the original. The surface of the 
country was, indeed, broken ; but I looked in vain for the meandering 
streams which my fancy had created. Forest trees, there were none ; 
and the hill-sides, though devoted to the cultivation of the vine, were 
destitute of fruit trees. This favored plant, which furnishes man with 
so much comfort, and the poet with so many associations, is here laid 
out in detached roots, placed at convenient distances from each other. 
In the spring, the shoots of the last season are pruned dose to the 
ground ; three or four new ones spring up from the stump ; and these, 
when they can no longer sustain themselves erect, are supported by 
small poles planted beside them. Thus a vineyard in the South of 
France, when most luxuriant, greatly resembles an American bean- 
field. In October, however, the case was very different; the vine 
having yielded its fruit, no longer received the care of the cultivator ; 
the props had been removed, to be preserved for the next season, and 
the leaves, already scorched, and deprived of their verdure, had been 
blown away by the last mistral.* The mournful olive added a grave- 
yard solemnity to the picture, and the parched vallies, instead of being 
green with herbage, showed nothing but a burnt up stubble, to tell that 
they had once been verdant. Though goats were occasionally discov- 
ered, climbing the hills in search of their subsistence, sheep and oxen 
and droves of horses were nowhere to be seen. The villages, though 
firequent and populous, were anything but neat ; the streets were filthy, 
and the dwellings neglected. It is true, however, that the women were 
beautifiil ; their glowing eyes and arch expression denoted intelligence 
and passionate feeling ; while their ruddy hue and symmetric confor- 
mation gave assurance that they were both healthy and agile. The 
men, too, were well made, and of larger size than is general in France; 
but, though the wine presses were still reeking firom the vintage, there 
was no music, no song, and no dance. That the Proven^aux were 
noisy and turbulent, I had already been told ; but I had occasion to 
make the remark for myself, at a bull-fight in the amphitheatre of 
Nismes, and at an execution, where I first beheld the fatal guiUotme^ 
in Montpellier. The conductor of the diligence grew harsh and brutal, 
and even the French postillion, that model of good-natured civility, 
beat his horses harder and became more surly, as I approached the 
Pyrenees. 



* Miatral ■troag north wind, well known in Provenee, and which, alteruiting. 
suddenly with the wvm breeses of the Mediterranean, produces the eflect of the 
moat intense cold. 



ROU88ILLON AND CATALONIA. 11 

I had promised myself long befere, to spend a year of femaiBiBg 
leisure in (^>ain, and I now detennined to carry my purpose into im- 
mediate execution. My motives for going to a conntry which trayellers 
ordinarily aroid, were a wish to perfect myself in a language which is 
becoming so important in the hemisphere which it divides with our 
own, and a strong desire to visit scenes so full of intsrest and attraction. 
It chanced that a young Frenchman, with whom I had come to Peri> 
pignan, was of the same intention. He had been in Germany, Russia, 
and England, and spoke our language with a fluency which French- 
m&n rarely attain. We had sat twside each other in the diligence, and 
our conversation, among other things, had revealed our mutual plans ; 
BO we agreed to keep on in company to Barcelona. We were yet 
talking over the necessary arrangements with our landlady, when our 
gfoop was joined by a discontented old captain of foot, who had fought 
beside Dugommier, when be fell in bsttJe in the neighbouring Pyre- 
nees, and who had remained sUticmary since the downftil of Napoleon. 
As he, also, had been our fellow passenger the day before, he could 
not see us go into Spain without a word of warning. He said, that he 
kad just seen a friend who had come lately from Zaragoza, and who 
had been twice plundered on the way ; and endeavoured, by drawing 
a terrible picture of the state of the country, to deter us from trusting 
ourselves in a land, where, according to him, we might be robbed and 
murdered at any hour of the day. This, however, was but a trifling 
impediment to men already reserved. There was a fair chance ^ 
escaping untouched, whilst the little danger that might be incurred, 
would heighten the pleasure of every scene and incident, reached with 
some risk, and enjoyed with a sense of insecurity ; and even to be 
pounced upon, on the highway, and thence carried off, like Oil Bias, 
to some subterranean cfive, to feast with the bandits on the fat (^ the 
land, and be instmraental in saving some beautiful widow, were no bad 
akemative. So, our journey was determined upon ; and having taken 
enr seats in the interior of the diligence, which was to set out early the 
next morning, and having beoght Spanish gold with our French money, 
we returned to the hotd, to eat our last meal in France. Quitting the 
table, where a party of friendly and social comnds vayageurs, who had 
never seen each other before, and might never see each other again, 
were discussing in the most earnest and familiar manner the relative 
merits of their respective departments, we withdrew early to bed. We 
went more reluctantly forth the next morning, before dawn, at the 
bidding of the porter ; and by the time we had seated ourselves, the 
horses were geared, and the gates of the town being opened, we rattled 
over the drawbridge, and took leave of Peripignan. 



For some time after our departure, each continued sleeping or ru- 
annatiog in his peculiar corner; but by and by the day stole gradually 
upon us, until the sun rose at last above the horizon, sending its rays 
through the broken clouds, which grew thinner as we advanced. 'I was 



12 ROUSSILLON AND CATALONIA. 

now enabled to discoTer something of the economy of our dSigence, 
and to speculate with more certainty upon the profession and character 
of my fellow passengers, than I had been enabled to do, when we took 
our seats by the light of a single lantern. 

One of the first things with which the traveller is brought into con- 
tact on his arrival in France, and which, as much as any other, attracts 
his attention, is the public coach, very gratuitously named the diligence. 
This most curious of vehicles is composed of three distinct chambers 
or cabins for passengers. From without, it has the appearance of as 
many carriages, of different constructions, which have formed them- 
selves into a copartnership for the public accommodation. The front 
part, called the coupS or adniolei, resembles those old-fashioned chariots, 
that have only a back seat, with windows in front and at the side. Here 
three passengers may be very comfortable ; for the seats are much more 
roomy, than with us, and an extra passenger is never crowded in. In- 
deed, each seat is numbered, and on taking your place, it is marked 
upon your ticket, and all cause of difficulty and altercation is obviated. 
As an additional convenience, the sides and backs of the seats are 
cushioned up to the top, and over head are bands for placing hats, for 
which night-caps of silk or cotton are usually substituted. Accoutred 
in one of these, a passenger can not only read, but sleep with some 
comfort in the diligence, which, from its slow rate, of about five miles 
the hour, is forced to travel all night, in order to make a tolerable pro- 
gress. The interior carries six passengers, who sit op two benches, 
facing each other ; and the rotunda, which, though the after-cabin, is 
not the post of honor, an equal number. Last comes the imperial; 
so called, doubtless, from its stately appearance. It stands upon the 
summit, and is covered at pleasure with a leathern top. From this 
proud elevation the captain of the diligence overlooks all the concerns 
of his land-ship, and gives his orders with the peremptory air of one 
accustomed to command. In a square box at the back of the conduc- 
tor, which occupies the whole roof, the baggage is stowed, and covered 
with a leathern apron; a singular assortment of trunks, bags, dogs, 
monkeys, band-boxes, and parrots. The whole fabric rests upon hori- 
zontal springs, which are, in turn, sustained by a running-gear and 
wheels of corresponding solidity. Five horses are sufficient over the 
fine roads of France, to form the team of itas moving mountain ; one 
is attached on each side of the pole, the remaining three go more socia- 
bly together, on the lead. The whole are driven by a postillion, who be- 
strides the left wheel horse, and who, from the singularity of his cos- 
tume, and the incredible size and heaviness of his boots, is by far the 
most wonderful particular of this truly wonderful whole. * 



* The immense weight of these vehicles, when overladen and top-heavy— for they 
also carry freight — renders them very difficult to manage in a long descent. The 
wheels aie ahM as a matter of oouise, but the chains which hold them, and keep the 
wheels from revolving, some times break, when the horses, to save themselves from 
being run over, are fiirced to set off at a gallop. As the momentum, however, is 
constantly increasing, they cannot long preserve their station in advance. They 



roussuijon and CATALONU. * 13 

My attention^ when the day had dawned, was first attracted to the 
portion of the diligence in which I rode. My former companion was 
beside me, and in front of us were a lady and gentleman. The latter 
was an officer, some thirty or forty years old, with a mixture of fear* 
lessness and good humor in his countenance. He wore the broad- 
' breasted capot of blue, peculiar to the French infantry, and had the 
number of his regiment engraTen upon each of his buttons. A leaUi- 
em sword belt hung from his left pocket flap, and on his head was a 
military bonnet of cloth, with a flatr^de-fys in front. His beard was ' 
of some days standing, indicating the time he had been upon his jouz^ 
ney ; and his long mustaches hung about his mouth, neglected and 
crest-fallen. When the sun rose, howcFer, he hastened to twist them 
up, until they stood fiercely from his face ; then, having run his fingers 
through his hair, and replaced his bonnet on one side, his toilette might 
be said to be completed, and he turned with an air of confidence, to 
look at the lady beside him. 

She was much younger than himself, and was very beautiful. Her 
hair and eyes were as black as they could be, and her features, full of 
life and animation, were of a mellow brown, which, while it looked 
rich and inviting, had, besides, an air of durability. It was somewhat 
difficult to understand the relation subsisting between the officer and 
the lady. He had come to the diligence with her, made her accept 
of bis cloak to keep off the Qold air of the morning, and was assiduous 
in his' attentions to her comfort. Their conversation soon showed, 
however, that their acquaintance was but of recent date ;' that the lady 
was going to Figueras, to join her husband, a sul>lieutenant in the 
garrison; that the officer had been on eongi from his regiment in 
Barcelona, whither he was now returning ; and that they had travelled 
together accidentally from Narbonne. The difference between the 
French and most other nations, and the secret of their enjoying them- 
selves in almost any situation, is, simply, that they endeavour to con- 
tent themselves with the present, and draw from it whatever amusement 
it may be capable of affi>rding. Utiliser ses moments, is a maxim, which 
they not only utter frequently, but follow always. They make the 
most of such society as chance may send them, are polite to persons 
whom they never expect to see again, and thus often begin, where 
duller spirits end, by gaining the good-will of all who come near them. 
In this way, our officer had turned his time to good account, and was 
already on exceUent terms with his fair companion. Nor was he 
inattentive to us, but exceedingly courteous and polite ; so that, instead 
of frowning defiance upon each other, and putting ourselves at ease 
without regarding the comfort of the rest, we all endeavoured to be 
agreeable, and even to prefer each the convenience of his fellow- 
travellers to his own. 

are, at length, overtaken and crushed beneath the resUtleaB impetus of the mtea, 
which paasea over them, and is at the same time overturned, or, beine diverted from 
is course, is precipitated over the roadside. Fearful accidents of this nature some- 
times occur, and on the road between (rcncra and Lyons, which passes over die 
Jura, they are not nnfitequent. 



14 RDUSSILLON AND CATALONIA. 

There were no paaaengen in the caibrioUi^ ind the condaetor, in 
epite of the ordinance, had descended from his stately station on the 
imperial, to the humbler, though warmer birth, in liie front of the 
dilligence, where he sat, wrapp^ up in a great variety of flur Jackets, 
with a red comforter round his neck, and a 8eal«4kin cap on his head, 
which he would occasionally project from the window, to hail a passing* 
acquaintance or give some order to the postillion. The rotunda, 
however, was full, as I could see by opening a small window which 
communicated between it and the interior. Some of the passengers 
were still sleeping, with their cotton nightcaps drawn over their faces ; 
while others were smoking cigars, and carryins on a discordant con* 
versation in French, Proven9a], or Catalan, in one of the sleepers 
I recognised a pastry cook, whom I happened to meet at the mayor's 
office at Peripignan. The old gentleman, a chevalier of St Louis, 
refused at first to let him leave the kingdom, in consequence of some 
defect in his passport; but he finally yielded to the poor fellow's 
solicitations, and made him happy, by telling him that he might go 
and Toake p^ts patis for the Barcelonians. Another was going to 
buy cork ; and a third was a gIove>maker of Grenoble, who had been 
settled some years in Barcelona, and was now returning from a visit to 
his native town. This was a young man of twentyfive or thereabouts, 
with a short bull-neck, and a stubborn countenance, not at all improved 
by a low fur cap, without a brim, by which it was surmounted. He 
bad married the wife of his former master, who had taken a fancy to 
liim, on or before the death of her husband, stepping thus, at once, 
into his bed and business. The old lady came forth a half-day'B journey 
to meet and welcome him at Mataro; where, As they encountered, the 
fondness of the one, and the patient endurance of the othor, furnished 
e singular and amusing picture of matrimonial felicity. 



The countrv through which our road lay, on leaving Peripignan, 
was highly cultivated ; producing some bread stufis, but chiefly wine, 
oil, and silk. These branches of agriculture, however, though they 
carry with them so many associations of luxuriance and beauty, furnish 
by no means so many picturesque attractions, as are to be found in a 
pastoral district, with its simpler combination of trees, and streams, 
and meadows. The season of the year, too, was very unfavorable for 
rural display. A powerful sun had already destroyed the leaves of the 
vine and mulberry, so that the only remaining verdure was offered by 
the dive, which still preserved its foliage and its fruit, blackening as 
it ripened — if, indeed, that could be ^led verdure, whose gray aad 
lifeless hue was akin to the soil which nourished it The olive, in 
truth, owes everything to association ; it has the sadness of the willow, 
witii little of its grace. 

As seen from Peripignan, the Pyrenees had stood in rugged per- 
spective before job, rising gradually from the Mediterranean, and 
toiding westward, where Mont Perdu reared his snowy head upward, 



B0US8IUX>N AND CATALONIA. 15 

until it was lost in the hearens. Their apparent elevation did not, 
however, increase upon us in advancing; for our road, instead of 
attacking the loftier ranges, sought an inferior pass, not very distant 
from the sea, where the Pyrenees may scarce claim the character of 
mountains. There are three principal roads communicating between 
France and Spain ; one from St Jean de Luz into Guipuscoa ; another 
from St Jean de Piedport into Navarre ; and a third, by which we 
were crossing, from Roussillon to Catalonia, by the pass of Junquera. 
There are, however, a variety of passes through the Pyrenees, which 
are not only practicable for horses, but even for carriages and 
artillery ; yet does this famous range offer an admirable l^undary 
to the two great nations which it divides, defined as it is on both 
sides, by the course of water, which marks the French territory, 
when ite direction is northward, the Spanish, when it seeks an' outlet 
to the south. 

When the ascent commenced, the postillion left his saddle, jumped 
out of his boots, which he hitched together and threw over the back 
of the bidet^ that he might not miss his rider, and sauntered along at 
the side of his team, cracking his whip or raising his voice, in the hght 
shoes which he wore habitually within his boots. The conducter, too, 
got down, and we all took to our legs, except our female compan- 
ion, and the captain, to whom a march offered no novelty. In ascend- 
ing, the crests of the mountain became craggy, but the gorges were still 
cidtivated. There was little, however, to merit the name of fine 
scenery ; for our windings along the bottoms of the ravines cut us off 
from any extended vista, while around us, there were neither wood- 
lands nor mountain streams, with their attendant fertility. 



At the last French post our passports were examined ; and when 
we reached Junquera, the first village in Spain, diligent search was 
made for the necessary countersign of some Spanish consul or other 
authorized functionary. Here our trunks were likewise inspected 
with much eagerness, to discover if they might contain any contraband 
articles, or prohibited books, including, indeed all, except such as 
preach political and religious obedience, but especially the works of 
Marmontel, Voltaire, and Rosseau, together with the modern metsr 
physicians and economists. The orders to search were the more 
particular at this moment, in consequence of a large package of books 
having lately been detected in attempting to pass the barrier, bearing 
on their backs the pious title of Vidas de hs Santos ; but which were 
in fact nothing less than Spanish translations of the Social Contract, 
and pocket coitions of Llorente's History of the Inquisition. As I 
chdnced to have among my things, the Henriade and a few plays, 
productions of the arch-sceptic, I was glad to avoid the trouble of 
search and the risk of detection by slipping a piece of silver into the 
hands of the officer, who had given me to understand that it would be 
acceptable. 



10 ROUSSILLON AND CATAU)NIA. 

ianqaera is a niaecable village, owiDg its existenoe^ not to an/ 
adraiiUg€6 of soil, bot to its situation near the top of the pass, where 
a stopping place is essential to the acconunodation of travellers. Like 
most places similarly situated, it has but a squalid appearance ; so that 
the tpaveller vho enters Spain bj this roate, will always receire an 
nnftivoraUe impression of the country which he is about to visit. 
At usually happens, in passing the frontier of two countries, he may 
likewise be surprised at finding so little difference in the manners and 
appearance of the inhabitants. Remembering that those who lire 
north of the firontier are Frenchmen^ those south of it Spaniards, he 
may wonder that there should exist so much conformity between people 
of two nations, which, in all their essential characteristics, are as 
different as they can well be. But, here, as elsewhere, there is a sort 
of neutral ground, where the dress, manners, and language are made 
up of those peculiar to the neighbouring countries. Thus at Peripignan 
the PfQven^al begins to blend itself with the Catalan, the latter enter- 
ing more and more into the compound, as you approach the Pyrenees, 
until there is little of the former left, but such words and expressions 
as are common to the two languages. They may be called languages, 
because besides being generally spoken, they are both written and 
have their respective grammars, their literature, and their poetry. 
Even now, as in the days of the troubadour, there are perhaps more 
ballads hawked about in the cities of Provence, than in any other 
country ; and there is a softness and harmony in their versification,, 
which French poetry does not always possess. The Proven9aI is a de- 
generate Latin, between the French and Italian, the French words 
being terminated by aspirated vowels, and softened into an Italian 

f>ronunciation ; but the Catalan, though chiefly derived firom the old 
anguage of the troubadour, is a rougher, and much harsher tongue ; 
it has a hawking, spluttering sound, which may have come with the 
barbarians ft'om the north of Europe. 

In the public officers, police, military, in fact in everything which 
relates to the general service, the traveller will, however, notice a most 
decided change, in passing from France into Spain. On the French 
side, he finds snug buildings to shelter the custom-officers; men who 
would repel a bribe with indignation ; cleanliness and uniformity in 
the dress of the employis ; and gens-ttarmes well accoutred and well 
mounted, patrolling the country in pursuit of robbers, and enabling the 
citizen to pursue his avocations in security. On the Spanish side, how 
different. Miserable looking addaneros crawl forth, with paper cigars 
in their mouths, in old cocked hats of oil cloth, and rolled in tattered 
cloaks, from beneath mud hovels, which seem to be only waiting for 
their escape, that they may tumble down. .They make a show of ex- 
amining you, ask for something for cigars, and if you give them, a 
peseta, they say that all is well, and you go by unmolested. Here 
there is no law but that of the strongest, and eyery man is seen carry- 
bg a gun to protect his person and property. 



ROUSSILLON AND CATALONU. 17 

On leaving Junquera, the road followed a rivulet, and, after 
descending a while, the barren region of the Pyrenees softened into 
scenes of partial cultivation. The vallies and sheltered situations were 
covered with wheat, vines, and olives, and the hill tops were fringed 
with cork trees. This useful production is known in Spain by the 
name of alcomoque. It is a species of the mdna, which, though of very 
different appearance from our oak, furnishes a wood of the same grain, 
and produces acorns, which are not sd bitter as ours, and which, as 
an article of food, the poorer classes do not always abandon to the hogs. 
Thus we are told that Sancho was a great lover of heUotas, The cork 
tree grows to the height of our apple tree, and spreads its branches 
much in the same manner; but the trunk is of much greater dimen- 
sions, and the foliage of a more gloomy hue. Its trunk and branches 
are covered with a thick ragged bark, which would seem to indicate 
disease. The trunk alone, however, furnishes a bark of sufficient 
thickness to be of use in the arts. It is first stripped away in the 
month of July, when the tree is fifteen years old ; but is then of no use, 
except to burn, and is only removed for the sake of producing a stouter 
growth. In the course of six or eight years, the inner bark has grown 
into a cork of marketable quality, and continues to yield, at similar 
intervals, for more than a century. 

Towards noon we drove into the town of Figueras, the first place of 
importance within the Spanish frontier. It is overlooked by a citadel, 
in which the science of fortification has been exhausted. There is an 
old proverb, which, in characterizing the military excellence of three 
great nations, prefers ' the French to take, the Spanish to fortify, and 
the English to keep.' The Spaniards have proved, at Figueras, that they 
are entitled to the praise awarded them ; for with a sufficient garrison . 
and supplies the place is esteemed impregnable. It is now occupied by 
the French to secure their communications with the army in Barcelona. 
When it will cease to be thus occupied is another question. 

As soon as we drove up to the posada, a party of wild Catalans rush- 
ed forth from the stable*yard, to assist in carrying away our team ; and 
the conductor, who had long since descended from his elevated station 
along the iron steps placed at the side of the diligence, and stood upon 
the lowest one, supported by a rope from above, now jumped to the 
ground and hastened to release us from our captivity. Our captain 
alighted first, and, having relieved himself by a well-bred stretch, was 
just holding out his hand to assist his female friend, when he was sud- 
denly saved the trouble by a stout, fine-looking fellow, a sub-lieutenant 
of chasseurs, who stepped in before him. This was a rough Provenpal, 
with a black beard, who had fought his way to his present station, with- 
out fear or favor. He was evidently the husband of the lady ; for she, 
. declining the captain's courtesy, jumped into his arms and embraced 
him. The husband seemed pleased enough to find himself, once more, 
so near sa petite, and when he had called some soldiers, who were 
standing by, to carry his wife's band-boxes, he took her under his arm^ 
and carried her away in a hurry to his quarters, his spurs jingling at 
each step, and his sabre clattering after him over the pavement. The 
3 



18 ROUSSILLON AND CATALONIA. 

captain twisted bis mustaches, and glared fiercely after the receding 
couple ; but as the man was only exercising an honest privilege, he 
said not a word, but bade the conductor hand him down his sword, and 
when he had thrust it through his belt, we all went into the posada. 



The next place of any consequence through which we passed, was 
Gerona, a fortified town situated on a mountain. Its foundation is as- 
cribed to the Gerons, who make so distinguished a figure in the fabu- 
.lous history of Spain, and whose destruction by the Lybian Hercules 
constitutes one of the twelve labors of the god. Gerona is very cele- 
brated in Spanish history tor the many sieges it has sustained, and for its 
successful resistance on twenty two occasions, which gained it the name 
of La Doncella — * The Damsel.' It lost its character, however, in the 
War of Succession, when it was entered by the Marshal de Noailles, 
and since then its fame is gone entirely. It was near nine at night 
when we reached the gate, where we were kept waiting half an hour^ 
until the key could be procured from the commandant. 

The next morning at four we were again in motion, rising and de- 
scending hills in rapid succession, until we came to a stream of some, 
width, over which there was no bridge, as we had already found to be 
the case with several others, since crossing the frontier. While we 
were yet descending the bank, the postillion put his team to its speed, 
80 that we proceeded a good distance with this acquired velocity. When 
in the middle, however, we were near stopping; for the river, which 
was much swollen, entered at the bottom of the diligence, washing 
through the wheels, and striking against the flanks of our horses, untS 
it rendered them powerless, and had well nigh driven them from their 
legs. They were for a moment at a stand ; but the whip and the voice 
of the postillion encouraged them to greater exertion, and, afler much 
struggling, they succeeded in dragging the coach over the stones at the 
bottom of the torrent, and in bringing it safely to land. 

We were not alone in this little embarrassment ; for there was a 
party of about a hundred Frenchman crossing the stream at the same 
time. They were going to join a regiment at Barcelona, and with the 
exception of a few vieux moustaches among the non-commissioned officers, 
who did not need their stripes of service to proclaim them veterans, 
they were all conscripts, as any one who had seen Vernet's inimitable 
sketches, would readily have conjectured. It happened that there was 
a small foot-bridge, only one plank in width, which stood on upright 
posts driven into the bottom of the stream. The water was now nearly 
even with the top, and in some places flowed over. This, however, 
afforded a more agreeable way of crossing, than wading the river with 
water to the arm-pits. The commander of the party had already pass- 
ed, and stood, buttoned in his capot and with folded arms, upon an 
eminence beyond the stream, watching the motions of his followers. 
Those of the soldiers who had already crossed, stood upon the bank, 
laughing and hallooing at the unsteady steps of the conscripts, as they 



R0US6ILL0N AND CATALONIA. 19 

cftine Miming over with caps and coats fitting them like saeko, and 
. their muskets held out before them to assist in maintaining a balance. 
Though many tottered, only two or three fell, and these came to land 
well drenched, to the infinite amusement Of their comrades. Last 
xame a young sub-lieutenant, evidently on his first campaign, tripping 
along the plank with the airy step of a muscadin. Unfortunately, just 
as he had deared two thirds of the bridge, and was quickening his 
pace with an air of great self-complacency, a flaw of wind, rushing 
down the ravine, caught the skirts of his oil«cloth coat, and throwing 
him out of the perpendicular, he fell lull length, like a thresher fish, 
upon the water. The soldiers respected the feelings of their officer 
and repressed their mirth ; they rushed into the stream, each with ex* 
elamations of anxiety for mon lieutenant, and soon drew him to land 
dripping with the water, from which his patent cloak had not availed 
to protect him. 



The little village of Tordera lay just beyond the bank of the stream, 
sad Its whole population had come out to the con^r of the last house, 
to witness our simultaneous arrival. It happened to be Sunday, and, 
as I have sometimes fancied is apt to be the case, it brought with it a 
bright sunshine and a cloudless sky. The inhabitants, in considera- 
tion of the day and the weather, were decked in their gayest, fiirnish- 
ing me with a first and most favorable occasion of seeing something 
of the Catalans and of their costume. The men were of large stature^ 
perfectly well made and very muscular ; but there seemed something 
sinister in their appearance, partly produced by the length and shag- 
giness of their hair and the exaggerated cast of their countenances ; 
pardy, by the graceless character of their costume. It consisted of a 
short jacket and waistcoat of green or black velvet, scarce descending 
half way down the ribs, and studded thickly with silver buttons, at tl^ 
breasts, lappels, and sleeves ; the trowsers of the same material, or of 
nankeen, being long, full, and reaching from the ground to the arm-pits. 
Instead of shoes, they wore a hempen or straw sandal, which had a 
small place to admit and protect the toes, and a brace behincf with 
ciM'ds, by means of which it was bound tightly to the instep. Their 
dark-Canned and sinewy feet, seemed strangers to the embarrassment 
of a stocking, whilst their loins were girt with a sash of red silk or 
woollen. This article of dress, unknown among us, is universally worn 
by the working classes in Spain, who say that it keeps the back warm, 
sustains the loins, and prevents lumbago ; in short, that it does thein a 
great deal of gowl, and that they would bo undone without it. Most 
of the young men had embroidered ruffles, and collars tied by narrow 
sashes of red or yellow silk ; some displayed within their waistcoat a 
pair of ilashy suspenders of green silk, embroidered with red and ad- 
justed by means of studs and buckles of silver. The most remarkaUe 
article, however, of this singular dress, and by no means the most 
^aceful, was along cap of red woollen, which fell over behind the head, 
and hung a long way down the back, giving the wearer the look of a 



20 R0U8SILL0N AND CATALONIA. 

caMhroat. Whether from the association of the hamiet rogue, or some 
other prejadice, or from its own intrinsic ugliness, I was not able, dur- 
ing my short stay in Catalonia, to overcome my repugnance to this de- 
testable head-gear. 

As for the women, some of them were dressed in a gala suit of white, 
with silk slippers covered with spangles ; but more wore a plain black 
frock, trimmed with velvet of the same color. They were generally 
bare-headed^ just as they had come from their dwellings ; a few, re- 
turning perhaps from mass, had fans in their hands, and on their heads 
the mantilla. The Spanish manHUa is often made entirely of lace, 
but more commonly pf black silk, edged with the more costly material. 
It is fastened above the comb, and pinned to the hair, thence descend- 
ing to cover the neck and shoulders, and ending in two embroidered 
points which depend in front. These are not confined, but lefl to float 
about loosely ; so that, with the ever moving fan, they give full employ- 
ment to the hands of the lady, whose unwearied endeavours to conceal 
her neck furnishes a perpetual proof of her modesty. Though in for- 
mer times, the female foot was doomed in Spain to scrupulous conceal- 
ment, to display it is now no longer a proof of indecency. The frock 
had been much shortened among these fair Catalans, each of whom ex- 
hibited a well-turned ancle, terminated in a round little foot, neatly 
shrouded in a thread stocking, with a red, a green^ or a black slipper. 
They were besides of graceful height and figure, with the glow of 
health deep upon their cheeks, and eyes that spoke a burning soul with- 
in. There was much of the grace, and ease, and fascination of the Pro- 
ven9elle, with a glow and luxuriance enkindled by a hotter sun. 

We were detained a short time in Tordera to change horses, so that 
before we departed, the French party filed into the little square by beat 
of drum ; the captain marching sword in hand at the head, while his 
lieutenant slunk past us, with the water oozing from his boots at each 
tread, and sought out the kitchen of the posada. When the line was 
formed, the sergeant proceeded to call the roll. Sentinels were placed 
to parade on each side of the square, and then the arms being stacked, 
and the sacks and accoutrements of the soldiers hung upon them, they 
all got instantly as merry as crickets, stretched their backs, now reliev- 
ed of their aching burthens, or capered about the square, wrestling 
with each other, or fencing with their hands, as if they had foils in 
them. Others wandered away to a neighbouring wine shop to stay their 
stomachs while their rude meal was preparing, levying a subscription 
of coppers for the purpose, as they went, whilst a solitary swain prefer- 
red rather to roam aside to a neighbouring alley, and make love to a 
damsel of Tordera. 



Leaving this little village and its pleasant scenes, we ascended a hill 
and came suddenly in sight of the Mediterranean, and of a far stretching 
extent of coast, whitened, at short intervals, by busy little villages, 
which received .the tribute of both sea and land ; for, while a well 
cultivated country supplied the wants of the industrious inhabitant. 



ROUSSILLON AND CATAIX>NLt 31 

eoantkss filling boats were seen upon the water, tugiiig their way to 
the beach by saB and oar, to land their spoi], and share in the rest and 
jubilee of the Sabbath. When we came to the shore, some of these 
boats were already hauled up. They had but one short mast leaning 
forward with a very long yard, over which their nets were now sus« 
pended to dry, whUe the fish taken in their toils, flattered in heaps on 
the sand or were carried away in baskets. These boats were sharo at 
both ends, with a high prow, ending in a round ball, painted to r^e- 
sent the human &(^, and covered with a wig of sheep skin. Beside 
this odd ornament, some had a half-moon or a human eye on either 
bow. Nor were there wanting larger vessels, clean-built smugglers 
and others, anchored near the shore; while, fiurther in the ofSuig, were 
ships and brigs, stretching to and fro against a contrary wind, anxious 
to escape firom the stormy region of the Gulf of Lyons. One ship had 
come quite near. Her well-fashioned and varnished body and trim- 
rigged masts, with the snowy whiteness of her canvass, rendered it 
likely that she was American. Nor was there anything hazardous in 
the conjecture, since wherever there is water to float a ship, it has 
been divided by an American keel. I felt sure of the matter from the 
first, being somewhat of a connoisseur in matters of ships' and rigging; 
for, when yet a child, I had loved to loiter about the wharves of my 
native city, watching the arrival of ships from countries which I knew 
as yet only through my geography, or witnessing the casting-ofl* of 
defMirting vessels, the la^ halloo and later greeting of shawls and 
handkerchiefs, as friends were separated from each other. It was not, 
however, without a feeling of additional satisfaction, that I presently 
saw the proud ship turn towards the wind, present the opposite side to 
its efforts, and change the direction of her sails, offering her stern to 
OUT view, and, as if pleased with the opportunity, hoisting alofl and 
displaying in the bright sunshine the stars and stripes of that banner, 
which has never been branded with dishonor, nor sullied by strong* 
handed injustice. I was alone in a foreign land, strange sights were 
before me, and stranger sounds were echoing in my ears yet the home 
feeling, thus called up, asserted itself witlmi me. I brushed a tear 
from my cheek, rather in exultation than in sorrow, and, when the 
gidlant ship had faded from view, offered an inward prayer that her 
voyage might be prosperous. 

Our road now lay along the coast through a great number of villages, 
which formed themselves into a double row of houses on either side. 
I was struck with the neat appearance of these dwellings, unlike any* 
thing I had seen in France. Some were two stories, more but one in 
height, plastered and whitewashed, with red tile roofs. The door 
opened into a long entry, neatly garnished and matted. Not unfre- 
quently, a little altar stood at the extremity, illuminated by a single 
lamp. A rude image of Our Lady of the Pillar was usually the promi- 
nent object, and around was an abundance of pewter ornaments and 
pictures. It was the family shrine; their refuge in the hour of 
distress ; when the storm rages, and the boat of her husband is not 
yet upon the beach, the only succour of an anxious wife — if not the 
source of real protection, at least a foundation for confidence and hope. 



9B R0U8SILL0N ANP CATALONIA. 

Beside the door revealing this shrine of family dervotioD, was a high 
window, grated with iron bars and ornamented with flower pots. TMs 
was also a shrine, though devoted to a different order of excellence. 
A lovely girl might often be seen, sitting with her chair in the window ; 
one foot concealed under it, the other projecting between the gratings 
of the balcony, displaying perfectly its graceful curve and well-defined 
outline. Her left arm over the back of her chair, the right holds a 
fan with which she presses her under lip into more inviting relief. 
Her full dark eye glances rapidly at all who pass, frowns upon some 
and favors others, whom she at the same time salutes with a gracious 
bending forward of the head, and one of those winning and prolonged 
shakes of the fan or fingers, which, though so common in Spain, are 
yet quite enough to turn the head of any man. One of our passengers, 
a young student whom we had taken in at Gerona, had never before 
been from home. He set out sad and tearful, as boys are wont to do, 
and during the whole morning scarce uttered a monosyllable. As his 
home receded, however, he grew less sorrowfiil, and the unaccustomed 
scenes of the coast and the shipping became so many sources of 
amusement. But the bright eyes of these brown beauties were far more 
effectual ; indeed they put the devil into the boy. Whenever we past 
one of these favored balconies, he would jump to the window, shake 
his hands with a smile, after the fashion of the country, call the lady 
* the heart of his soul,' and utter many tender speeches in Catalan. 
Once, when a rarer combination of lips and eyes had raised his rapture 
and admiration too high for words, he took refuge in signs, loading the 
ends of his fingers with kisses, and wafting them tenderly after the 
manner of the Turks. Nor did the damsel thus saluted grow angry 
at his impertinence. When she saw how fast the diligence went, and 
that it was only a boy, she took courage and returned the salutation 
by mimicking it. 

In this merry way we rattled through many villages, which lay in 
the road to Barcelona. Nor was the country itpolf without attraction. 
The protecting Pyrenees formed a barrier against the bleak mistral, 
while the sunny exposure of the coast and the moist winds of the 
Mediterranean, tended to keep vecretation alive. There were cornfields, 
vineyards, and olive orchards, all divided from each other by hedges 
of aloe. This hardy plant, while it forms enclosures which take care 
of themselves and are imi>eiietrable, furnishes fibres which are woven 
into a coarse cloth, used in tho country, and sent to America for cotton 
bagging, and even into lace and other fine textures. The orange, too, 
might occasionally be seen at the sunny side of a house, loaded with 
its rich fruit, and its leaves still verdant and exhaling fragrance, nor 
had the singing birds yet ccas€Mt their carol. 



Such was the succession of objects that varied our ride to Bar- 
celona, which we reached before sunset. The population, dressed 
in various and fantastic costumes, and intermingled with Frendi 
soldiery, were returning from their Sunday's promenade, and hurrying 



R0U8SUX0N AND CATAJLONU. S8 

to reach the gales before they should close for the night We entered 
with them, ivound through the streets of the Catak>nian metropolis, 
and were presently set down at the coach-office beside the Rambla. 
We were not long in dispersing. Some went one way, some another. 
The young Frenclunan and I remained together, and when we had 
obtained our trunks from the top of the diligence, which the porters 
were able to reach by means of a long ladder, we sought lodgings at the 
neighbouring Fonda of the Four Nations. 

Before separating, however, we had exchanged addresses with our 
companion the captain, and received an invitation to visit him at his 
quarters. We took an early occasion of redeeming our promise, and 
at length found him oat in a little room, overlooking one of the nar- 
rowest streets of Barcelona. As we entered, he was sitting thought- 
fully <Hi his bed, with a folded paper in his hand, one foot on the 
ground, the other swinging. A table, upoii which were a few books, 
and a solitary chair, formed the only furniture of the apartment; while 
a schaiko, which hung from the wall by its nailed throat-lash, a sword, 
a pair of foils and masks, an ample cloak of blue, and a small port- 
manteau, containing linen and uniform, constituted the whole travelling 
equipage and moveable estate of this marching officer. We accom- 
modated ourselves, without admitting apologies, on the bed and the 
chair, and our host set about the task of entertaining us, which none 
can do better than a Frenchman. He had just got a letter from 
a widow lady, whose acquaintance he had cultivated when last in 
Barcelona, and was musing upon the answer. Indeed, his amatory 
correspondence seemed very extensive ; for he took one billet which he 
had prepared from the cuff of his capot, and a second from the fold 
of his bonnet, and read them to us. They were full of extravagant 
stuff, rather remarkable for warmth than delicacy, instead of a signa- 
ture at the bottom, had a heart transfixed with an arrow, and were 
done up in the shape of a cocked hat. As for the widow, he did not 
know where to find words sweet enough for her ; and protested that he 
had half a mind to send her the remaining one of a pair of mustaches, 
which he had taken from his lip after the campaign of Russia, and which 
he presently produced, of enormous length, from a volume of tactics. 

When we were about to depart, our captain said that he was going 
to the caserne of his regiment, to assist in an assault of arms which 
was to be given by the officers, and asked us to go with him. The 
scene of the assault was a basement room. The pavement of pounded 
mortar was covered with plank, to make it more pleasant to the feet. 
We found a couple already fencing, and our companion soon stripped 
to prepare for the encounter. It was singular to see the simplicity of 
his dress. When he removed his boots to put on the sandal, his feet 
were without stockings, and under his close- buttoned capot there was 
no waistcoat, nothing to cover his shaggy breast, but a coarse linen 
shirt without a collar ; for the French officers wear nothing about the 
neck beside a stock of black velvet edged with white. Having taken 
off the sword-belt which hung from his shoulder, and bound his sus- 
penders round his loins, he rolled his sleeves up, chose a mask and foil, 
and was ready to step into the arena. It appeared that our captain 



34 ROUSSILLON AND CATALONIA. 

was master of his weapon^ from the difficulty in finding him an 
antagonist. This, however^ was at length removed, by the stepping 
forth of a dose-built little sabreur. It was a fine display of manly 
grace, to see the opening salutations of courtesy, and the fierce contest 
that ensued, as they alternately attacked and defended, winding them- 
selves within the guard of each other with the stealth and quickness 
of the serpent, and glaring firom within theur masks with eyes of 
fire. The buttons of theur foils were not covered with leather, as is 
usual among more moderate fencers, lest the motion of the points 
should be embarrassed. Hence the rough edges, as they grazed the 
arm or struck full upon the breast, brought blood in several places. 
This same weapon, the foil, is generaUy used by the French military 
in duels, with the single preparation of cutting off the button. When 
the assault was concluded, the antagonists removed their masks and 
shook hands, as is the custom, in order to remove any irritation that 
might have occurred during the contest. Then commenced a brisk 
and earnest conversation upon the performance, fiirnishing matter for 
many compliments and never-ending discussion. During a year's 
residence in France, I had never before met with any one who had 
taken part in the campaign of Russia; as I now looked, however, 
upon the muscular arms of the captain and his iron conformation, I 
was not surprised that he had been of the few who had gone through 
the horrors of that disastrous expedition. 



Onrfonda was situated, as we have already seen, upon the Rambla, 
an immense highway through the city, the chief thoroughfare and 
promenade of Barcelona. Being of modem construction, we found 
large and commodious apartments. But to one accustomed to the 
convenience and luxury of a French bedchamber, which constitutes 
indeed the chief excellence of their inns, my present room was but 
dreary and desolate. Besides t^e tile floor and whitewashed walls and 
ceiling, there were a few chairs, a table, and no mirror ; on one side 
a comfortless bed, hidden by curtains in an alcove; on the other, a 
large window with folding sashes and grated balcony. It overlooked 
an open field, which had no trees, but was covered with ruins and rub- 
bish. The place had formerly been the site of the convent and spacious 
garden of a Capuchin fraternity. The property had been sold during 
the late period of the Constitution, and the buyers were proposing to 
build houses, and to render it productive, when the royalist insurrection, 
which the despoiled clergy had stirred up, aided by French armies, 
brought about the counter-revolution. Those who had paid for the 
land were dispossessed with little ceremony, and the materials which 
they had been collecting to erect stores and dwellings, were now 
fastened upon by. the returning fugitives, to renew the demolished 
combination of church, and cell, and cloister. The good fathers mi^ht 
be seen all day from my window, moving about as busy as bees, with 
their long beards and dingy habits of gray, girded with a rope, super- 
intending the labor of twenty or thirty workmen. In watching their 



ROUSSILLDN AN0 CATALONIA. 25 

manoeavres, and commiserating the poor Spaniards, I found a gloomy 
distraction for all my idle hours. 



The balconies in the front of our fanda offered a gayer view ; ibr it 
overlooked the wide walk and busy scenes of the Rambla. It was con- 
stantly frequented by every variety of people, and in the afternoon was 
thronged to overflowing. The scene then became animated indeed. 
There were many well-dressed men and women, evidently the fashion 
of the place ; country people and artisans ; French officers and sol- 
diers, moving along with pretty girls hanging on their arms, and each 
apparently as much at home as though he were in the centre of his 
own Department. There were also students rolled in long black 
cloaks ; their breeches, stockings, and cocked hau, also black, and with- 
out even so much as a shirt collar to relieve the gloom of their attire. 
But the most numerous class of pedestriaus were the clergy. Their 
appearance was grotesque enough ; the seculars, canons, curates, and 
vicars, wore, frocks of black, concealing their breeches and stockings 
of the same color. Over all, they had an ample cloak of black cloth 
or silk, without a cape, which either hung loosely around them, or was 
thrown into a graceful fold by placing the right skirt over the opposite 
shoulder. The hat, however, was the most remarkable object of their 
dress. It consisted of an immense flat three or four feet in diameter, 
turned up at the sides until the two edges met above the crown. It 
was worn with the long part pointing before and behind ; for had it 
been carried sideways, a few would have served to block die Rambla 
and render passing impracticable. The best time to convince one's self 
of the convenience of this head gear is in a gale of wind. Many a 
severe fit of laughter have I had in Spain, when it has been blowing hard, 
to see a priest come unexpectedly upon a windy corner and struck by 
a flaw. One hand is stretched to the front of the long hat, the other 
to the back of it, as though devotion had prompted a new way of sign* 
ing the cross ; and then his many robes fluttering and struggling to the 
sad entanglement of the legs, combined to form a figure altogether 
ludicrous. Besides the secular clergy, there was a goodly store of 
monks in black, white, blue, or gray, with their fat and unseemly 
heads shaved bare at the crown and about the neck and temples. A 
few were worn down and emaciated, as if from fasting, vigils, and mac- 
cation, with an air of cold-blooded and fanatic abstraction ; the greater 
part were burly and well-conditioned, with sensuality engraven on every 
feature. As they waddled contentedly and self-complacently along the 
Rambla, they would peer into the mantillas of all the pretty girls that 
passed them, exchanging a shake of the. fingers or a significant glance 
with such as were of their acquaintance. There is no part of Spain 
where the clergy are more numerous than in Catalonia ; for they form 
more than two per cent, of the entire population. Two men in a hun- 
dred, who neither sow, nor reap, nor labor ; and who, nevertheless, 
cat, and drink, and luxuriate ! The fact is its own best commentary. 
4 



CHAPTER U. 

PRINCIPALITY OF CATALONIA. 

Barcelona.— -Its Enyirons.— The Nona.— History of BarceIona.~It8 Present Condi - 
tion.—Departure for Valencia.— The Team of Mules.— The Bishop of Vique.— 
Rida i6 Tarragona.— Tlie City. 

Tbe principality of Catalonia forma part of the kingdom of Arragooi 
and extends along the Mediterranean, from the Pyrenees to the Ebfro. 
It is by nature broken, mountainous, and averscf from cultivation. But 
the stubborn industry of the inhabitants has forced it into fertility, and 
at no distant day it had more manufacturers than any other part of 
Spain, carried on extensive fisheries, and traded to the remotest cor- 
ners of the world, thus offering the agreeable spectacle of a country 
sustaining a numerous and flourishing population, though unaided by 
th6 bounties of nature. 

Barcelona is the capital of the principality. It is situated upon a 
plain bpside the sea. Without the walls towards the souUiwest, is an 
insulated hill called Monjui, which is crowned with a fine fortress and 
is impregnable by any regular attack. The Ijobregat runs behind it, 
whilst the horizon on the north and west is closed by a bold. range of 
mountains, which ^arrest the bleak winds of winter. Among these, 
Monserrat, celebrated not less for its venerated shrine, under the invo- 
cation of the Blessed Virgin, than for the horrors of ito scenery and 
situation, lifts its crest, fringed with a forestof rocky pyramids.* The 
port is partly formed by a natural indentation of the coast, but chiefly 
by an artificial mole of noble construction, which stretches far into the 
sea. Vessels drawing sixteen feet may cross the bar at the mouth of 
of the harbour, and be protected from most winds within the mole. In 
the season of levantera, however, there comes an occasional hurricane, 
forcing in a terrible sea, which drives the ships from their anchors, 
dashes them against each other, and covers the beach and bay with an 
awful seen of confusion and disaster. 

Barcelona yields only to Madrid and Valencia, in extent and popula- 
tion. Antillon estimates the latter at one hundred and forty thousand. 
The greater part of the city is very ill-built, with streets so narrow that 
many of them are impassable for carriages. This is especially the case 
in the centre, where the old Roman town is supposed to have stood, from 
the ruins found there — arches and columns of temples, incorporated 
with the squalid constructions of modern times. Here the public 

* It takes its Latin name from itu ragged and saw-like crest ; sierra, the word so 
much used in Spain, and so applicable to the character of tbe mountains, is a corrup- . 
tion of senra. 



CATALONU. 27 

sqaue ot Plaza i» foand, with arcades and Moouiea, the seeose of 
many an (mtthde-fi aad many a bull-feast It has, howcvef , witnessed 
one redeeming spectacle ; for it was here that Ferdinand and Isabella, 
attended by a wondering and proud array of cavaliers and courtiers, re- 
ceived from Columbus th« tribute of the new-found world. 

The churches of Barcelona are not remarkable for beauty ; but the 
custom house is a noUe edifice, and so is the exchange. In the lat- 
ter public schools are established for teaching the sciences connected 
with navigation, and the three noble arts of architecture, painting, and 
statuary* These noble institutions are maintained at the expense of 
the city, and all, whether natives or strangers, children or adults, may 
attend the classes gratuitously, and receive instruction from able msch 
teni. The Catalans have much taste for music,' and have long supportr 
ed an Italian opera in Barcelona. I found the performance better 
than in Madrid* The company confines itself to the music of Rossioii 
which, dottbtlesa, contributes to its success. The comedy is very iu** 
ferior, lacking as it does the support of the inferim' ciafsses, who are but 
little acquainted with the Castilian tongue. The only pcrformance.at 
which I attended gave me but a poor opinion of the Spanish drama ; it 
was not thus with Spanish dancing, which I there witnessed with de^ 
light for the first time. ^Notwithstanding the great size of Barcaloot*, 
it has no public journal of its own, nothing, indeed, which approaches 
the character of a newspaper, except a little diary, as big as your twc) 
hands, which contains a description of the weather and a marine list, 
together with such a collection of commercial advertisements as iqdif 
cate too clearly the fallen condition of trade. 



The environs of Barcelona, as seen from Monjui, are exceedingly pio- 
taresqae. Beside the noble metropdis, which spreads itself at your 
feet, with all its combination of buildings, churches, promenades, and 
lines of circumvailation, you have the bay before you, filled with its 
shipping, <h'awn up within the long white mole, terminated by a noble 
light tower ; and without, the open sea, spotted by many a white sail, 
and stretching far east, wave following wave in diminished perspective, 
ontil lost in the horizon. In the interior is seen the rugged barrier of 
moantains^ while the verdant prospect below bespeaks its protecting 
iofluence. The fields about Barcelona are cultivated with the greatest 
care and are extremely productive in silk, wine, oil, figs, oranges, al- 
monds, apricots, and pomegranates ; flax, wheat, barley, oats, rye, and 
Indian corn, with every species of esculents. When contemplaited 
fipoffi above, this scene of varied production, neatly divided into fields, 
and enclosed by hedges of aloe, delights the eye and fills the mind with 
the most pleasing sensations. The leading feature in the cultivation 
here, and to which much of this fertility is owing, is the system of irri- 
gation. With a view to facilitate the operation, the fields are levelled 
into terraces ; and a small stredm, which runs by the city, furnishes the 
lands through which it passes with water ; but it is more generally pro- 



28 CATALONIA. 

cured on each little farm by a machine called the naria, introduced by 
the Saracens. It is of general use throughout Spain, and is of 
tial value in so dry a climate. 



The noria consists of a vertical wheel placed over a well, and having 
a band of ropes passing round it, to which earthern jars are affixed. 
These jars, set in motion by the turning of the wheel, descend empty 
on one side, pass through the water in the well below, and having small 
boles in the bottom for the air to escape, fill easily, before they ascend 
on the opposite side. A little water leaks from the air holes during the 
ascent, and falls from jar to jar. When arrived at the top, the water is 
emptied into a trough leading to a reservoir, so placed as to overlook 
every part of the field which it is intended to irrigate. Connected with 
the reservoir is a basin for washing clothes. As for the vertical wheel 
which immediately raises the water, it receives its motion from a hor- 
rfzontal one, turned by a horse, cow, mule, or more commonly an ass. 
There is something primitive in this rude machine, that carries one 
back to scripture scenes and oriental simplicity. Often have I sat by 
the road side for an hour together, watching the economy of these little 
farms, such as one may see in the environs of Barcelona. While the 
laborer was digging among his lettuces, that old-&shioned animal, 
the ass, performed unbidden his solemn revolutions ; the wheel turn* 
ed, and the ropes of grass brought up the jars and emptied them of their 
burthen, while at the neighbouring reservoir a dark-haired and dark* 
eyed damsel, would be upon her knees beside the basin, her petticoats 
tucked snugJy around her, and as she rubbed the linen with her hand, 
or beat it against the curbstone, singing some wild outlandish air, like 
anything but the music of Europe. — Much labor is doubtless lost by 
the rude construction of the noria ; but the system of irrigation, with 
which it is connected, is an excellent one, and is the means of fertihz- 
ing lands which must otherwise have remained uncultivated. 



Barcelona is of very great antiquity, having been founded more than 
two centuries before Christ by Hamilcar Barcino, father to the great 
Hannibal, from whom it derives its name. It made no great figure 
under the Roman domination, having been eclipsed in those days by the 
immense city of Tarraco. When the Saracens overran Spain, Barce- 
lona shared the common fate, and yielded to the dominion of Mahomet 
Its remoteness, however, from Cordova, the seat of the Saracen empire, 
rendered its tenure precarious, and, accordingly, in the ninth century, 
it was recovered by Louis le Debonnaire, son and successor of Charle- 
magne. He erected it into a county, which he vested in the family of 
Bernard, a French noble. The Counts of Barcelona continued to yield 
allegiance to the French crown, until it voluntarily relinquished its 
sovereignty in the thirteenth century. The county became annexed 



» CATAIONU. 30 

to Arragon by marriage^ as the latter afterwarda blended itself with 
Caatiie to form the present Spanish monarchy, whose kings still use 
the title of Counts of Barcelona.* 

Though Barcelona remained inconsiderable under the Romans, it 
made a distinguished figure in the days of returning civilization. 
From the Jews, who took refuge in it when driven from their homes, 
it derived Uiat spirit of frugal and persevering industry which still 
characterizes its inhabitants. The Catalans became enterprising traders, 
and the Mediterranean, which lay so convenient for commercial pur- 
suits, was soon covered with their ships. Barcelona became the rival 
of Genoa, and the depot whence christian Spain receive4 the precious 
commodities of the East Nor was the valor of the Catalans inferior 
to theii* industry and enterprise. They fitted out piratical expeditions, 
with which they worried the commerce of the Saracens ; and even 
when they encountered armed fleets, victory was almost ever sure to 
declare for them. One fact, recorded by Mariana, may be sufficient 
to show the character and reputation of the early Catalans. In the 
beginning of the fourteenth century, when the Turks, led on by 
Othman, the fierce founder of their empire, began to extend their 
conquests in the neighbourhood of Constantinople, the emperor 
Andronicus, conscious of the efieminacy of his warriors, sent an 
embassy to Barcelona to ask assistance of the Catalans. Reguier, one 
of the most distinguished Catalan captains of that day, accepted the 
invitation. Having obtained the consent of his king, he enlisted five 
thousand adventurers equally fearless with himself, and set sail for 
Constantinople. Falling to earnestly, they gained many battles in 
Phrygia, and drove the Turks from the vicinity of the Black Sea, 
until they at length became so powerful, and withal so insolent, that 
the Greek emperor would willingly have been delivered from their 
friendship. But he could not get rid of them, and even made war 
with little success against his rapacious auxiliaries, until, afler losing 
many battles, he was obliged to beg the interference of the pope and 
of the king of Arragon, before they would leave his territory. Thus 
compelled to yield obedience to their spiritual and temporal masters, 
these Catalans seized, as a last resort, upon Athens and Negropont, 
where they long continued to maintain themselves. To this romantic 
expedition the kings of Arragon owed their title of Dukes of Athens 
and Neopatria, still used by the Spanish sovereigns down to the 
present day. 

At length, however, when the discovery of America and the progress 
of intelligence had revolutionized the public mind, and when the spirit 
of war and destruction had given place to the spirit of improvement, 
the Catalans were among the foremost to yield obedience to the change. 
Barcelona became a vast magazine, where goods of wool and silk, fire 
arms and cutlery, with almost every fabric, were prepared for the 
distant colonies of Spain. The Catalan sailors repaired with these 
commodities to every part of America, and adventurers from among 

* Mariana, Historia de Espania. 



811 CATALONIA. 

the expeiMes of tbe way, under penalty of being liable for any detri- 
ment which might result to the diligence; another held out to the trav- 
eller the consoling assurance that the company would not be liable for 
any loss which might be sustained by robo a mono armada. 

By the time I had snu^y adjusted myelf in my corner of the cabruh 
ki, and made those provisions for comfortable riding which every trav- 
eller will appreciate, an absentee for whom we had been waiting, arrived 
and took his seat beside me. This done, the door was closed with a 
slam, the iron steps were turned up with a grating sound, the guttural 
* Arret' rattled out by the mayoral^ was repeated by the zagal^ and our 
diligence ceased to be stationary. 



In riding from Peripignan to Barcelona, the horses had been ex- 
changed for mules very shortly after crossing the boundary. In Spain 
mules are universally preferred to horses, as beasts of burthen and 
draught, whether for carriages of transportation or of luxury. Horses 
are employed for the saddle, to make a display in cities ; but to travel 
any distance, even in this way, the mule is preferred as an easier gaited 
and haraier animal, capable of enduring the extremes of hunger and 
fatigue. Hence the mule commands a much higher price. The fe- 
male being of showy figure, with limbs beautifully formed and sinewy, 
is used for draught, wbule the macho or male, the most stubborn and 
stupid animal in the world, is laden upon the back, and made to work 
in a more unworthy manner. The team which now drew us through 
the silent streets of Barcelooa, consisted of seven mules ; six of which 
drew in pairs, abreast of each other, while the seventh went alone at 
the head and was honored with the name of c(tpttana. Their harness 
was very different fi^om anything I had yet seen ; for, while the two 
wheel mules were attached to the carriage in the ordinary way, all the 
rest had long rope traces, which, instead of leading to the pole, were 
attached to the carriage itself, and kept from dragging on the ground 
in descending hills, by a leathern strap fastened to the end of the pole, 
through which they all passed. The leading mule only was guided by 
lines ; the rest had their halters tied to the traces of capitana, and 
were thus obliged to follow all her motions, while the two hindmost had 
stout ropes fastened to their head-stalls for checking them on the de- 
scent. Nor was mere ornament disregarded in their equipment. Their 

the real otveUon to the twentieth of a dollar. This last is divided into eight copper 
cuartos, and nominally into thirtyfour maravediseM, The real, however small, is yet 
the unity of Spanish currency. Formerly there were but eij^ht reaUs to the doflar 
or ounce of silver, which was thence called the recU of eight; but the progressive 
depreciation of the copper or vellon money, arbitrarily forced into circulation, has 
reduced it to its present value. In America, where tiiie coppefr money was not issu- 
ed, the real still preserved its value. It is the same coin which passes among us for 
twelve and a half cents ; and it is to the original real of eight, that we are indebted 
for our unity of a dollar. 

The Spanish weights are the pound, the aroba of twentyfive pounds, and the 
quintal. 



0ATAL6NU. to 

fabdies Were stnoothlj shaven to enable them better to ^ndttro' the hM ; 
but this was rendered subservient to decoration by leaving the hair in 
partial stripes ; the tail preserved enough of its garniture to furnish a 
neal fly brush, and the haunches were covered with a curious (¥et work 
in imitation of embroidery. They were besides plentifuliy adorned 
with plumes and tassels of gaily colored woollen, and had many belto 
al)out the head to cheer them on the journey. As for our guides, they 
consisted of a xagal and mayordly or postillion and condoetor. The 
zagal with whom we set out from Barcelona, was a fine looking, ftth« 
letic young man, dressed in the Catalan costume, with a red cap of un- 
usual length reaching far down his back. The mayoral^ who was much 
older, was in similar attire ; but rather more rolled up in jackets and 
blankets, as became the coo! air of the morning and his own sedentary 
station on the front of the diligence. 

Thus drawn and thus conducted, we wound through the streets of 
Barcelona, and when we came to narrow and intricate passes, the 
zagal would place himself beside capitana and lead her by the head* 
stall. The dawn had not declared itself, and the gates of Barcdona 
weie not yet open, when we reached the one towards Monjui. We 
were, therefore, compelled to wait a few moments, embarrassed among 
a great number of carts, which were carrying off the filth of the city to 
manure their fields and did not offer the most agreeable society. A 
gun, however, from Monjui, coming at first with a heavy peal and then 
dying away among the mountains, gave the signal for which We were 
waiting. Before the reverberations had ceased, the gates grated upon 
their hinges as they were thrown open by the punctual Frenchman, and 
the chains of the drawbridge creaked and jarred with the weight of the 
descending mass. Our filthy neighbours opened right and left to make 
room for us, and the zagal, taking capitana by the head, led her over 
the bridge, through the zig-zag approaches of the exterior works. 
When we had fairly gained the high road without the city, he gave her 
a good lash with his whip, and standing still bestowed the same greet* 
ing upon each mule, as it passed in review before him. They all set 
off at a gallop, and he, witn his left hand and a rope which depended 
from the top of the diligence, with the right grasping the tail df the 
hind mule, vaulted to the bench of the mayoral. 

On leaving the gate of Barcelona, we ascended the side of Monjui 
at a lound pace, and when we had crossed the summit of the ridge, 
our descent to the valley of the Lobregat was not less rapid. The dili- 
genee was of less heavy construction than in France, in so much that 
the hind wheels were not now shod, but allowed to revolve. It would 
have been bad enough to descend rapidly so long a hill in the day time 
and with a clear road before us ; but we had the further disadvantages 
of almost perfect darkness, and of having the whole hill strung with 
market carts repairing to the city. The mayoral and zagal were both 
looking sharply into the obscurity before us, and when one or more 
objects would suddenly appear in the road, the sagacity of the mules, 
or, when they slackened their pace and moved unsteadily, as if in 
doubt which side to go^ a sudden twitch of the lines of capUana^ would 
5 



H CATALONIA. 

8eii4 tb99i aU in n harry upon the course roost likely to extricate us* 
l^his succeeded generally , but the cartroen could not always anticipate 
our motion? ; so. that we several times grazed closely by them and even 
qi^ught the shaft of one that stood across the road, through the per^ 
yerseness of the mule, in our hind wheel. Our drivers had neither 
^ inclini^tion nor the ability to have stopped the diligence, in order 
U> inquire in0 the damage ; but a loud crash and louder curses that 
rose behind us» gave assurance that the contact had not been harm- 
less. 

. When the di^Iight came and the sun at length rose into a spotless 
pky, I looked with pleasure upon the varied scene around me. Our 
^oad» though it followed the general outline of the sea-coast, and com- 
maaded occasional vistas of the Mediterranean, sometimes struck into 
the interior to avoid a head-land, and thus gave an insight into the 
character and cultivation of the country. From my first entrance into 
Spain till my arrival at Barcelona, I had seen ranges of mountains con- 
stantly rising in the interioTi and had laid them all to the account of 
fhe neighbouring Pyrenees; but the same state of things now continu-^ 
ed to ^my attention. The land soared upward as it receded from the 
eea, ridges overlooking ridges, and I found, what, indeed, I have every* 
where found in SpuOi a broken country and a constant succession of 
mountains. These, however, do not bafSe the efforts of the cultivator. 
Many of them were covered with forests of cork trees, orchards of olive^ 
pr furnished pasture to goats and sheep, while the hill sides, declining 
towards the sea, were spread out in vineyards or grain fields, now no 
longer verdant. The wine here raised is much esteemed in the coun- 
try, and Villafranca, through which we passed at seven in the morning, 
produces a Molvoisie or Chian of some celebrity. The population was 
^very wh^e busy in ploughing the fields and in laying the foundation of a 
future harvest ; the spirit of industry seemed strong, and yet there were 
^t wanting appearances of a pervading poverty. The implements of 
husbandry were ill contrived and rudely made ; and the plough, instead 
^ makiu^ a regular and rapid furrow, went forward crooked and slow- 
ly, and seemed to linger in the soil. It was drawn sometimes by mules 
or oxen, sometimes by meagre cows, and I once saw a poverty stricken 
peasant, rolled up in a tattered blanket and pushing his plough through 
an ungrateful looking field, with no better assistance than an ass and 
a cow. The scene was a characteristic one, and as I looked i^>on the 
gannt form and wasted figure of the poor peasant, as he struggled for 
the bread that was to meet the cravings of a hungry family, I could not 
f^void the conclusion that he must be kept poor by some unfi-iendly par- 
ticipation in the fruits of his labor ; that he must be toiling to pay the 
pageantry of some degenerate noble in Madrid, or to fatten and sensu- 
^ze the monks I had seen rolling along the RamUa of Barcelona. 



. Eady in the morning we came to a place which had been the scene 
91 a cruel trage4y during the late short and violent period of the Coo* 



CATALONIA. ft 

sdtiition. I learned from the gentleman who rode beside me, lA^ itt IM 
time of the r^ency of Urgel, and of the reiigioui and royalist iaeurfeo- 
tion, which of itself would doubtless hare snffieed toofottnm the wtkit^ 
sire system, the bishop of Vique became obnoxtous to the eo&eiitcrtiond 
party ; for, at the same time that he claimed the ohataeier of ti lib^Mtl^ 
he was lending secret assistance to the opposite party. His tteieebkbl^ 
practices being discovered^ he was seized in some village of Cstalonitf, 
and brought towards Barcelona. His crime w«8 oleir and tnented 
the panishraent of a traitor ; but it was feared that the reverence 
of the people for the clergy, and especially for the episcopal ofiee, ttiighft 
produce a commotion, if the treacherous bishop riloald ^be put^bpedftr 
to death ; so they contrived a plan to place a band of raffiads ill cotf- 
cealment by the road side, who should take the bishop from the IsMik 
of his escort and slay him. The place chosen for the act iRPas a hM 
side, where rocks and trees disputed possession of the soil. The assai!^ 
sins took advantage of the concealment, and when the esoort arrif <id at 
their ambush^ they sallied out and relieved it of its charge. The aged 
bishop was ordered to alight from his carriage, dragged a short dieianofe 
from the road, and there cruelly butchered. Though the mnrderedmalk 
was not remarkable for the virtues, which, even in Spain, ate Asmd)^ 
associated with the episcopal dignity, he is nevertheless now reverlAiced 
as a martyr throughout the land. At the solicitatiOD of the OuatOnlab 
clergy, he has lately been duly enrolled upon the list of the beatiAed^ 
so that from baring only been bishop of Vique he is now beeonie it^ 
patron saint. A cross elevated upon a roek indicates the sine of thik 
horrible tragedy, so similar, not only essentially, bill even in its detaliil, 
to the murder of the Scottish archbishop, as related by Robertson, olr 
as brought before us in the very noblest production of the great Wdild li l 
of our age. As we caught through the trees a passing view of thiS'sHd 
memento, I could not help expressing my horror at tue otttrage» Th^ 
person who had related the story, attempted to justify the act-lrf tbto 
many crimes of the clergy, and by political expediency; but I am nti^ 
willing to believe, that the happiness of a nation, any snore than of ati' 
individual, can be promoted by crime. A government wfaieh ootddt^ 
sort to such acts of retribution n entitled to but few regrets. ' 



The individual who shared the cabriolet with me was a phitislng'nisli 
of thirty, who had been a nUlieiano during the Constitolioifal petkK), 
which with the present government was a fair title to pfosoripfliotl. 
After the return of despotism he had gone into volttntary exile, and re- 
mained a year at Marseilles, whence he had only retomed when lite 
licensed assassinations and plunder of the it>yalists had in a measm^ 
subsided, or been put down by the establishment of the police. He 
complained bitterly of the vexations to which he was still sshject, and 
mentioned among other things, that, being fond of shooting, he had 
been at some expense in taking out a license to enrry fire arms; he 
had likewise purchajsed a very valuable fowling-piece, and had sciu^ 



S9 CATALONIA. 

usfBd it half a dOkzen times, when down cornea a royal order to disam 
.the 4ate miUdanos. His house was entered and searched hy the armed 
4K>Ucey and his fawling*piece had been taken off and deposited some- 
;Wh€^, whence in all probability it would never return. All this help- 
,^d- to give some notion of the degree of liberty now enjoyed in Spain, 
;^^nd 10 make the time pass ; if, indeed, there could be anything weari- 
fOipe amid scenes, which, beside the charm of novelty, were fruitful 
^^QOUgb in amusement and eiKcitation. 

. The road from Barcelona b, or rather has been, one of the most 
.^aniifui in Spaing It is constructed in a manner which combines 
{IflMtftDt con^nience with great durability, winding round hills where 
ihey ^re too steep to be crossed, and sometimes cutting directly through 
.tbB fiide of them and. making a deep gap for its passage. As the hvlls 
f^fi pier^d for th^ passage of the road, so the ravines are rendered 
4>assable .by bridges which span them, of one and sometimes two rows 
of areheSf rising above each other, as in the aqueduct at Nismes. 
This road, though now out of repair and neglected, was not, however, 
positively bad; and even though it had been bad, why should we care, 
jMfHh ft atring of seven mules to drag us and two wild men to drive 
•ihem t Indeed, we kept trotting up one side of a hill and galloping 
idowA the other, and up again and down again, the whole way to 
njEfirragona. Theore was a pleasing excitement in this heels-over-head 
,ipode of travelling, after the slow and easy pace of the French diligence^ 
:\heix heavy-headed and thick-legged horses, and the big boots of their 
^stUlio*. The mann^, too, in which these Catalans managed their 
^inules was quite a study. The zagal kept talking with one or the 
pther of them the whole time, calling each by name, and apparently 
•#0d9afouring to reason them into good conduct, to make them keep 
fip;.a straight column so as not to rub each other with their traces, or 
^draw each ki» share of the burthen. I say he called them by ibeir 
sOfli^ ; for every mule in Spain has its distinctive appellation, and 
4ho9e that drew our diligence were not exceptions. Thus, beside 
^fitm¥t, we had J^oriagesa, Arragonesa, Coronela, and a variety of 
j^l^r oognomens, which were constantly changing during the journey 
to Valencia. Whenever a mule misbehaved, turning from the road 
or failing to draw its share, the zagal would call its name in an angry 
. tone, lengthening out the last syllable and laying great emphasis on it. 
Whether the animals really knew their names, or that each was sensible 
,w:ben it Hd offended, the voice of the postillion would usually restore 
order* Sometimes when the zagal called to Coronela, and Poriugesa 
obeyed the summons by mistake, be would cry sharply, *AqutUaotral ' 
. That other one 1 and the conscience-stricken mule would quickly re- 
•lorii to its duty. When expostulation failed, blows were sure to follow; 
•the xagal would jump to the ground, run forward with the team, 
keatin^ and belaboring the delinquent ; sometimes jumping upon the 
•Hiule immediately behind it, and continuing the discipline for a half 
.bour together. The activity of these fellows is; indeed, wonderful. Of 
'$he twenty miles which usually compose a stage, they run at least ten, 
todf during a part of the remainder, stand upon one foot at the step of 



CATALONU. » 

the diligence. In general, the xagei ran up hill, flogging the moles 
the whole way, and stopping occaBionally at the road side to piek op 
a store of pebbles, which he stowed in his sash, or more freqoently in 
his long red cap. At the sommit he would take the mole's tail in his 
hand, and jump to his seat before the descent commenced. While it 
lasted, he would hold his cap in one hand, and with the other throw a 
stone, first at one mole, then at another, to keep them all in their 
stations ahead of each other, that the ropes might not hang on the 
ground and get entangled round their legs. These precautions would 
not always produce the desired effect; the traces would sometimes 
break or become entangled, the males be brought into disorder, and a 
scene of confusion follow. This happened several times in one stage, 
when a vicious mule had been put among the team to be broken to 
harness; it was, indeed, an obstinate and perverse animal, and even 
mote stupid than perverse* It would jump first to one side, then to 
the other, and kick the ribs of its neighbor without mercy. When, 
at length, it had succeeded in breaking its own traces and entangling 
its legs in those of its companions, it would stand as quiet as a lamb 
until the damage was repaired, and then renew the same scene of 
confusion. Nor did the more rational moles behave themselves mock 
better. They would start to one side when the xagal cried out Arre! 
and when he whistled for them to stop, they would sometimes go the 
faster. If one had occasion to halt, the rest woukl not obey the hissing 
signal of the zag€d, but drag the reluctant animal forward; and 
presently afler the mule which had been most unwilling to stop, woilld 
be itself taken with a similar inclination, and receive similar treatment 
from its comrades; whereas the horses of a French diligence wonld all 
have halted sympathetically, at the invitation of the postillion. I hate 
a mule most tbc^oughly, for there is something abortive in everything 
it does, even to its very bray. An ass, on the contrary, has somethiiig 
hearty and whole*sool about it Jack begins his bray wkb a modest 
whistle, rising gradually to the top of his powers like the progressive 
eloquence of a well adjusted oration, and then as gradually de.clhiing 
to a natural conclusion; but the mule commences widi a voito of 
thunder, and then, as if sorry for what he has done, he stops like a 
holly when throttled in the midst of a threat, or a clown, wha has 
began a fine speech and has not courage to finish it. 



Towards two we began to approach Tarragona, and when yet at a 
short distance from it, we passed under a stone arch of vast dimensions^ 
and of elegant, though unadorned construction. It was perfect in all 
its parts, and though the rain and winds of many centuries had rounded 
the angles of the oncemented stones that composed the pile, not one 
had fallen from its place. This road then,, over which our mules and 
diligence now harried so rapidly, was the relic of a Roman way ; and 
that arch, which still rose over us in all the simple elegance of classic 
limes, had been raised by a Scipio or a Csesar in honor of some for- 
gotten triumph. 



S8 CATALONIA. 

Joit before reaching Tarrtgona the road led along the beach where 
a nnmber of boats were hauled np^ with neta anapeiided to their masts. 
All was bustle and activitj among the Catalan fishcmien ; some carryt 
iDg their fish to market, others mending their nets and greasing the 
bottoms of their boats, in preparation for the next day's Toyaga At the 
end of the beach befiire as stood Tarragona^ perched on the summit of 
a roeky eminence. It was everywhere surrounded with walls and irre* 
gnlar fortifications, and bristling with steeples and antique towers, 
which rose above the mass, while at the foot of the rock was a mole 
stretching far into the sea, and giving shelter to a few square-rigged and 
smaller vessels. The diligence soon arrived at the foot of the hill, 
wound slowly up its side, and, when within the town, drove to the wide 
open door of the pasada. This building vras of very different construe* 
lion Utomk any inn I had yet seen ; for the whole of the gronud floor 
was lefk open for oarti and other vehicles, while the stables for mules, 
horses, and asses stood farther in the rear. The kitchen and all the 
apartments were in the stories over head, and, conducted by the stable 
hoy who carried my trunk, I was able to find out the obscure stairway 
and trace my way to the common eating room, where our dinner was 
already smoking on the board. 

I found my companions in a room whose balconies overlooked the 
fkoMy or large open square, earnestly employed in swalJowing down 
their food ; for they were to set off again in a few moments for Reus, 
a very flourishing agricultural and manufacturing town, which lies 
inland from Tarragona, and where the Catalan industry still continues 
to make head against the pervading depression. They soon after rose 
ttom table, descended, and took their seats in the diligence; and when 
they disappeared at the end of the plaxa^ I returned from the balcony 
to which I had wandered, as if loth to part with these acquaintances 
of a few hours' standing, and proceeded in silence to despatch my 
solitary meaL Never in my life did I feel more completely alone ; for 
the ffirl that waited upon me at table spoke even less l^anish than 
myself, and it was therefore vain to attempt a conversatkm. What 
would I not have given for the friendly presence of my social and 
familiar Frenchman t I had a letter for a merchant, and the delivery 
of it might have secured me a pleasant afternoon, and an insight into 
whatever was curious in this once femous city; but not feeling in 
the most pleasant mood to deliver a note of hand for hospitality, 
I took my hat and wandered forth- into the streets of Tarragona, 
without any fixed purpose, bending my steps whichever way chance 
might lead them. At the western end of the jlasM I found a gate 
opening upon a cultivated valley, which was not without its attractions. 
0\'er the ravine below, was an aqueduct, raised upon a double row 
of arches, which furnished the city with water, and added greatly to 
the beauty of the scene. I wandered towards this monument which 
Roman hands had raised, and found near it a small stream, beside 
which a number of women were employed in washing. Seating my* 
self near them, 1 listened to their prattle, their laugh, and their song, 
until the sun sank below the horizon ; and when they all gathere4 
iheir work together and departed, I followed them into the city. 



CATALONU. 39 

As I returned to the plaza, it waa the hoar of paseo or promenade, 
and in anj other city in Spain it woold have been crowded by walkers 
of every sex and age^ enjoying this salutary recreation; but here a 
few priests and friars, fewer citizens^ and one or two Spanish officers 
variously and grotesquely dressed in antique cocked hats of oil cloth, 
military surtouts, and jingling sabres, were all who loitered through 
the walks. How different the last from the light-hearted Frenchmen 
I had seen at Barcelona 1 Instead of their military frankness, these 
officers scowled on all who passed them ; ''there was little of the soldier 
about them except their thick mustaches, and it was easy to conjecture 
that they owed their rank, rather to a zeal in the royalist cause, the 
effect either of interest or fanaticism, than to military experience. 

As I looked round upon the squalid structures of Tarragona and 
'these gloomy beings moving among them, it was difficult to believe, 
that the city which now scarce numbers six, thousand half fed inhabit 
tants, was indeed that Tarraco which had been founded by the 
PhcBnicians, and which, under the Romans, counted near half a million 
of population, and became the largest city that ever existed in Spain* 
Yet history fiirnishes abundant proof of the importance of Tarraco, 
and the remains of temples that still exist in Tarragona, of a palace of 
Augustus, a theatre, an amphitheatre, and an aqueduct, are conclusive 
as to its site. It is sufficient, therefore, to name Hamilcar, Hannibal| 
and Asdrubal, the Scipios, Pompey, Julius Cssar, and Augustus, as 
having trod the soil of Tarragona, to awaken the loftiest associations* 



CHAPTER nt- 

l?IUNCIPALlty OF CATALONU AND KINGDOM OF VALENdlA. 

'Sew Travelling CompaDions.— Departure from Tarragona. — The Ebro.~yalenciail 
Village. — Renewal and Interruption of our Journey. — ^Vinaroz. — Crosses alon^ 
the Koadflide. — Our Escort-^Ss^ntum. — 'Approach to Valencia. 

iCtit looming afler my solitary rambld among the ruins 6( Tarraco, 
I was called vei^y early, in order to be in readiness for the departure 
of ih^e Barcelona and Valencia diligence, in whi(^h my seat had pre- 
viously been t&ken. I had come thus far in the Reus coach, with the 
view 6( rendering the ride less continuous, and travelling as much ad 
possible by day. My new travelling companions, less mindful of their 
comfort^ had only enjoyed a halt of two or three hours, and had not 
therefore been at the trouble of undressing; so that when I got to 
the eating-<room they were already assembled. Among them was a 
middle-aged man, dressed in a harlequin frock coat, buttoned high in 
the neck, and i^overed with frogs and gimp ; wide, striped pantaloons, 
and a pair of brass -heeled boots; on his head was a plush cap, bound 
with tawdry gold lace, round his neck a bandanna, and over his other 
garments an ample brown cloak, well lined with velvet. This was the 
most distinguished looking personage of our party ; his air was decid-* 
edly soldierlike^ and I set him down at once as a military man. But 
he turned out to be only a Valencian merchant^ or shopkeeper, which 
in Spain are synonymous terms, there being now no merchants in the 
country, except those who likewise keep shops. The same may be 
said of Spanish bankers as a class; for the universal depression of 
commerce does not admit of that subdivision of its pursuits, which is 
found in more flourishing countries. I had afterwards frequent occa« 
sion in Spain to notice the military air and bearing, even of its more 
peaceful inhabitants, and a disposition in them to increase this effect 
by their mode of dressing. This fierce looking, but goodnatured 
Valencian^ as he proved to be, had with him his wife, a woman of thirty^ 
round and fat, as Spanbh married women usually are. Their daughter, 
who sat between them, with a shawl covering her head and neck 
instead of the cooler mantiUa, was an interesting girl of fifteen. The 
rest of my future companions were students going to Valencia to attend 
the university^ whose exercises were to commence with the coming 
November. They were all accoutred in the gloomy garb in which 
science may alone be wooed in Spain^ and with which the life and 
animation of countenance incidental to youth, especially when thus 
relieved from the eye of authority and brought into congenial company 
was utterly at variance. 



CATALONU AND VALENCU. 41 

The party thus aBsembled^ and of which I now became one, was 
seated round a table of pine boards, taking chocolate from cups scarce 
bigger than wine glasses, which they ate like eggs by dipping narrow 
slices of bread into it, and carefully rubbing the sides of the cops that 
the scanty pittance might not be diminished, each finishing with a 
glass of water. This chocolate, of such uoiversal use in Spain, is a 
simple composition of cocoa, sugar, and cinnamon, carefully ground 
together and formed into cakes. To prepare the usual portion for one 
person, an ounce is thrown into three times its weight in water, and 
when dissolved by heat, it is stirred by means of a piece of wood 
turned rapidly between the palms of the hands, until the whole forms 
a frothy consistency. When the chocolate was despatched, and the nb 
less important matter of paying for it, rewarding the maid, and the 
like, attended to, we all obeyed the summons of the mayoral^ took our 
seats in the diligence agreeably to the way-bill, and were soon afler 
without the ruinous walls of Tarragona. 



On leaving Tarragona the road passes through a country of vines 
«nd olives, tolerably well cultivated, keeping generally to the sea 
coast in order to preserve its level, and only seeking the interior, when 
necessary to avoid a projection of land and too great an angle. This 
is tlie case at Col-du-Balaguer, which, as its French name indicates, is 
a narrow pass lying between two mountains. The castle of Balaguer 
crowns the crest of the mountain on the right, and commands com« 
pletely the passage of the difile. Beyond this the road passes over a 
^eep break, called Barranc(hde4a-Horca — ^Ravine of the Gallows. 
This place was formerly infested by robbers. Who taking advantage of 
the seclusion and concealment of the ravine, and the impossibility of 
escape from it, would take their stand at the bottom, survey at leisure 
those who entered the pass, and then selecting their game, plunder and 
murder it at pleasure. To check the atrocities, a gallows was erected 
on the very site, where every robber caught in the neighborhood, was 
hung up with little ceremony. 

Before reaohmg Amposta, we came to a fork of the roads, where a 
small covered cart was in waiting to receive the mail for Tortosa — a 
considerable city raised to the municipal dignity by Scipio. While 
the mail was getting down from the top of the diligence and the bag- 
gage of one of our passengers, who was likewise going to Tortosa^we 
all set off to walk the remainder of the distance to the Ebro. The 
country the whole way was a barren and sandy down, destitute entirely 
of trees and underwood ; so that it was easy to catch sight of the neigh- 
bouring sea and of a number of small keys which lay along the coast, 
fortning an interior navigation, as is the case in other parts of the Gulf 
of Lyons, and in a still more remarkable manner along the coasts of 
the United States. 



42 CATALONIA AND VALENCIA. 

We reached the Ebro at four id the evening, just as the diligence 
drove down to the bank. The river before us was the Iberus of the 
ancients, the classic stream which has furnished the poet with another 
and a softer name for Spain, and which in distant days has witnessed 
scenes of the highest importance. It wais on this Ebro that the Scipios, 
Cnelus and Publius, met and conquered Asdrubal, when on his way 
into Italy with a strong force to join his fortunes to those of his 
kinsman Hannibal, already in the neighbourhood of Rome; and it was 
thus that the destinies of the future mistress of the world were decided 
by a battle fought in Spain, as was afterwards the case on the banks 
of this same stream in the civil wars of Pompey and Cssar. On the 
breaking out of those bloody commotions occasioned in the Roman re« 
public by the private feud of two successful soldiers, when Pompey, 
passing into Macedonia, sent Petreius and Afranius to sustain his caase 
m Spain, Csesar, leaving Italy in doubtful subjection, went at once to the 
most important of the Roman provinces, and being inferior in force to 
Afranius and Petreius, threw himself into the strong hold of Ijerida« 
On either side of Lerida flowed a confluent of the Ebro, which greatly 
strengthened the defences of the city, at the same time that a bridge 
over each of them, enabled Csasar to maintain his communications. 
Unfortunately for him, a freshet of unusual violence, which came on at 
this critical period, swept away both bridges and left him in Lerida with 
a scanty supply of food and hemmed in on every side by water and by 
enemies. Caesar was without boats or other means of constructing a 
bridge, and famine began to be felt among his followers. His situation 
was indeed so critical, that the. exulting letters of the two lieutenants 
revived the hopes of the Pompeian faction at Rome, and induced many 
to declare themselves in its favor. But the genius of Cssar rose su- 
perior to his embarrassments. He remembered to have seen in Britain 
boats formed of a light frame of osiers bound with sinews, and covered 
with the skins of animals. He caused a number of these to be speed- 
ily constructed ; transported them under cover of the night, on chari- 
ot wheels, higher up the river, and when the morning sun arose, the 
baffled Pompeians had the mortification to see Cassar with a bridge over 
the stream, and in possession of an eminence which secured his com- 
munications. Plenty soon returned into the camp of Caesar ; and 
when reinforcements of cavalry had arrived from France, he took the 
field against his late besiegers, summoned them in a situation not di»> 
similar to what had lately been his own, and by their capitulation and 
bis own clemency paved the way to still greater victories.* . 

No stream, however, can stand in greater need of the poet's fancy 
and the scholar's associations than the Ebro, at least such as it presents 
itself at Amposta. To me it offered no greater attractions than the 
muddiest of rivers flowing through a flat, sandy, and uncultivated c|^- 
try ; with nought but a desert on the left bank, and on the right, the 
poverty-stricken town of Amposta, with its tottering battlements skirt- 
ing the course of the stream, and a few antique coasters and fishing 

* Commentar. de Bello Civili. 



CATALONIA AND VALENCIA. 4a 

boatSy clinging to them for support against the rapidity of the current. 
Here we found a large scow in waiting to receive the diligence. The 
mules were all detaclied from it, except two, and these drew it on board. 
This done, the remainder of the team were fastened to the boat by a 
long line and made to draw it far Up the stream^ when we fiktruck across 
with this acquired motion, and, by the assistance of two ponderous oars 
were enabled to gain the opposite beach, and the kingdom of Valencia. 



We were not long in reaching the posada, at which we were to sup 
and pass the night, and which lay near the ferry. Here preparations 
were at once made for our evening meal, while, to pass the time, the 
passengers loitered along the bank of the river or through the equally 
cheerless streets of Ampbsta. The fishermen and laboiers had already 
returned from their daily occupations, and were sitting alone, each at 
the sill of his door and resting his head on his hand ; or else were col- 
lected in groups at the corners, eyeing us as we passed, and making 
remarks, doubtless, upon the singularity of our attire, compared with 
their own. My own astonishment was probably greater than theirs ; 
for I had never before seen the singular costume of the Valoncian 
peasants. In the short distance of a few leagues, and without any 
sensible chagage of climate, the long pantaloon of tne Catalan extend- 
ing from his shoulders to the ground is exchanged fo loose breeches of 
linen, called ^ra§^a5, which tie over the hips with a drawlngstring, and 
which like the Highland kilt terminate above the knee. Besides this 
airy and convenient garment, the Yalencian wears a shirt, a waistcoat, 
straw or hempeii sandals and long red caps like the Catalan, or in- 
stead of the latter a cotton hs^idkerchie^ tied round the head and 
hanging down behind. His legs are in general bare, or only covered 
with a leathern gaiter laced on .tightly, or more frequently a stocking 
without a ^oot. Instead of the velvet jacket and silver buttons of the 
Catalan, the Valencian wears a long woollen sack, called matita, edged 
with fringe, and chequered like a plaid. This hangs carelessly over 
one shoulder on ordinary occasions, and when the air is sharp he rolls 
faimself* tightly up in it ; if he has a burthen to carr^,he puts it in one 
end of his sack, and lets it hang behind him, whilst the remainder 
serves to keep him warm ; and in sowing a field the mania is the de- 
pository whence he takes the seed, to drop it into the furrow. Nor was 
there a less striking difference in the figure and faces of these natives 
of twoi neighbouring provinces of the same kingdom, than I had noticed 
in their dress. The stature of the Valencians seemed less than that 
of the Catalans, and their faces, instead of indicating a northern ori- 
gin, were of an Asiatic cast; indeed as I looked upon their red and 
well turned limbs and sunburnt faces, unshaded save by the straight 
black hair tliat hung about them, I was strongly reminded of the red in- 
habitants of our fore.*its, and the idea kept recurring whenever I saw them. 

When the sun was down I wandered back to the posada. A group 
of three of these oddly accoutred Valencians were sitting before the 



44 CATALONIA AND VALENCIA. 

entrance to the conrt-yard, with their naked legs crossed before them, 
and busily engaged with a pack of dirty cards, which they dealt upon 
the sack of one of them spread out in the midst. They had been thus 
engaged when the diligence arrived, were still at it when I went forth 
to walk, and now at the end of an hour the cards and money contin- 
ued to circulate and the business was not yet settled. Within the court 
our mayoral had been employed in examining the gear and oiling the 
wheels of the diligence, and baving finished this task, was turning 
it round with the assistance of the stable boy, in readiness for our de- 
parture, which was to take place at two in the morning. I put my 
hand to a wheel to assist the operation, and when everything was ad- 
justed to his wish the mayoral drew on his jacket, pulled his red cap 
closer over his head, as if sensible of the growing coolness, and having 
thrust his hands under the sash which girded his loins, we continued 
to talk of the journey of the next day, of Valencia, the fair city to 
which we were going, and of a thousand other things, until the sum- 
mons came that supper was ready. 

1 found our table spread in a very large room which was strewed 
with boxes and straw panniers, while in one corner was a heap of oi- 
gazzober beans, which are gathered from a large overgrown tree, very 
common in this part of the country, and which furnish fodder for the 
mules. In the midst of all this confusion was a wooden table covered 
with a clean cloth, plates of English earthern-ware and an odd assort- 
ment of knives with French forks, which were of iron tinned over in 
imitation of silver. ]\(y companions were already seated upon long wood- 
en benches and silently employed with the soup. This was succeeded 
by the puchero or oUa, a dish of universal use in Spain, which takes its 
name from the earthern jug or iron pot in which it is prepared. It con- 
sists of an odd mixture of beef, chicken, a species of pea called garhan- 
zo in great favor among the Spaniards, and of a great variety of vegeta- 
bles, the whole being seasoned plentifully with garlic, and a small piece 
of salt pork or bacon. * This is the common oUa^ such as one meets 
with everywhere in Spain ; but the alia podrida is a rarer dish, a man- 
ner of ark where animals of every color and every kind, meet and are 
represented as in a common congress. After the puchero came roast 
fowls and sallad, which we ate together as in France ; and then a desert 
of olives, apples, figs, almonds and grapes, dried in the shade, which, 
though a little withered, still preserved their juice and sweetness. Last 
of all a decanter of brandy impregnated with anise, as Spanish brandy 
usually is, was placed on the table ; each person, ladies and all, swallow- 
ed a portion of it unadulterated, from small Dutch cordial glasses curi- 

* No good Spaniard can make a m«a1 without a picco of pork, however small. In 
every compound, there must always enter nUaja de toeino. Their fondness for this 
greasy food originated in those days, when great numbers of Jews and Saracens for- 
swore their faith, and became Christians, in order to escape the edicts which would 
drive them from their houses. Those who still leaned to their ancient reIi8:lon, con- 
tinued naturally enough to ol>serve its tenets, and of course to reject the rood of an 
unclean and forbidden beast Hence the eating of pork became among the trusty 
and true Christians, at once a profession of faith, and proof of orthodoxy. 



CATALONU AND VALSNCIA. 45 

OQsly oraamented and gOded, which, iirom the manner in which they 
were produced from an antique chest that stood in the corner were evi- 
dently in high estimation at Amposta. 

Such was the hature of our repast, and a hungry maa could scarcely 
have complained of it. But the manner in which it was eaten, or 
rather devoured, was by no means so free from objection. Each of our 
Catalan students would griqpple the dish he fancied, tear off a portion 
with his fork or fingers, as was most convenient, and then resign what 
was left to the first applicant, as is done with the newspapers in a 
French eefi. I thought that I had never before seen people behave 
80 ill at table; unless indeed it had been on board of a steamboat on 
our Hudson, where an elegance of decoration which is rarely found 
but in the palaces of kings or in the Eastern fables, and still more the 
harmony of surrounding nature, would necessarily soflen the manners 
and promote refinement, were they not counteracted by the spirit of 
despatch, which all seem to catch sympathetically from revolving^ wheels 
and dashing paddtes. 

When these uncouth Catalans were pretty well gorged, they gradu- 
ally became less exclusive, would be at the tix>uble of offering toothers 
the dish of which they had already partaken, and, growing more polite 
as they grew less hungry, would even help others l^fore serving them- 
selves. This politeness was more especially extended to our fair 
Valenciana, and when the desert came, each one who sat near her, 
afler paring an apple would first offer her a portion of it on the end 
of a knife. This she always accepted, and ate either the whole or part 
of it, as if usage rendered it obligatory. These acta of courtesy were 
sometimes accompanied with gallant speeches, which, instead of being 
received amiss by the lively girl, were either laughed at or retorted. 
After being accustomed to the retiring modesty of young girls in 
France, I was much startled at this freedom of manners in our Valen- 
ciana, and still more so at the indifference of her father and mother, 
who, so long as they saw that she was in sight and sitting between 
them, seemed to care little for a few hardy words. 

Supper being over and paper cigars lit by most of the company, the 
landlady went round the table to collect her dues, followed by a modern 
Maritornes with hand outstretched to receive the expected gratuity. 
The demand was sixteen reals for each, and two more for those who 
wanted chocolate in the morning. The Catalans exclaimed against 
the charge, pronounced it outrageous, and swore that at least ten reals 
must be for the rmdo de casa, or noise of the bouse, which is a fair 
subject of taxation in any Spanish posada. Finding, however, that 
the matter was not to be got rid of in any other way, each fell to 
chasing his money about in his pockets, and having drawn it forth, 
reluctant to appear on such, an occasion, the account was at length 
balanced; not, however, without a supplimental dispute with Mari- 
tornes, on the question of a real or a half real. This over, we were 
shown to our sleeping place which was beside the eating-room, and 
which had a Small double door, fastened with a swinging bar, as in onr 
stables; it had likewise a single window with an iron grating, which 



46 CATALONIA AND VAUBNOIA. 

looked upon the court-yard, and whieb^ instead ofa aariiy was fimiiflbed 
with a door. Eight beds, spread on cots, were arranged at convenient 
distances round the room, for the accommodation of our party, with 
the exception vf the Valencian family, and at the side of each bed 
was a ricketty chair, which from its own infirmity or the inequalities of 
tlie ground, for the apartment had no other floor, leaned fearfully with 
one leg in the air, or else sought support by reclining agahist the bed. 
Having closed the window to keep the night air out, I chose a bed 
from among the number, and, without investigating. too nicely the 
question of clean sheets, threw myself upon it and was soon uncon- 
scious of the conversation which my companions still maintained in 
their discordant Catalan, no less than of the munching of the mules, 
and jingling of their bells, as they fed and moved about in the acyoin« 
ing stable. 



Towards two the next morning, a knocking at the courtpyard gate 
announced the arrival of the eourier from Tortosa^ for whom we were 
waiting to recommence our journey. This noise was succeeded by 
the voices of the stablemen, and jingling of bells, as the mules were 
brought out and. attached to the diligence, and very soon after all 
further idea of sleep was banished by the mayorai with a lamp in his 
hand, putting his head and red cap inside of the door, and shouting 
long and loudly, * Aniba! arriha! ieniaresi yavamos,* or 'Up! up 
and away, sirsl ' In a few minutes we had drawn on our clothes, swaU 
lowed the chocolate with which the maid was waiting in the outer 
apartment, and taken our seats as before. The mayoral placed himself 
on the box, and a young Catalan, our postillion, taking the leading 
mule by the head, guided it out of the court, and continued to run 
beside it until we were completely clear of Amposta, and on the high 
road to Valenciji ; then releasing the impatient animal, he bestowed 
the customary lash on it, and on each of its foliowerS| and vaulted to 
the station of his companion. The mayoral relinquished the reins to 
the lad, whom he called Pepito, which is a diminutive of Pepe or Jose, 
and is expressive of affection. This Pepito was even more lively and 
active than is common with those of his age and stirring occupation ; 
and when he had taken the reins, as the mayoral rolled himself up in 
blankets and prepared for a nap, he spoke inspiringly to the mules and 
cracked his whip as if satisfied and happy. Poor fellow! — ^I remember 
these little circumstances the beUer from the fate which afterwards 
befell him. 

Before we had been an hour without the barrier of Amposta, our 
7ttayoral had yielded to the drow^^iness occasioned by two sleepless 
flights, and was snoring audibly as he leant his head against the win- 
dow in front of me. Pepito, too, had wearied of his own gaiety, and 
ceasing to encourage the mules with whip aiid voice, allowed them to 
trot onward in the middle of the road at their own gait. Beside me, on 
the right, was a young man whom I had known to be a candidate for 
the priesthood, by a narrow stock of block silk with vielet stripes, which 



GATALONU AND VALENCIA. 47 

he wore about hit neck, b ftddhien to the common ^b of the student. 
Though there were in the party several other aspirants to the sacred 
office^ he alone was moping and reaerred; indcfed he seemed to have 
pnt on in anticipation that cloak of gravity, which, as it is iii the 
Spanish church the sorest road to honors and preferment, is also the 
closest covering fi>r an irregular life. Though we were alone together 
in the eabrioUt, we bad scarce exchanged a dozen words since leaving 
Tarragona, and now he too was mcHionless in his corner, either wrapt 
in pious alntraction from the cares of this world, or buried in the more 
mundane forgetftdness of sleep. Thus powerfully invited by the 
example of those who were near me, I caught the drowsy infection, 
and having nestled snugly into my comer, soon lost entirely the reali- 
ties of existence in that mysterious state which Providence has provided 
as a cure for every ill. 

As the thoughts of a man when alone in a distant land, without any 
outward objects to attract his attention, are apt to do, mine before I 
foil asleep had wandered back to a home from which I had been some- 
time absent, and which, in contradiction to every other rule of attrac- 
tion, is ever found to draw us more powerfully the further we recede. 
Tlu»e waking reflections passed insensibly into sleeping dreams, and 
I soon realized what before I had only hoped ; for if, as Cssar says, 
men easily believe whatever they anxiously desire, how much more is 
not this the case when sleep has taken the place of sensibility? Thus 
I was suddenly transported some thousands of miles nearer home, and 
having connected what was real in my situation with what was only 
fimeiftil, I believed that I was on the last stage of my journey towards 
my native city. 

This pleasing deception had not lasted long, iriien the noise of the 
hooft and bells of our mules, and the clattering of the wheels were 
no longer heard. The rapid progress of the diligence ceased as sud- 
denly, and my body, which it had kept snug in the corner, still retain- 
ing its momentum, threw me forward with my head against the pannel. 
I was now awake, but as if loth to relinquish so pleasing a dream, I at 
first fancied myself arrived at the end of my journey. The delusion 
was hot momentary. There were voices without, speaking in accents 
of violence and whose idiom was not of my country. I now raised 
myself erect on my seat, rubbed my eyes, and directed them out of 
the windows. 

By the light of a lantern that blazed from the top of the diligence 
I could discover that this part of the road was skirted by olive trees ; 
and that the mules, having come in contact with some obstacle to their 
progress, had been curtailed of their open column, and brought to- 
gether into a close huddle, where they stood as if afraid to move, witli 
pricked ears and frightened, gazing upon each other in dumb wonder 
at the nnaccostomed interruption. A single |rlance to the right hand 
gave a due to unravel the mystery. Just beside the fore wheel of the 
diligence 9tood a man dressed in that wild garb of Valencia which I 
had seen for the first Ume in Amposta. His red cap was drawn closely 
over his< forehead, reaching far down the back, and his striped mania 



48 CATALONIA AND VAIiENCIA. 

iDstead of being rolled round biniy hung unemhairassed fioin,4>ne 
shoulderk Whilst his left leg was thrown forward in preparation, a 
musket was levelled in his hands, along the barrel of which his ey^ 
glared so fiercely upon the visage of the conductor, then in eon^ct 
with the end of it, that it seemed to reflect the ligjit of the lantern. 
On the other side the scene was somewhat different Pepe being 
awake when the interruption took place, was at once sensible of its 
nature. He had abandoned the reins, and jumped fr/om his seat to the 
road side, intending to escape among the trees. Unhappy youth, that 
he should not have accomplished his purpose ! He was met by the 
muzzle of a musket ere he had scarce touched the ground, and a third 
ruffian appearing at the same moment from the treacherous conoeal^ 
ment of the tree towards which he started, he was effectually taken 
and brought round into the road, where he was miade to stretch him- 
self out upon his face, as had already been done with the conductor. 

I could now distinctly hear one of these robl^er8-T-,fi>r such they 
were^ inquire in Spanish of the mnyoro/ as to the number of passei^ 
gers he had brought; if any were armed; whether there was any 
money in the diligence; and then, as a conclusion to the interrogatory, 
demanding ' La boha!' in a more angry tone,, The poor fellow did M 
he was told; he raised himself high enough to draw a large leathern 
purse from an inner pocket, and, stretching his h&nd up^^ard to deliver 
it, he said, ' Toma usted cabaUero^ pero no, me quita usted la vida / ' or, 
' Take it, sir, but leave my life! ' Such, however, did not seem to be 
his intention. He went to the road side, and bringing a stone from a 
large heap which had been collected to be brpken and thrown on the 
road, he fell to beating the mayoral upon the head with it The un- 
happy man when thus assailed, sent forth the most pit^us cries for 
misericoniHa and piedad; he invoked the interpoai^tion of Jesu Christo^ 
SaiUiago Aposiol y Mdrttr^ La Virgin del Pilar ^ and all those sainted 
names, which, being accustomed himself to hear pronounced with 
awful reverence, were most likely to prove efficacious in arresting the 
fury of his assassin. But he might as well have asked pitv of the stone 
that smote him as of the wretch to whose &U fury it had furnished a 
weapon. He struck and struck iigain, until becoming at lenstJi more 
earnest in the task he laid his musket beside him and worked with 
both hands upon his victim. The cries for pity which blows had first 
excited, blows at length quelled. They had gradually increased with 
the suffering to the most terrible shriekfi, and when this became too 
strong to l^ar, it worked its own qure. .The shrieks declined into 
low and inarticulate moans, which| with a deep drawn and agonized 
gasp for breath and an occasional convulsion, done remained to show 
that the vital principle had not yet departed* 

It fared no better, nay even worse with Pepe, though instead of the 
cries for pity which had availed the mayoral so little, he uttered noth- 
ing but low moans that died awav in the dust beneath him. One might 
have thought that the youthful appearance of the lad would have 
ensured him compassion. But the case was diffisrent The robbers 
were doubtless of Ampoeta, and being acquainted with him, dreaded 



CATALONU JOiD VALENCIA. • 

RoognitioD; so that what in almost any aitaation in the worid weiiM 
have formed a claim to kindness was here an oceaaion of cruettj. 
When both the victims had been rendered insensible, there was a shorl 
pause, and a consultation followed in a low tone between the ruffians; 
«nd then tliey proceeded to execute the further plans which had been 
concerted between them. The first went round to the left side of the 
diligence, and having unhooked the iron shoe and placed it under the 
wh^l as an additional security against escape, he opened the door of 
tlie interior, and, mounting on the steps, I could hear him distinctly 
uttering a terrible threat in Spanish, and demanding an ounce of gold 
from each of the passengers. This was answered by an expostulation 
Irora the Yalencian storekeeper, who said that they had not so much 
money, hut what they had would be given willingly. There was then 
a jingling of purses, some pieces dropping on the floor in the hurry 
•and agitation of the moment Having remained a moment in the dow 
«f the interior, he did not come to the cabriektj but passed at once to 
the rotunda. Here he used greater caution, doubiless from having 
seen the evening before at Amposta that it contained no women, but 
six young students who were all stout fellows. They were made te 
come down one by one from their strong hold, deliver their money and 
watches, and then lie down flat upon tl^ir ftoes in the road. 

Meanwhile, the second robber, after oonsnlting with his oompanion, 
had returned to the spot where the z^al Pepe lay roiling from side to 
side. As he went towards him he drew a knife from tl^ folds of bis 
sash, and having <^ned it, he placed one of his naked legs on eithet^ 
side of his victim. Pushing aside the jacket of the youth^ he bent for* 
ward and dealt him many blows, moving over every part of the body as 
if anzioQs to leave none unsaluted. The young priest, my companion^ 
shrunk back into his corner, and bid his face within his ahivesing 
fingers ; but my own eyes seemed spellrbound, for I oould not withdraw 
them from the cruel spectacle, and nay ears were more sensible than 
ever. Though the windows at the ifont and Bide» weca still dofled,. I 
could distinctly hear each stroke of the murderous knife as it mi^eied 
its victim; it wae not a blunt sound as of a weapon that meets with 
pedtive resistance; but a hollow hissing noise as if the household imple* 
ment, made 40^ part the bread of peace^ perfenoaed unwillingly its task 
of treacheiy. This moment was the unhappiest of my life ; and it 
stsock me at the time that if any situation could be moie woftfay of 
pity than to die the dog's death of poor Pepe, it was to- be compelled tn 
witness hia fate without the power to raise an arm of interposition. 

Having completed tbe4eed to his sati^ctiony this eold-blooded mur- 
derer came to the deor of the cabriaht, and endeavonred to open it 
He shook it violently, calling to^ as to asist him ; but it bad chanced 
hitherto that we had. always got out on the other side, and the young 
priest, who had never before been in a diligence, thought from tfas 
cKrottastanoe that there was but one door, and therefore answered 
the fiallew that he mnst go to the other side. On the first affiyal of 
these unwelcome visiters, I had taken a valuable watch which I woDSi 
from my waistcoat pocket, and stowed it snugly in my boot; but when 
7 



tW CATALONIA AND VALENCIA. 

they fell to beating in the heads of our guides I bethought me that the 
few dollars I carried in my purse might not satisfy them, and replaced 
it again in readiness to be delivered at the shortest notice. These 
precautions were, however, unnecessary. The third ruffian, who had 
continued to make the circuit of the diligence with his musket in his 
hand, paused a moment in the road ahead of us, and having^placed his 
head to the ground as if to listen, presently came and spoke in an 
under tone to his companions. The conference was but a short one. 
They stood a moment over the mayoral and struck his head with the 
butts of their muskets, whilst the fellow who had before used the knife 
returned to make a few farewell thrusts, and in another moment they 
had all disappeared from around us. 

In consequence of the darkness, which was only partially dispelled 
by the lantern which had enabled me to see what occurred so imme^ 
d lately before me, we were not at once sensible of the departure of 
the robbers, but continued near half an hour after their disappearance 
in the same situation in which they left us. The short breathing and 
chattering of teeth, lately so audible from within the interior, gradually 
subsided, and were succeeded by whispers of the females, and soon 
after by words pronounced in a louder tone; whilst our mutilated 
guides by groans and writhing gave evidence of returning animation. 
My companion and I slowly let down the windows beside us, and hav- 
ing looked round a while we opened the door and descended. The 
door of the interior stood open as it had been left, and those within 
sat each in his place in anxious conversation. In the rear of the coach 
was a black heap on the ground, which I presently recognised for the 
six students who had occupied the rotunda, and who having been made 
to come down one by one, deliver their money and watches, and then 
stretch themselves out in the road upon their faces, made the oddest 
figure one can conceive, rolled up in their black cloaks, and with their 
cocked hats of the same solemn color, emerging at intervals from out 
the heap. As we came cautiously towards them, they whispered 
among each other, and then first one lifted his head to look at us, and 
then another, until finding that we were of the party they all rose at 
once like a cloud, notwithstanding the threat which the robbers made 
to them at their departure, as we afterwards heard, to wait by the road 
side and shoot down the first person who should offer to stir.* It will 
readily occur to the reader that if resistance to this bold and bloody 
deed should have been made at all, it was by these six young men, 
who, being together and furthermore acquainted, might easily have 
acted with concert, whilst the Test of (he party were as completely 
separated as though they had rode in distinct vehicles. But if it be 
considered that they had been awakened suddenly to a consciousness 
of their situation, and without any expectation of such a result, and 
that even though they should have had courage and coolness to con- 
cert resistance upon so short a notice j they were to a man unarmed, 
it will appear more natural that they should have acted precisely as 
they did. 



CATALONU AND VALENCIA. ^i 

Our first care, when thus left to ourselves, was to see if anythiiig 
couJd be dolie for our unfortunate guides. We found them rolling over 
in the dust and moaning inarticulately, eiLcept, indeed, that the con- 
ductor-would occasionally pronounce indistinctly some of those sainted 
names, whose interposition he had in vain invoked in the moment of 
tribulation. Having taken down the light from the top of the coach, 
we found them so much disfigured with bruises and with blood that re- 
cognition would have been impossible. The finery of poor Pepe, his 
silver buttons and his sash of silk, were scarce less disfigured than his 
features. There happened to be in our party a student of medicine 
who now took the lead in binding with pieces of linen and pocket 
handkerchiefs, the wounds of these unhappy men, and in placing under 
their heads suqh things as were convenient to raise them from the 
ground. While thus engaged we heard the noise of footsteps in the 
direction of Amposta, and shortly after a man came up with a musket 
in his hand and inquired the cause of our interruption. Having learnt 
the truth, and inquired the direction which we supposed the robbers to 
have taken, he discharged his musket towards it and loaded and dis- 
.charged again several times in rapid succession. Ue wore a species 
of bastard uniform, and proved to be one of the resguardo, or armed 
police, which is scattered over the country in Spain for the prevention 
of smuggling, and protection of lives and property ; but its members, 
receiving an insufficient salary from the government for their support, 
as is the case with almost all the inferior servants of the Spanish 
crown, are obliged to increase their means the best way they can, and 
are oflen found leagued in practices which it is their business to sup- 
press. It would perhaps be bold to say that this man was either direct- 
ly or indirectly engaged with those who had just robbed us ; but his 
appearance at this conjuncture was both sudden and singuhur. 

The tragedy over, a farce succeeded which lasted until daylight 
Many carts and waggons that were passing on the road came to a halt 
about us ; but we could not proceed in our journey, nor could the 
bleeding guides be removed from the road until the akalde of the near- 
est town should appear and take cognizance of the outrage. He came 
at length, a fat little man with a red cockade in his hat, in token of the 
loyalty which had doubtless procured him his office. He commenced 
examining the scene of bloodshed with an air of nrofessional abstrao- 
tion, which showed that this was not the first timene had been called 
from bed on such an occasion. He put his hand into the puddle of 
blood beside the mayorcd^ and gave the stoue with which his head had 
been broken, in care to one of his attendants. This done, one of the 
carts which had hdted near us was put in requisition to carry off the 
poor fellows, who had now lain roiling and weltering in the dust for 
more than two hours. There was some difficulty to get the people 
who stood by to lifl the bodies into the cart, and we were ourselves 
obliged to perform the task, which all seemed anxious to avoid* From 
this circumstance and what Laflerwards heard, I learned that in Spain 
a person found near the body of a murdered man is subject to detention 
and imprisonnieut, either as a witness, or as one suspected of the crime; 



ffl CATALONIA AND VALENCIA. 

tod it ifl owiog to this singular fact that Spaniards, instead of hurrying 
to lend succour, a?oid a murdered man as they would avoid a murderer. 
Indeed, it may be doubted whether in Spain the law be not more dread- 
ed by the peaceful inhabitant, than the very robbers and murderers 
from whom it should protect him. When a murder has been commit^ 
ted in a house, the first step of justice is to seize not only all the occu>> 
pants, but to carry off whatever fiirniture it may contain, until nothing 
but the walls be left. Hence it is that now, as in the time of Gil Blas,^ 
the word Jiffft'eia, which should inspire the honest with confidence, is 
never pronounced without a shudder. 

These painful scenes at length had an end, and the cart into which 
the guides had been placed returned slowly towards Amposta. Before 
it drove away the mayoral showed symptons of returning sensibility ^ 
but Pepe seemed in his agony- Two soldiers of the resguardo took 
their places lo conduct the diligence, and when the rope which the 
robbers had stretched across the road from tree to tree had been re- 
moved, the mules were again set in motion, hurrying from the scene of 
disaster, as though they had been sensible to its horrors. The day had 
now completely dawned, and the sun rising into a cloudless sky shone 
abroad upon a fertile country and the peaceful scenes of cultivation. 
There was little, however, in the change of cheerfulness or consolation ;. 
for if nature looked so fair, man sank in the comparison. 

The first place we came to was Saa Carlos ; one of the newpoputa^ 
ium$ established by the patriotic Ohivide. We halted in the public 
place, which stood in the form of an amphitheatre, and were soon sur* 
nmnded by all the village worthies to hear once and again from the 
sow loquacious students the story of our misfortunes. It was, however^ 
■o novelty to them, and when they had seen us entering the town, 
driven by the cut-throat resguarde, who held muskets in their hands 
instead of whips, they were all, doubtless,, as certain of what had hap- 
pened as when in possession of the details. The alcalde of San Carlos 
came forth with especial consequence to receive official information of 
the outrage ; then consulting with the rusty commandant of a few rag- 
ged soldiers who composed the garrison, part of them were sent off to 
search for the robbers already snug a-bed, perhaps, in Amposta, and 
part were ordered to accompany the diligence to Vinaroz, where our 
mulee were to be changed. 



Yinaroz is quite a large town, and as we entered it a good number 
of the inhabitants were up in arms at the unusual detention of the dili* 
gence. We had scarce stopped ere we were completly hemmed in 
by curious people ; so leaving my Catalan companions to find consda^ 
lion in imparting their sorrows, I pushed my way through groups of 
half naked Valencians, royalist volunteers of most unprepossessing 
appearance, and greasy monks of Saint Francis, until, having cleared 
the crowd and reached the court-yard, I mounted at once to the eating 
leoBiof ^sposada. Here were several parties of travellers still more 



CATAIX>KIA AKD TALENGIA. M 

interMted in the «tory of oar misfortQiie than those below, who had 
merely an idle cunoeily to gratify two Catalan gentlemen, who were 
travelling from Madrid to Barcelona in their own carriage, croes-quea- 
tioned roe as to the dangers that lay in the road before them, and in 
return for the consolation I imparted, told me that the same thing 
might happen to me any day in Spain ; that in La Mancha the robbers, 
no longer skulked among the trees and bushes like snakes, but patrolled 
the country on horseback and at a gallop ; that hitherto I bad passed 
ak>n^ the seacoast where the country was well cultivated and popnloos, 
and the inns good ; but that towards Madrid I should find a naked plain, 
destitute of trees, of water, of houses, and of cultivation, with inns Still 
more miserable than the poverty of the country justified ; and learning 
at last that no motive of business or necessity, had brought me into 
Spain, they wondered that I should hare left the kind looks and words,, 
the comforts and security which meet the stranger in France, to roam 
over a country which they firankly owned was fast relapsing into bar* 
barity. I half wondered at myself, and dreading further discourage-^ 
ment from these sorry comforters, I -abandoned their society to see 
about getting -something to eat; for, in consequence of the detention 
we everywhere met with, it would be three in the afternoon before we 
could reach Torre Blanca, the usual stopping place of the diligence. 
There was fish firying in some part of the house, and now, as I scented 
my way to the kitchen, I thought that there was yet consolation. 

The kitchen of the pesada at Vinaroz ofiered a scene of unusual con* 
fusion. The hostess was no other than the mother of Pepe, a very de» 
cent looking Catalan woman, who, I understood, had been sent there 
the year before by the diligence company, which is concerned in aU 
the inns at which their coaches stop throughout the line. Bhe had 
already been told of the probable fate of her son and was preparing to 
set off for Amposta in the deepest affliction ; and yet her sorrow, though 
evidently real, was singularly combined with a concern for matters of 
an inferior and different interest. The unusual demand for breakfast 
by fourteen hungry passen^rs had created some little confusion, and 
the poor woman, instead of leaving these matters to take care of them-^ 
selves, felt the force of habit and was issuing a variety of orders to her 
assistant ; nor was she unmindful of her appearance, but had already 
changed her frock and stockings preparatory to departure, and thrown 
on her manliUa, It was indeed a singular and piteous sight to see the 
poor perplexed woman changing some fish that was frying, lest they 
should be burnt on one side, adjusting and repinning her tttantilla, 
and sobbing and crying all in the same breath. When the man name, 
however, to say that the mule was in readiness, everything was for- 
gotten but the feelings of the mother, and she hurried off in deep and 
unsuppressed affliction. 



So long as the daylight lasted our road continued to follow the 
general line of the coast, and passed through a country of vines anc| 



54 CATALONU AND VA1.ENCIA. 

olives^ which, by its fertiiity and labored caltiTaliony began already to 
indicate the fair kingdom of Valencia, the garden of Spain, so re- 
nowned throughout all Europe. The season, though much later than 
in Catalonia, and still more so than in Provence, was nevertheless the 
season of decaying cultivation, and nature was beginning to put on a 
graver dress. There was enough in this and in the events of the 
past night to promote melancholy had other causes been wanting, but 
the whole road was skirted with stone crosses that had been raised 
opposite to as many scenes of robbery and assassination.* They were 
rudely fashioned from blocks of stone, with a short inscription cut on 
each of ogut mataron 6. Fulano, or here they killed Peter or Tom, on 
such a day of the year ; and almost every one had a stone upon it in 
a hollow which had been gradually worn there. This usage, which is 
not peculiar to Spain, is variously accounted for. Some say that it 
originates in a desire to' cover the ashes of the dead. But such cannot 
be the cause here, since the bodies of the people thus murdered are 
not buried by the road side, but in the campo santo of a neighbouring 
village. It is also asserted that a superstitious feeling lei^s to the 
placing of a stone in this manner as an evidence of detestation to- 
wards the murderer. There is among us a custom somewhat analo> 
gous, for I remember well when a boy and wandering along a road in 
the country, to have provided myself with a stone t^fore coming to a 
mile post, and then knocking away the mark of some other boy, to 
have placed my own in its stead. Be it as it may, this line of crosses 
placed singly or in groups of two or three along the road to Valencia, 
was a sufficient proof that the inhabitants are indeed entitled to that 
character for perfidy which they bear throughout Spain. It furnished 
a well filled index of treachery and murder, of avarice, revenge, and 
all those darker passions which degrade our nature. Many of the 
crosses were very old; others bore date in the last century; many 
denoted the murderous struggle for independence in later times, whilst 
a still greater number had b^n erected in the turbulent period of the 
Constitution and bore testimony to the fury of religious and political 
fanaticism. As we passed rapidly along I glanced with a feverish 
interest at each, whilst my fancy, taking the brief inscription as a text, 
and calling up the recollections of the night before, endeavoured to 
furnish forth the story of disaster. 



* And h«re and there, as up the crag you flprini;, 
Mark many rude-carved croMca near the path ; 
Yet deem not these devotiQn.*s oflering — 
Thcso are memorials frail of murderous wrath ; 
For whereaoe'er the shrieking victim hath 
Poured forth his blood beneath the assaaain's knife. 
Some hand erects a crosa of mouldering lath ; 
And grove and glen with thousand such are rife 
Thro'ighout this purple land, where law secures not life. 

Chtlde Harold. 



CATALONIA AND YALENCU. 55 

At Torre Bltnca, as at every place we came to during the remaiDder 
of the jonrneyy there was a most annoying scene caoaed by the gar- 
rulity of the students and the curiosity of the gossiping portion of the 
inhabitants. Acting upon the principle of shutting the stable door 
after the steed was stolen, the military commandant of the town 
ordered four ill fed dragoons to mount on as many worse fed horses 
and accompany us to Villareal. Though the number of these soldiers 
was so limited, there was as great a variety in their caps and uniforms as 
though they had been brought together from different corps. Some had 
boots with spurs on the heels, others laced shoes with a spur on the 
right foot, and, instead of snug valises of leather, they had saddlebags 
of old canvass tied to their saddles. Though their accoutrements were 
80 defective, they made up in long black mustaches, and eyes of fire 
that were constantly on the look out for enemies; and when there 
were any objects of suspicious appearance in the road before us, they 
would prepare their carabines, and, kicking their jaded beasts into a 
gallop, hurry fiwward in a way that showed that good looks were the 
least of their qualifications. 

At Villareal we were beset as before ; but an excellent supper, served 
with cleanliness and taste, furnished a solace to the misfortunes of our 
party, which by this time had nearly emptied itself of its grief. At 
eleven in the night we once more set forward with an escort of four 
foot soldiers ; for there were no dragoons at Villareal to relieve those 
who had come with us from Torre Blanca. These fellows belonged 
to the corps of Provincials, a species of drafted militia, furnished as a 
quota by each province. They were miserably accoutred, and, instead 
of shoes, wore nothing on their feet but the straw sandal of Catalonia 
and Valencia. Few soldiers, however, could have matched them on a 
march. There was only room for one of them on the bench of the 
nutyoral, and the remaining three were obliged, therefore, to run 
constantly beside us, loaded as they were with muskets and cartouch 
boxes. In this way they performed the twentythree miles that lie 
between Villareal and Murviedro, always keeping pace with the rapid 
motion of the diligence. 



The inconsiderable town of Murviedro, in which we paused towards 
daylight for a change of mules, was no other than the ancient Sagun* 
turn, once so flourishing and celebrated, and whose cruel destruction 
by Hannibal gave rise to the second Punic war. Saguntum is said to 
have been founded about two centuries before the fall of Troy, by 
Greeks, who came with an immense fleet fi-om Zante, in the Ionian Sea. 
These seeking to have something in their new home to remind them 
of the older and dearer one which they had left, called their colony 
Zaynthus, which afterwards was changed into Saguntum. Released 
from antique prejudices, and thrown upon their own resources, they 
soon took advantage of the' richness of the soil and their convenience 
to the sea to become rich and powerful. They extended themselves 



M CATALOMU AND VALBNCIA. 

in proceas of time along the coast, and in order to work upon the 
Buperstitions of the barbarous* natives, built a temple to Diana en the 
promontory, which has thence derived its present name of Denia. 
The colony continued during many centuries to flourish from the 
industry of its inhabitants, no less than from the just laws by which it 
was governed; and when the greedy Carthaginians extended their 
ambitious vieivs towards the hir city and territory of the Saguntines, 
the latter connected themselves in close friendship with the Homan 
people. At length when the youthful Hannibal succeeded to the cobh 
mand of the Carthaginian provinces in Spain, his first care was to 
gain the affections of the people by connecting himself in marriage with 
them, as a step towards the fulfilment of the vow of hatred which he 
had made when a child against the Roman people. Having strength- 
ened himself by these and other means, he dreaded lest death should 
likewise anticipate his enmity to the Romans as had been the case with 
Hamilcar and Asdrubal. He ^erefore collected an army of one hundred 
«nd fifty thousand men, and having found a specious cause of quarrel, 
he sat down before Saguntum, as the surest means of bringing' on a 
war with Rome, and with a view at the same time to revenge the de- 
feat which his father had sustained under the walls of that proud city. 
The Saguntines, being aware of their own weakness^ sent ambassa- 
dors to Rome* to solicit assistance ; but the Romans having lost time 
ia negotiations, Sanguntum was left to stand or fall by its own: resources. 
Thus straightened, the Saguatines made the best of their situation and 
defended their walls with the greatest obstinacy. Hannibal in press* 
tng the seige was badly wounded in the thigh, and a sally which the 
b^iged afterwards made, was likewise near relieving them of the 
preseace of their enemies. But the obstinacy of Hannibal was. equal, 
nay, greater than their own. He prosecuted the seige with persevering 
fury, and at length, having undermined the wall with pick-axes, and 
beat it down with Imttering rams, he prepared for a final assault. At 
this conjuncture Halcon, a distinguished Saguntine, went privately forth 
to Hannibal in order to procure such terms as might qualify the misery 
of his townsmen. He procured nothing better from the irritated con* 
queror than that the beseiged should be allowed to go freely forth with 
their wearing apparel and build a city wherever Hannibal should ap- 
point. These terms were indeed extreme, but the case of his country- 
men was still more so, and Halcon did not doubt that they would be 
accepted. But the indignant citizens preferred death to such unqualified 
dishonor. They gathered together in the market place, and the prin- 
cipal citizens having collected all their richest robes, gold, siirer, and 
jewels erected them into a funeral pile. To this they set fire, and hav- 
ing cast upon it their slaves, their children, and their wives, themselves 
followed into the flames. Meantime the city was fired in tdmost every 
house by the hand of its owner, and the enemy entering at the same 
time through the breach^ the soldiers were so greatly enraged at their 
disappointment that they slew all whom the flames had spared, without 
l]eguxl either to sex or condition** Thus fell Sagnntvm after msBige 

* Mariana. Livy. 



CATALONIA. W 

n^f eight months, about tiro centurieB before the coming of Chrat 
Though the Romans endeavoured aAerwardsin their day of augneiitoit 
|M)wer, to raise up the proud city which their own Uikowarmneaa had 
«liowed to perish, it never again attained to its ancient magaiAeeace. 
After the overthrow of the Roman Empire, the city oontiilaed double 
leas to decline during the dark days of the Goths and in the atomf 
period of the Moorish domination, until now, under the hIightiDg 
auspices of religious and political despotism, changed in fortunes as in 
name, it offers little but tottering arches and mutilated inscriptions ta 
'lell that it is indeed Saguntum.* 



We left Murviedro as the day was dawning and passed constantly 
through a fertile and highly cultivated country, gradually inoreasing 
in population, until as we approached Valencia the villages becams 
almost continuous. Shortly after we cleared the town and got upon 
the open road, I noticed a young man with his mania hanging from his 
shoulder with something in it that seemed to be seed or grain, and who 
tan constantly at the side of the diligence. I watched him with soma 
curiosity. Sometimes he would be before us, and then when our guides 
used their whips he would get behind, when I supposed that Iw had 
stopped But presently he wowld overtake us again, first his shadow 
and then his head and lank hair enveloped in a red handkerohief, aad 
with a step or two more his whole person would emerge ; manta^ bragaa, 
naked legs, and sandals. This did not last only for a shoit time, but 
during the whole distance of fifteen miles to Valencia, for we only lost 
sight of him, finally, in the immediate eavirops of the city. I was aol 
^Tittle curious to learn the meaning of this singular proceeding, and 
therefore- asked our new nM^orai wbait made the fellow run bssMe the 
diligence. * Qwn iobe^V says he; and then after a pause * Yad Vaku^ 
<ia y Uevapriesa* — 'Who knows 1 He is going to Valencia and is in 
9L hurry.' The idea of -the young Sagantine sttu^k me as being a good 
one ; for it certainly united two things very desirable in travelling ; 
io wit, expedition and economy. 

At the distance of three miles from Valencia we came to the exten- 
sive convent of San Miguel de los Reyes. This princely establish- 
ment owed its foundation to the Duke of Calabria, who was captain- 
general of Valencia about the middle of the sixteenth century. He 
caused this convent to be built, according to the fashion of the day, to 
receive his remains, and made a provision for sixty monks of Saint 
Jeremy, who in return for their fine habitation, warm clothing, and 
good dieer, were bound daily to say a mass for the soul of the generous 
duke. It is not a little curious and indicative of the change which 

* Three fines of a Spanish peet have been often and happily quoted to ezpresi Ihs 
laUen conditioB of this once splendid dty. 

' Con marmoles y nobles inscripciones 
Teatro un tiempo y aras en Sagunto 
Fabiican hoy tabemas y mesones.* 
8 



GS CATALONIA. 



I brings aboat in the mannerR and in^itntions of men, that the pif' 
lata and avohea of the amphitheatre at Sagontam should hate been torn 
down, tofornish materials for the construction of this monkish edifice. 
Nothing can be finer than the northern approach to Valencia 
Domes and towers without number are seen gradually to emerge from 
out the continuous orchard of lemon; orange, fig, pomegranate, and 
mttlberry, which extends itself over fields, laid out in kitchen gardens, 
and thus made to yield a double tribute to the industrious cultivator. At 
length, after passing through this grove, the source at once of usefulness 
and beauty, we came to the banl^ of a wide ravine, bounded on both sides 
by strong parapets of hewn stone. This ravine was the bed of the 
Guadalaviar, and is evidently formed to contain the waters of a power- 
ful stream; but, when I saw it, a brook could with difficulty be discov- 
ered, trickling along a small channel, which it had made for itself in 
tiie middle of the ravine. The remainder was covered with grass of 
dM rieheet verdure, and crqpped by sheep and goats, now wandering 
fbarksaly over the soil which in the season of freshets is filled high 
witb the reaistless element The cause of this disappearance of the 
Guadalaviar, 18, that its waters are diverted throughout the whole course 
of the stream for the purpose of irrigation. We may, however, weH 
pardon this plunder in consideration of the plenty which results firom 
It; and even if poetry and the picturesque were done worthy of atten- 
taoo, the loes of beauty which the Guadalaviar thus sustain?^ is fiur more 
than requited by the verdure which it imparts to so large a portion of 
tliepiain of Valencia. 
The bridges over this ravine were five in number, and their stout 
and massive arches gave sofficient indication of the occasional 
I of the Guadalaviar. The one over whose noisy pavement we 
now rapidly drawn, had been ornamented by the spirit of devo- 
^ tkm with a rude shrine^ dedicated to the patron saint of the city. At its 
•OQllieni extremity was a time-worn gate covered with antique oma* 
meats and inaeriptions, throogh which vre now entered into Valencia— 
Fafaam IJk #bww.Fafaiaa i»f lAe CM 



piera 

ibiee< 



CHAPTER IV. 

KINGDOMS OF VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 

Klnfdom of Valencia.— Origin and Fortunes of the City.— Its aetual Condition.-* 
Tilie leave of Valenm.~^evated Plains of New Castile.— Costume and 
Cliaiacter of the Inhabitants.— AlmanM.— El Toboso.--SeeiMe at QaintHNr.— > 
Ocania.— lAra^iuez. — Madrid. 

Thb kingdom of Valencia extends itself about two hundred mileB 
along the eastern coast of Spain, and varies from thirty to sixty miles 
in breadth. Whilst on every other side it is bounded by CataloBiay 
ArragoB, Cuenca, and Murcia, on the east the Mediterranean bathes 
its whole extent, furnishing its inhabitants with an abundant supply 
•f food, and placing them in ready communication with the whole 
world. This kingdom is one of the most wealthy and Aourialung 
divisions of the Spanish monarchy; for it numbers a popnlaticm A 
Bear a million of souls. Towards the confines of the central protinoes, 
it offers ranges of mountains, abounding in iron^ marUe, jasper, attd 
other valuable minerals ; while the space which interrenes between 
those mountains and the sea, forms a continuous and rfoping plain, 
like, the Milanese, watered by no fewer than thirtysix smail rivers, 
which take their rise in the mountains of the interior, and f<rflow an 
eastern course until they join the Mediterranean. 

The more elevated portions of the kingdom consist of dry situations, 
producing figs, wine, and olives, aad of watered fields^ which are 
either plain by nature, or have been leveUed off, for the eooreaienoe 
of irrigation, into platforms, crowded with crops and trees, and rising 
above each other in animated perspective, like the ascending grades 
of an amphitheatre. These produce abundant crops of hemp, flax, 
cotton, wheat, rice, Indian corn, algazzober beans, apples, pears, 
peaches, oranges, lemons, citrons, pomegranates, dates, almonds, be* 
side melons which are renowned throughout Spain, and every species 
of culinary vegetable, with such an infinity of mulberry trees that they 
fiirnish annusdly a million and a half pounds of the richest silk. In 
addition to these natural productions of Valencia, the industry of her 
inhabitants enriches commerce with a variety of manufactured arti- 
cles^ such as brandy, barilla, paper, crockery, fabrics of straw, hemp, 
flax, and ec^cially of silk, which may be considered the staple of 
the country. 

Such are the fertilizing effects of the system of irrigation, univer- 
aally applied in Valencia, that the mulberry trees are thrice stiiliped 
cf their leaves, and the meadows of clover and luzeffie ar« mown 



60 VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 

eight and even ten times ; citrons are often gathered of six poundff^ 
and bunches of grapes of fourteen pounds; wheat sown in November 
yields thirty for one in June ; barley in October gives twenty in May ; 
rice in April yields forty in October; and Indian corn planted as a. 
second crop gives one hundred fold. Beside these there are inter- 
mediate crops of vegetables ; so that with a varied choice of produc- 
tions, a powerful sun, and the fertilizing aid of water, the farmer may 
here realize two, and even three harvests in a single year.* 

Nor. is the climate of Valencia unworthy of such a soiL The 
mountains, which form its landward barrier, intercept the cold winds 
of the interior, whilst the genial and equalizing influence of the 
Mediterranean tempers alike the summer heats and the colds of 
winter. In summer, sudden showers are neither unfrequent nor 
unwelcome ; but in the intervals, and generally throughout the year,, 
the air remains ever pure, pleasant, and healthful, the sky ever serene^ 
PbA the whole system of seasons seems lost in one continual, delicious 
spring. The Cardinal de Retz, whose blood was rather warmer than 
beeame his office, thus speaks of this country in his singular Memoirs. 
* The kingdom of Valencia may well be pronounced, not only the 
healthiest country, bat also the most beautiful garden in the whole 
world. Ijemon, orange, and pomegranate trees form the pallisadoes 
of its highways, whilst crystal and transparent rivulets meander in 
benches beside them. The whole plain is enamelled with an endless 
variety of flowers, which, whilst they enchant the eye, delight the 
smell with the most grateful odors.' Father Mariana, too, who was 
also something of an enthusiast, assures us that in the environs of 
the eitjf 'the gardens and orchards, mixing and entangling their 
vegetation, form a continuous arbour, always green and always 

* AntilloD and Townfiend. It remits from tiiis important use of irrigatkm, that 
the value of lands In Valencia depends entirely on the facilities of procunng water* 
The right to the use of every stream is of course nicely defined. When the fnicti- 
Qrmg seasons arrive, those who enjoy water privileges sedulously prepare their 
mMs, Qpea their iloiees, fill the ditches, and inundate the whole, even to vineyards* 
and olive orchard*. la conaequenee of this system, productions are multiplied to m 
wonderful extent, and the eaith continues prolific throughout the year. It is» 
however, remarked by Bourgoanne, that this artificial fertility does not bestow on 
nlanti the substance which they elsewhere receive from nature alone ; and that 
heace the aliments in Valencia are much less nourishing than in Castile. Hence, 
too, the deterioration which the excessive use of water communicates to plants, ia 
said likewise to extend to the animals, to which they in turn furnish subsistence; 
a fact which has, doubtless, authorized the Spanish proverb, En Valencia, la came 
m Merha; la hierbat agua; los hombres, mugeres; y las mugeres, nada ! 

Thooffh diapoaed to think this proverb hyperbolical, at least so far aa it relates Id 
the lovely and not too etherial Valencianaa, it proves, if nothinc else, the low eetfma* 
tlon which the people of Valencia enjoy throughout Spain. It is well known — we 
Aiay team the fact even from novels and romances — that in the sixteenth and seven> 
tSMMh ceaturies, when it was customary for every distinguished personage to have 
^ hit«d atsaaons at eommand, they were almost all natives of Valencia. Even their 
dress and weapons are described. The miscreant went forth, enveloped in his cknit, 
and Caviircd by the obscurity of night. Having found the individual, proscribed by 
pvbfie poliey or personal hate, he would steal after him until time and place were 
InfliDtti^ HMtt rakrin|r hla hand fiom beneath its conceahnent, drive the mufderomi 
ly a o g wi which il grasjped, deep inl» the hack of U» uatuspecting victim. 



VALBNCIA, MURCU, AND NEW CA8TU.E. M 

pleasant Such is the beauty of Valencia! — Such were the Eljrsiati 
fields whkh the poets fancied ! ' * 



In the midst of the mingled beauties and bounties of this fiivored 
plain, stands the city of Valencia, upon the south bank of the 
Guadalaviar, at whose mouth it has an inconsiderable and unsafe 
harbor. Though known in the time of the Romans by the name of 
Valentia, this city so greatly augmented its importance under the 
Saracen domination, that it may be said to owe its origin to that indus- 
trious people. They introduced the system of rural economy which 
has converted this vast plain into one extensive garden ; and seeking 
new sources of wealth, commenced the culture of silk, before it was 
known in Italy. Nor did the sciences, and such arts as are t<^erale4 
by the Koran, fail to keep pace with the progress of industry. The 
Valencians became celebrated for the cultivation of letters; and of 
the sixty libraries which then existed in Mahometan Spain, at a time, 
too, when books were scarcely known in the rest of Europe, that of 
Valencia yielded for extent and value to none but the library of 
Cordova. 

But, though this literary and scientific superiority of the Valencians 
may have sharpened their intellects and humanized their hearts, it gav« 
them but little advantage in the field over the hungry and strong handed 
Spaniards, who used no other logic than the sword, and knew but one way 
of signing their name, upon the visage of an enemy. As the misfortune 
of Valencia would have it, towards the close of the eleventh century, 
ene.Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, an illustrious robber whom the Saracens 
had sumamed the Cid, or Lord, was banished from Castile for having 
broken the peace with the king of Toledo by a predatory excursion 
into his territories. Collecting a party of hidalgos,i equally reckless 
with himself, he made war on many petty kings among the infidels, 
assisting one against another, until he had conquered several and 
rendered them his vassals. .He at length became an auxiliary in a 
war between two rival competitors for the crown of Valencia; and 
having conquered the one and set aside the other, took possession of 
the subject of contention. In order to conciliate the good will of the 
king his master, the Cid sent him a present of two hundred beautiful 
horses, richly caparisoned after the fashion of the Moors, and with as 
many scimitars hanging at the saddlebows, beseeching him at the 
same time to allow his wife and daughters to come from their convent 
in Cardenia. This being granted, the Cid estabhshed himself in 
Valencia, and, notwithstanding several sieges on the part of the dis- 

* The worthy Jesuit, doubtless, alludes to the heathen paradise, or Hesperidal 
Gardens. In the earliest ages they were placed in Spain, (hence gradually receding 
before the matter of fact realities of discovery and colonization, until (hey at length 
obtained a permanent, and not unworthy location, in the Fortunate Islands. 

t Jhdalgo9 or hijosdalgo, nobles. SiMne derive this word from Amm M €hd^t 
mis of the Goth ; but its literal meaning is evidently— cons of somebody. 



02 TAL£NCIA» MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 

poeaeseed Moors, he maintained the conquest until the day of his- 
death. This took place at a moment when the African prince Bekir 
was before the city with a strong force, and resistance being now 
hopeless, it was determined to abandon everything and return to 
Castile. The body of the Cid was placed on a litter with his wife, 
the proud spirited Ximena, and the whole ffamaon, forming in the 
funeral procession, ready to defend him who nitherto had needed 
no other safeguard but his own good arm, thus marched forth from 
Valencia. The Moors, being ignorant of what had happened, fled 
before the Cid, and opened a passage through which the mourners 
were allowed to return to their country. The old romances, which 
have connected so many fictions with the real- achievements of this 
wonderful man, even tell us that the dead champion was mounted upon 
his good steed Babrica, with his terrible sword Calada in his right 
hand, and his long black beard hanging down upon his burnished 
cuirass.* 

Valencia was thus restored to the dominion of the Moors, from 
which it had been prematurely conquered by the valor of the Cid. 
Its day, however, at length arrived. In 1238, just afler the taking of 
Cordova by Saint Ferdinand, King James of Arragon determined to 
lay siege to Valencia. The number of his troops being no more 
than a thousand foot and half as many horse, his followers became 
discouraged ; but the king having taken a solemn oath that he «would 
not return without being master of Valencia, they became inspired 
with his resolution. Having crossed the Guadalaviar, he entrenched 
himself between the walls of the city and the neighbouring sea, and 
was soon joined by soldiers drawn from all quarters to share in the 
glory of the seige and the spoils of the city. Among these adven- 
turers was a body of Frenchmen under the command of the good 
Bishop of Narbonne. If we are astonished that so small a force as 
fifteen hundred men should have laid siege to a city like Valencia, 
let us remember that the tide of conquest was rolling back; let us go 
back to the period of the conquest, and we shall see Cordova besieged 
and taken at a gallop by six hundred cavaliers of Arabia.t 

The army of Donf Jayme, thus reinforced from all quarters, amount- 
ed at length to seventy thousand soldiers; and the people of Valencia 
being disappointed in the succour which they had expected from the 
king of Tunez, began to think of a surrender, for famine had already 
commenced its ravages among them. Afler much debating about the 
terms, the capitulation was at length signed. It was agreed that the 
city of Valencia should be given up to Don Jayme, that its inhabi- 
tants should be allowed to go unmolested to Denia, and that each 
might carry away with him as much gold, silver, and precious com- 
modities as he could carry on his person. 

* See Romancero del Cid ; Southcy, Chronicles of the Cid. 

t Conde, HIstoria de los Arabes en Espania. 

t Don is from the Latin Dominiu. It was originally ttie attribute of royalty, 
then was extended to prfaieea and nobles, and now courtesy has made it the appella- 
tion of every Spaniard. In Portugal, however, Don is stUl peculiar to the king and 
princes and loyal bastards. 



VAICNCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. » 

The fiUkl day at length arrived which was to separate fbrever the 
inhahitants of Valencia from the fiur city so deeply endeared to them. 
The moamiul procession of dejected men, heart-sick women, and 
helpless children, to the number of fifty thousand, was seen to emerge 
from the south gate of the city which opened towards the sacred 
promontory of D^a^ The priests and sdldiers of the christian army 
formed a lane without the gate, through which the unhappy exiles 
tottered forth, assailed by the revilings of their persecutors, and bend- 
ing not so much under the burthen which each bore, as under the 
weight of their common misfortune. When all had thus passed 
onimd, the Christians made their solemn entry into the city; the 
mosques were purified and consecrated; a bishop installed into the 
long vacant see, and thanksgivings forthwith offered to Him, in whose 
name and for whose glory the conquest had been effected. The 
neighbouring country, which the labor of the exiled cultivators had 
reduced to fertility, was duly divided between the prelates, military 
orders, and nobles who had taken part in the siege, not forgetting 
such convents as had lent the more passive assistance of their prayers. 
From Gerona, Tortosa, and Tarragona, people were invited to come 
and fill the vacancy in the industrious classes occasioned by the 
promiscuous departure of so many citizens. 



It must have required centuries for Valencia to recover from the 
effects of this severe blow to her prosperity ; and the vicious division 
of property must have been, as it still is, a constant check to every 
species of melioration. Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, the 
growth of the city had gradually continued until the beginning of the 
present century, when its population amounted to one hundred and 
sixty thousand souls, twenty thousand of whom were engaged in silk 
manufactories, which annually consumed near a million pounds of the 
raw material. The war of independence and the political struggles 
which have followed, must have checked the prosperity of Valencia ; 
for the city itself has twice been besieged , and even bombarded by 
the French; but it nevertheless continues to be the second city in 
Spain, and may even dispute with the capital for superiority in wealth 
Ukd population. 

^ The climate of Valencia has often been compared to that of Greece, 
and the genius of its inhabitants is said not be dissimilar to that which 
once characterized the natives of that famous country. A taste for 
poetry prevails among the people, and. even improvisator! are not un- 
known. Letters, which under the Moors attained an advancement 
in Valencia to which the age was a stranger, have likewise flqurished 
here in modem times. Until lately, more books were annually printed 
in Valencia than in any other city in Spain, and several watKB which 
I have seen, that were printed towards the close of the last century 
here, can scarcely be surpassed for embellishments and execution. 
This most useful art has, howeter, lost much since the French revo> 



#4 VALENCIA. MURPU, AND NEW CASTILE. 

lution. No new works are now allowed to go to the press h«re| 
except books on devotion and French novels turned into Castilian; 
and even the old works which during centuries have formed the pride 
of Spanish literature, are now well searched by ghostly censors, and 
gleaned of their most pithy sentences before they can again be pub* 
lished. Id this waj the book trade in Spain i» now reduced to the 
buying and selling of second-hand works, and I was not a little sur- * 
prised in Valencia, on going into several bookstoresy to iind myself 
surrounded by a venerable collection of well worn tomes, bound in 
parchment and tied with strings or fastened by huge clasps of brass, 
which at least possessed the merit of having outlived their generation^ 

The fine arts have always been cultivated with great care in Valencia. 
The style of building, too, is generally good, and the Gothic taste| 
which has left many monuments in Barcelona, can no longer be traced 
here. The most remarkable of its buildings is the cathedral; of vast 
extent and various construction, but very noble and imposing witbin« 
This city possesses a university which is much esteemed in Spain » 
a gratuitous academy of noble arts ; two public libraries; a seminary 
for the education of noble youths; a general hospital, and a commercial 
exchange. The theatre of Valencia is very inferior to that of Barce* 
lona; the house itself is small and miserably arranged, whilst the 
threadbare and ill-fed appearance of the players forms the best apology 
(or their indifferent performance. 

The principal dwellinghouses of Valencia are built in a quadran- 
gular form, with a large gate*way in front and a square court in the 
ipeKtre ; but the greater number have a narrow door and stairway at 
one aide as with us. In addition to glass sashes which open inward^ 
like folding doors, the windows near the ground have cages of iron, 
composed of perpendicular bars called rgas and to which the French 
give the more appropriate name ot jealousies* These serve to prevent 
the entrance of a thief or a lover, or the evasion of a wifo. The 
windows of the upper stories descend nearly from the ceiling to the 
floor, and open on balconies of iron, which are decorated with shrub* 
bery and flowers, and thronged by the lodgers of both sexes, whenever 
any religious or military procession is passing, and by the females at 
all seasons when not better employed. The houses are constructed of 
stones of every shape and size, coated with cement, and whitewashed* 
When thus animated by gay groups of well dressed people standing ii| 
the baloonies, they make a very good appearance. ^ 

The streets of Valencia are very crooked, and so narrow that maaj 
of them are impassable for carriages. From this reason and the 
treacherous character of the people, there is great risk of being robbed 
in the night, unless one keep to the principal streets; and f was re* 
peatedly cautioned at my hotel to be on my guard. The streets are not 
paved at fh, for the dryness of the climate renders it unnecessarj. 
Hence the walking is very dusty in the city, and the inhabitant^ lo 
av<»d it, resort to the paseos, or public walks, of which there are several, 
beautifully planted and furnished with benches, along the banks of the 
Guadalaviar and in the direction of the sea-port at the noiitb of Ihe 



VALENCIA, MtTRCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. «5 

ti^er. The most beautiful of all, however, is the Ohrieia^ a very small 
square, contiguous to the custom-house. It is em^losed by a railing, 
and planted in every direction with the trees that are most grateful to 
the eye and smell, and among which the orange, the lemon, and the 
still fairer pomegranate, are most conspicuous. The ground below is 
|30v*ered with shrubs and flowers of every clime, whose thrifty appear- 
ance attests most strongly the genial influence of the climate. These 
form hedges to the various walks which intersect each other in every 
direction, and have at their angles fountains which are ever in motion. 
There is a principal alley along which the walkers who court observa- 
tion make repeated turns, bowing to their acquaintance as they pass, 
or joining in their promenade ; while others take their seats upon the 
stone benches that skirt the walks, or on rush chairs that are hired 
from an old woman, and pass the company in review. The more 
secluded alleys on each side are frequented by those of both sexes, who 
improve this occasion of being together, and who, unlike others who 
converse aloud for general effect, seek rather to make individual im- 
pressions. Whether the peasants and laboring classes are excluded 
from the Olorieta, or from an unwillingness to mingle with people so 
much richer and better dressed than themselves, there were none of 
them there, except, indeed, a solitary Yalencian, who moved about in 
his bragas, rubbing his naked legs against the ladies, and offering a 
lighted match, which he carried, to the smokers. Outside of the Olarie' 
ia^ bodies of royalist volunteers or regular troops, with bands of music, 
are seen passing in different directions, intermingled with crowds of 
pedestrians and horsemen ; and antique carriages on four wheels, or 
light tarianas, are drawn up everywhere, in attendance on their owners, 
who are taking a more grateful exercise within. The tarttma, so 
generally in use at Valencia, is a small cart, covered with a canvass 
top, and drawn by a single horse or mule, whose harness is well studded 
with brass tacks and small bells of the same metal. The entrance is 
at the back, and the seats are along each side. The interior of the 
tartana is adorned with curtains of silk, while without it is painted 
with a variety of gay colors, which, like the grotesque paintings upon 
the outer walls of the churches, long preserve their brilliancy in this 
dry climate. As it has no springs, it would be but a comfortless 
vehicle in a psved city, but it moves noiselessly and without a jar over 
the level streets of Valencia. 

The Ohrieia was lafd out and planted by a late captain general, 
who was a testy and high handed Don, and who punished delinquents, 
h«mg up robbers, and did whatever seemed right to him according to 
his own fancy. In short, he was just the man to govern the Spaniards 
of the present generation. He took the land of the present Glorieta 
from some convent or other useless establishment, and converted it 
into the delightful little place, which now adds so greatly to the amuse- 
ments of the Valencians. When the Constitution came, however, and 
the late captain general exchanged his palace for a prison, the uncurbed 
populace wreaked their fury upon everything connected with the memo- 
ry of the man who had restrained them, and would even have restofed 
9 



66 YAIiSKClA, MVaCU, AND NEW CASTILE. 

the GloriMia ta Ua Qciginal state by cutting down the trees and tearing 
up the shrubbery, had they not been opposed by others whose ideas of 
liberty were leas ianaticaL The present captain general of Valencia 
is likewise a tyrant, but of a much worse kind than the one we ha?e 
been speaking of ; for he ia a tyrant at secpnd hand, and to suit the 
views of his eroploy^rs^ Notwithstanding his severity towards the 
perseeated liberals^ he is flexible enough in the hands of the priests/ 
who very lately made a, suocessfiil o(^)06ition to his authority. They 
had the audacity, a few months before I passed through Valencia, to 
take a poor Jew who had avowed his opinions, and hang him up publicly 
against the injunction, of the civil officers and even of Ofeilly himself. 



The interval of three days„ between the departures of the Barcelona 
diligence for Madrid, having at length passed by, I rose early on the 
morning of its expected arrival to hear what had been the fate of the 
mayoral and Pepe, whom I had last seen bleeding and groaning in a 
eact on their way to Amposta. Tiie may6ral was still alive three days 
after the event, when the diligence stopped at Amposta; but his head 
was so badly fractured as to render recovery doubtful. Poor Pepe 
breathed his last at ten o'clock, about eight hours after our attack, and 
long before his widowed mother could have arrived to close the eyes of 
bee child* More than a month elapsed before I again heard anything 
of the still surviving mayorai or of the men who had ooounitted the 
violence ; for such things never being published in Spain, one half the 
population might be murdered without the rest knowing anything of it. 
It may, however, be as well to r^>eat here what I at length learned ia 
Madrid from a Valencian wagoner, whom I questioned on the subject 
I'he fM^ostal^ after lingering about a week, had shared the fiite of 
Pepe, and the three robbers had at length been detected and taken 
into custody. One of them was a natire of Peripignan, son to a man 
who had formerly kept the inn where the diligence put up in Amposta. 
Tiie other twa wece natives of the town, and all were acquaintances of 
Pcfie, tea to one the very varlets who were playing at cards beneath 
our. window. My infinrmant could not tell me whether the murdarerv 
were likeljc (a anfier for their crime. One of them being a strann^, 
rendered it probable; but if they had money to put into- the beads of 
an eseribamOf or notary, to fee him and the judges who wooUl be called 
to decide upon the case, or to buy an escape, or, as a last resort, if 
they could procure the interposition of the clergy^ they might yet g|o 
unpunished* 

The diligence was to leave Valencia at noon for Madrid. So finding, 
lahea I had repaired to it and stowed my trunk on the top, that there 
wa^ yet.half an hour of idle time to be got rid of, I wandered bade lo» 
the cathedral to pass once more through its aislea, and then ascended 
to the. Ui|> of the antique tower called Miquelet to take a &rewell look 
at Valencia and iu emrirona. The campoMro was getting, ready ta 
ri«)ig, fiv the midday mass; so I found, the tnwes gate open, and a 



VALiaVCIA, MURCIA» AND NSW CAfltlLfi. 97 

person, who wss ftmiliar with every object of the Iwidwape, mtJtf 
to ainswer my inqairies. The city upon whieh I new idofted dowft, 
had gamed nothhig hy this change of poeittoii. The iiM|pihir roof 
of the cttthedral, and indeed of ail the hnildingt, ptfiblie and priftte, 
were cofered with mde tiles, which, howeter well Ihey itt^glit eerve 
•to keep out the water, made bat a graeelesi a ppe ar auce ; and the 
streets, now seen collectively as in a map, ^Mcked the eye hy thei^ 
want of regularity. As the sight gradually extended ita-efatla, it took 
in objects that were more agreeaUe ; the verdant CNMsfa wMi its trees 
juid fountaine; the Gate of the Cid, and the numerous nvelines leading 
10 the capital ; the five bridges of the Gaadalaviar, and -the promenades 
which skirt its banks. These were enclosed in that wide expanse of 
verdure, interspersed everywhere with viNages and ftrm-hooseSy to 
which the Spaniards have given the glowmg name of Hmerim de 
Vmlencia, the garden and the orchard of Valeiieia, whose fertility had 
no other bounds bat the sea and mounatam, whieh everywhere ter* 
minated the prospect. 

Bj the time I had regained the office of the diligence, the bells of 
the cathedral and of ihe many chnrohes and convents of Valeneit 
were tolling for noon. The coach was already in the street, the nmles 
were geared to it, and the superintendent, way*bill in hand, was calling 
over the names of the passengers, and assigning to each the seat which 
he was to retain dvring the whohd journey. I had taken a comer of 
the cabridei, and now found the adjoining one occupied by a Spanish 
officer^ a ootooel of cmpadores, who had a pair of Imse pistols in the 
4soach pocket beside hira, with his sabre clothed in buckskin, and 
standing upright in the comer to keep sentry over them. He had on 
a jacket of red worked with gold lace, over which was an ample eioak 
4>f blue lined with red velvet, and on has heels a pair of long brass 
spurs that were continually incommoding him during the jonmey. 
His sehaiko was hung up overhead and replaced by a light bottnet of 
blue cloth, adorned in front with a gold jfetir de It^s, the common badge 
•of the Bourbons. This was a very young man to be a eobnel^ with « 
fair round face and well nurtured mustaches. Indeed his whole appesfw 
ance indicated more familiarity with parlour scenes, and polite usages^ 
than with the stir and strife incident to his profesmn. I aAer«rat4s 
found he was a eorule or count, and having thds been bom to the m^ 
tary life, as done worthy of his rank, be had gradually grown into H 
grade, which in France can only be reached over many a feM of battle» 
He was, however, on the whole a very agreeable travelling compaMoli^ 
and when he was not engaged with a musty book on tavalry, or I with 
my map, or dictionary and grammar of the language, we talked in o o* 
santly together throughout the journey. In the interior were two 
passengers, beside one of the proprietors of the diligevce, a wary eld 
Catalan, who was riding through the line to look into the state of the 
teams, of the inns where the coach stopped, and of other matters 
relating to the service of the company. He carried with him a small 
blank book, bound with parchment, and a portable ittkhoro with « 
CQVfUe of superannuated pens in it. These materials fer aotborship 



06 YALESCIA, M0RCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 

be would produce erery night after, supper, and, spreading them out 
amid the wreck of the repast, proceed to write up his journal. The 
rotunda contained one solitary occupant, a candidate for the priesthood, 
who was going to pursue his studies in Alcala. This was one of the 
fast'talking youths who had shared in our disaster .near the Ebro. 

With these five persons for travelling companions,, and a goodnatured 
Catalan, called Lorenzo, for a mayoral, we turned our backs upon 
Valencia, and took our course to the southwest, in the direction of 
San Felipe. As on the approach to the city from the other side, our 
road now lay through cultivated and well watered fields, which at the 
same time were planted with orchards of every kind of fruit, and 
especially the mulberry, olive, and aigazzoha. On the left we passed 
the Albufera of Valencia, a fine lake which abounds in fish and water- 
ibwL The neighbouring country is entirely laid out in rice,, of which 
such a quantity is produced, that the share of the king,, who claims 
sixteen per cent, as proprietor, and probably receives much less, is 
worth annually near fifly thousand dollars. This princely estate be- 
fenged, during the short reign of King Joseph, to Marshal Suchet, 
who commanded the French forces in this part of Spain, and was. 
almost the only one of his countrymen who promoted successfully the 
cause of Napoleon, and was at the same time able to win the afiections 
of the Spaniards. This distinguished general lost his estate on the 
restoration of the Bourbons, but preserved the title of Duke of Albu- 
fora, which, with the peerage conferred by I^uis XVIII., has lately 
devolved upon his son. In the aRernoon we came to a small stream 
which flowed under a few scattering aigaxxoba trees, whose foliage^ 
as well as the grass that grew upon its banks, seemed to catch new 
verdure from the fertilizing element. Here a party of travellers had 
baited to make a rude meal upon the bread and sausages which they 
bad brought with them, whilst their mules and asses were likewise 
refreshing themselves along the margin of the brook. 

When the sun was sinking in the west, we began to ascend the 
mountains, which seemed to grow more formidable as we approached 
them, winding occasionally through narrow and concealed gorges, or 
crossing an eminence which overlooked a wide expanse of the rich 
plains below and of the more distant Mediterranean. At the summit 
we came in sight of Mogente, while on the left were seen the turrets 
of San Felipe. This city was called Jatina by the Moors, and was 
once famous for its manufactures, particularly of paper, of which, if I 
mistake not, it claims the honor of inventing; an invention, in its 
efieots upon the progress of civilization, not unworthy of being com- 
pared to that of printing itself. In the war of succession between the 
French and Austrian pretenders to the vacant throne of Spain, Jatina 
was so unfortunate as to espouse the wrong cause, or the one which 
proved unsuccessful. Philip V., when he at length got possession 
of the place, was so greatly exasperated against the inhabitants, thai 
he caused it to be demolished, and in its stead founded a city to which 
he gave the r^iovating name of his patron saint, San Felipe. Another 
honor claimed by San Felipe, and it is indeed a proud one, is^ that it 



VALENCU, MURCU» AND NEW CASTILE. W 

gftfe birth to the distinguished painter, Joseph Ribera, whom, for his 
diminutive size, the lulians christened SpagnoHio. On the road 
which leads to San Felipe is a small bridge, tb^own orer a torrent in 
which a widowed mother had the hard fortune to lose her only son. 
Making an honorable exception to the unworthy rule that misery loves 
company, she caused this bridge to be erected, that no other mother 
might suffer like herself. It still bears the name of the Widow's Bridge, 
or, in the more poetic language of the country, Puenie de la Viuda» 

At sunset we arrived at a venia, or solitary inn, which lay at a short 
distance from Mogente. We bad journeyed fortyeight miles, and, instead 
of going in a direct line towards Madrid, we had been making a right 
angle to its direction from Valencia ; and, to look on the map, were 
not a jot nearer our destination than when we started. So muoh for 
communications in Spain. In the venta we found a German merchant 
who had come from Alicante to take passage with us to Madrid. He 
proved an agreeable companion, and brought his share of amusement 
to ouf already pleasant little party. When supper was over, and our 
passports had returned from the intendant of police, each hurried to 
his bed in order to improve the few hours that were to intervene 
before we should renew our journey. 



The next day we were called at an early hour, and by three o'cfock 
were already in motion. There was a keen wind from the northwest, 
and as we were going towards that direction it drove into the crannies 
of the cabrioiet^ and produced the withering sensation of the most 
intense cold, which to me was the more severe that I had lost my over-^ 
coat a few months before, and had neglected to get another. My 
companion had rolled himself up in the folds of his cloak until nothing 
but his cap was visible, and then he seemed to defy the cold, which 
was the more sensible to me when I saw how warm he was. Seeing 
that the mayoral had a variety of skins and blankets under him, 1 
begged for one of them, and he handed me a warm merino, which I 
rolled closely round my torpid feet. Thus partially relieved, I sought 
the support of the corner and was soon asleep. 

When the morning came, the sun no longer rose upon the vineyard» 
and fruit trees of Valencia, and the sea and mountains were likewise 
withdrawn from the horizon. On reaching the summit of the moun- 
tains near Mogente, we did not again descend, but continued to 
move forward over a level country which spread out interminably, as 
we advanced into that level region, which forms the greater part of the 
two Castiles, and which stands near two thousand feet above the level 
of the sea, an elevated plain in the midst of the Peninsula. Nothing 
can be more unqualified than the gloomy character of this plain. When 
we first entered it, a solemn group of olives might occasionally be seen, 
sheltered by a slight inequality of the surface of the country; but in 
advancing, these too disappeared, until monotony became at last per-^ 
if ct and pervading. 



70 VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 

The titter destitution of trees in Jja Maneha, and the almost equal 
deficiency of them in the other provinces which form the central regions 
of Spain, is attributed partly to the plain, unsheltered nature of the 
country, and the dryness of the climate, but chiefly to a prejudice 
which the inhabitants have entertained from time immemorial against 
this most useful and ornamental production, as being the means of 
attracting and sheltering birds, those busy pilferers. After having 
long since stripped the country of its trees, the Castilian, instead of 
creating nurseries for their restoration, has sucl) an abhorrence for 
everything of the kind, that he will even prevent the establishment of 
them along the high roads, by wounding those which the government 
has been at the expense of planting there, with the beneficent view of 
sheltering the traveller, and promoting their general cultivation. In 
consequence of this proscription of trees in the interior of Spain, it 
has been remarked, that the soil, scorched by a powerful sun, with no 
trees to moderate its force or attract humidity, has gradually witnessed 
the drying up of its streams and fountains, of which nothing now 
remains but empty ravines, to mark the forgotten sources of former 
fertility. 

The greater part of this country is, however, susceptible of being 
rendered productive, and especially of furnishing wheat and wine of 
the finest quality ; but its population is so dwindled and has so partial 
an interest in the produce of the soil, which it shares with an inactive 
clergy and nobility, that agriculture here is on the worst possible foot- 
ing. The system of manuring is not generally practised, and thus, 
while three fourths of the country remain fallow, the remainder only 
produces a scanty crop of grain or potatoes. The great distance b^ 
tween the towns, too, and the insecurity of life and property, which 
prevents the farmers from living each isolated on the land which he 
cultivates, are additional checks to agriculture and population. We 
frequently went eight or ten miles without finding a single habitation 
on this road, one of the most important in Spain, and which, perhaps, 
was a Roman way in the time of Csssar. When, too, after hours 
of rapid travelling, we at length came to a town, nothing could be 
more gloomy than its appearance. As there were neither hills nor 
forests inteivening to obstruct the view, it would be seen a long way 
off, with its ill fashioned towers projecting out of a gloomy group of 
houses plastered over with clay, and which, being of the color of the 
soil, were only distinguished from it by rising above the cheerless 
horizon. At the entrance of each town was a gate for receiving the 
duties on all the articles which passed, and in the centre of it a square, 
round which were the different buildings of the ayuntamimto, or 
municipality, of the posada, of the butcher, baker, tailor, cobbler, and 
of the village surgeon or barber, living at the sign of a bleeding arm 
and leg, flanked by the helmet of Mambrino. Most of these towns 
exhibitod strong symptoms of a declining population. Many houses 
were abandoned, with their roofs, fallen in, and those which continued 
tenanted had but a cheerless look ; while, as a key to this desolation, 
the master of each might be seen, listless and unoccupied, enveloped 



VALENCIA^ MURCIA, AND N£W CA8Ta& 71 

in a tattered doak, and moping like a statue within the door way. It 
was, besides, the season of sadness and of decaying nature. There 
were no catde, no pasture, and the single harvest of the farmer having 
already been gathered, nothing bnt a dusty and faded stubble remained 
upon the soil, to attest that it had once been productive. I had at 
length arrived in a country where forests, and the feathered songsters 
who find their home in them, were alike proscribed. As I looked 
round on the dismal expanse, unvaried by either tree or bush, I was 
at a loss to imagine upon what the inhabitants could subsist, unless, 
indeed, it was on the recollections of the past, or upon the poetic 
associations which Cervantes has fastened to their soil* How diffsreol 
all this from the streams, the trees, and the gardens we had left behind 
us in the Hueria? 

On reaching this mountain plain, the change in the character of the 
country was even surpassed by the change in the climate. The day 
before we had basked at Valencia in a summer's sun, tempered by 
Mediterranean breezes, whereas here we were met by a cold wind^ 
which rusfaied unchecked over the wild monotony, and seemed to freeze 
one's blood. It was indeed cold ; there could be no mistake about it ; 
for we fomid ice in several places, long ailer the sun had lisen, though 
it was only the fourth of November. 



This sudden change of climate in so short a distance, calls for a 
corresp<Miding change in the popular costume. Beside a waistcoat and 
jacket of doUi, covered with abundance of silver buttons, the inhab^ 
tant usually wears an outer jacket of skin, which once warmed the 
back of some black merino, with the wool outwards; or, instead of this 
an ample cloak of brown, the right fold of which is thrown over tho 
leil slK>ulder with a Roman air. His head is covered with a pointed 
cap of black velvet, the ends of which being drawn down over the 
ears, leave exposed a forehead which is usually high, and features 
which are always manly. Instead of the primitive braga of the Valen- 
cian, we now find tight breeches, sustained above the hips by a red 
sash, and fastened the whole way dawn the outside of the thigh by 
bell buttons ; in the place of the naked leg and hempen sandal, woollen 
stockings, stout shoes, well shod with nails, and gaiters of leather 
curiously embroidered. These are fastened at the top with a gay colored 
string, uid not buttoned the whole way up, but left open for the purpose 
of displaying a well filled calf, and to produce that jaunty air which, 
pleases the fancy of a Spaniard. The poorer people, instead of shoes 
and stockings, had their feet simply wrapped in bits of old cloth or 
blanket, and covered with skins bound to the foot with a thong. 

The inhabitants of this central region speak the pure Castilian 
tongue^ unadulterated by foreign idioms, or provincial pronunciation, 
and in all its native simplicity and beauty. They are of larger size 
and stouter confoffmalion. than the halfn^lad Valeneians, but are perhaps 
inferior iO' thsflto in that untamed symmetry of limb, which the latter 



t3 VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 

possess to an equal extent with our aboriginal Americans. They ard 
. stigmatized by strangers as being proud, grave, inactive, and silent, 
more ignorant and more attached to their antique prejudices, than 
those of their nation, who, living in the neighbourhood of the sea, have 
gained something by commercial intercourse. Be this as it may, I 
could not help admiring the unbent form and lofty bearing with which 
these poor fellows strode forward, enveloped in threadbare cloaks, 
their feet bound in sandals of untanned leather, disdaining to ask the 
alms they so evidently needed, and almost to look on those who were 
better apparelled than themselves; nor could I avoid the conclusion 
that if the Castilian be fallen from his proud rank among the people 
of Europe, we must not seek the cause of this abasement in the man 
himself, but in the institutions which have crushed him. 

As we now moved rapidly forward over this monotonous region, the 
road was almost as lonely as the surrounding country. Occasionally, 
indeed, we could see a large covered wagon, miles ahead of us, rising, 
like a bouse, at the end of the road, and on coming up find it drawn 
by a string of mules as long as the train of our diligence. One that we' 
passed in this way, had pots and kettles and chairs suspended about it 
m every direction, as if a family were moving, whilst beside it were 
four or five servants armed with fowling-pieces. Our colonel at once 
recognised their livery, and, putting down the coach window, he waved 
his handkerchief to the travellers. One of the servants soon overtook 
us, and, jumping to the box of the mayoral, rode a while beside us, 
answering the inquiry of our colonel, ' Como esia la Marquesa ? * 
and a thousand others all ending with Marquesa. A marchioness! 
thought I — ^perhaps the wife of a grande, making a nine days' journey 
in a wagon, from Valencia to Madrid ! At other times we overtook 
groups of dusty mules and asses, loaded with sacks of wheat or skins 
of wine, and driven by fellows in coats of sheepskin. They were 
osoally walking, to work off the cold. Once we saw them stopping by 
turns to drink wine from a leathern bottle, the drinker looking stead* 
fastly towards the heavens, like Sancho in the adventure of the wood. 
An envious glance of our mayoral to the upraised bottle, was a sufficient 
hint to these simple roadsters, and one of them came running with 
it beside us to make a tender which was sure not to be rejected. Early 
in the morning we met a hal^naked muleteer of Valencia returning 
homeward. He seemed to have been baffled in his calculations, and 
prematurely overtaken by the cold, like Napoleon in Russia; for, 
rolling his blanket tightly about him, and curtailing his legs, so as to 
bring them under the broad folds of his linen bragas, he hurried for- 
ward, urging his mules to escape rapidly from the unfinendly climate. 



Having journeyed sixteen miles we came to Almansa, in the king- 
dom of Murcia, over a comer of which the road passes to Madrid. 
This old city derives its celebrity from having witnessed the bloody 
battle fought in its neighbourhood, in the b^inning of the last century. 



VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CA8TILE. 73 

between the forces of the Archduke Pretender, and the Marshal Dake 
of Berwick. The signal victory achieved bj the latter, decided the 
disi^te of succession and secured the Spanish crown to the grandson 
of Louis XIV. The family of this illustrious son of James II. con- 
tinues in Spain to the present day, to enjoy the highest honors. Just 
before reaching Almansa, we came to an inconsiderable pyramid, 
erected upon the site of the battle, which it is every way so unworthy 
to commemorate. 

Our arrival at Almansa was most welcome to all of us; and the 
diligence had scarce paused in front of the inn, where we were to eat 
our breakfast, before we all abandoned it, descending carefully, lest 
our legs, which were brittle with the cold and torpor, should break 
under us; and when fairly on the ground, we hobbled with one accord 
to seek out the kitchen of the posada* Abundance of smoke, which 
was circulating throughout the building, soon conducted us to the place 
of which we were in search. We found the kitchen to be a square 
room, with a roof rising like a pyramid, with a large hole in the top 
for the escape of the smoke. In the middle of the floor, which was 
of native mud, was a large bonfire of brushwood, blazing upward and 
sending forth volumes of smoke, that either circulated in the room or 
sought the aperture above. Round this primitive fireplace was a close 
ring of tall Murcians and Castilians, or bare^legged Valencians, whose 
fine forms and strongly marked features were brought into increased 
relief by the glare of the fire. At one side of the room was a dresser 
of mason work, connected with the wall, which contained small furnaces 
heated with charcoal. Here was an old dame with three or four 
bttxom daughters, preparing our breakfast, which I discovered was to 
consist, among other things, of eggs fried in oil and the universal 
jmchero. The arrival of the diligence had accelerated matters, so that 
I happened to come up just at the interesting moment when the old 
woman was holding the pot in both hands, and turning its contents into 
an immense dish of glazed eartfaern ware. First would come a piece of 
beef, then a slice of bacon, next the leg, thigh, and foot of a chicken 
jumping out in a hurry, and presently a whole ehower of garbanzos. 
I said not a word for fear of disturbing the operation ; but rubbing my 
hands and snuffing up the odor, more grateful than the perfumes of 
Arabia, I bethought myself of my cold feet, and joined the group thai 
was huddled closely about the fire. The circle was at once increased 
00 as to make room for me; but unfortunately I had got on the smoky 
aide, and, before I had even begun to thaw, my eyes were suffused 
with tears. It is the province of tears to excite pity. A stout Manchego 
who stood near, compassionating my suffering, grasped my arm and 
polled me into his place, taking mine in its stead. I would have 
remonstrated, but he shook his finger, as if it were all one to him, and 
said, ' No le hace,* 

leaving Almansa at ten, we journeyed forward over a dull and level 
country until eundown, when we arrived at the considerable town of 
Albocete, which possesses some rough manufactures in steel and iron^ 
10 



74 VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 

and where an annual fair is held in September, which is one of the 
most frequented in Spain. Having reposed until three of the next 
morning, we once more set forward. The cold was not less severe than 
the morning before ; but my system had become a little hardened to it, 
and beside, my former travelling companion, the student in the rotunda, 
had lent me his black uniform cloak, which he had replaced by a 
heavier one of brown cloth. To be sure, if it were not for the name, 
I might as well have covered myself with a cobweb ; for this apology 
for a doak was, from old age and much brushing, qillte as thin as* 
paper, and had doubtless served in the family of the young man for 
several generations of estudiantes. It was, furthermore, very narrow 
in the skirts, and my vain endeavours to roll myself up in it, furnished 
abundant amusement to my companions, who would fain have per- 
suaded me to put on the cocked hat of the student, to complete the 
metamorphosis of the Anglo-Americano. 



From Albacete we went to El Provencio, in the province of Cuenca, 
which, with those of Toledo and Madrid, through which the remain- 
der of our road lay, form part of New Castile. Cuenca is an arid 
and sterile region, the most desert in the whole Peninsula. The streets 
of £1 Provencio were strewed with the yellow leaves of the saffron, 
of which large quantities are raised in the neighbourhood. This plant 
is prepared into a powder which serves as a dye for the coarse goods 
made in the country, and is likewise universally used in cooking to 
season the soup and puchero. Leaving £1 Provencio, after breakfast, 
as was our custom, we all went to sleep. When we had advanced 
about twenty miles, I was startled by an unusual noise, and, on looking 
round, found that it proceeded from ten or twelve windmills that were 
drawn up on the top of a ridge on either side of the road before us; 
They seemed stationed there to dispute the passage of the place, a 
circumstance, which, doubtless, suggested to Cervantes the rare adven- 
ture of the windmills ; for these which now flapped their heavy arms 
in defiance at us, were no other than the giants of Don Quixotow 
Having lefl them behind, we came unhurt in sight of £1 Toboso— 
a place not less famous than the Troy of Virgil and of Homer.* 

. * A fiBf^le ftist, finmd in the delightful Memoirs of Roeca, whilst it riiows how 
universal is the fame of Cervantes, displays also the benign influence of letters in 
awakening the kinder sympathies of our nature, and stripping even war of its stern- 
ness. It reminds me of what I have somewhere read of an Athenian army, defeated 
ind mnde captive in Sicily. The prisoners were ordered to be put to death ; but, 
oat of reverence for £uripide8, such of his countrymen as could repeat his venra 
were sMred. 

* If Don Quixote was of no service to widows and orphans whilst alive, his memory 
9t least protected the country of the imaginary Dulcinea from some of the horrors of 
war. ^hen our soldiers discovered a woman at the window, they cried out, ** VoUa 
Ihdemea ! " Instead of flying before us as elsewhere, the inhabitants crowded to see 
us pass ; and the names of Don Quixote and Dulcinea became a friendly watchword 
and a bond of union.' 

Don Quixote is written indifierently with an « or J. BoCfa these letters take the 



VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 75 

Thia inconsiderable village lay a league or more to the left of the road, 
'offering a si ogle tower and some dingy houses rising above the plain. 
I looked in vain for the grove in which the sorrowful knight awaited 
the return of Sancho, whom he had sent to Toboso to beg an audience 
of the Duicinea whom he had never seen. I took it for granted thai 
the wood had sprung up for the express accomnKxlation of the poet ; 
for during the whole day's ride I do not remember to have seen a 
single tree. 

The country through which we were now passing, was consecrated 
by the oddest associations, though itself a dull, unvaried waste. 
Everything that met my eye furnished matter of amusement. Near 
Toboso we saw an immense flock of wild pigeons which blackened 
the field they had lit on. Our guides frightened them £rom their rest* 
ing place, and they kept alternatively flying and lighting before us, for 
an hour. These whimsical birds would, doubtless, have furnished 
La Mancha's knight with an excellent adventure. When within a 
league of Quintanar de la Orden, and with the town in sight, we 
descried three horsemen in the road before us, apparently awaiting 
our arrival As we came up they appeared to be accoutred and armed, 
each according to his taste, but ail had steel sabres and carabines which 
hung at the side of their saddles behind them. One of them had a 
second carabine, or rather fowling-piece, on the other side ; and as we 
approached, smaller weapons, such as pistols, long knives, and dirks, 
were discovered, sticking through their belts or lodged at the saddle* 
bow. I quickly prepared the pistol which the colonel had lent me, 
and, when he had done the same, I thought that if Don Quixote had 
been near to aid us, the contest would not have been so unequaL 
When along side of them, the faces of these fellows exhibited scars 
and slashes, partially covered with whiskers and mustaches confounded 
together ; and the glare of their wide-open eyes was at the same tune 
fearless and stealthy, like that of the tiger. But there was no cause 
for alarm. These fellows, whatever they might once have been, were 
no robbers; for, beside the red cockade, which showed they were true 
servants of Ferdinand, each wore a broad shoulder-belt with a plate 
of l^rass in front, and on it engraven, Real DUigencieL 

These fellows, instead of intending to plunder us, had come to 
prevent others from doing so ; for which service they received a daily 
salary from the company, ever since about three months before, when 
the diligence had been robbed on its way to Valencia, almost in sight 
of Quintanar. There were several other situations through which we 
had already been escorted since the commencement of our journey ; 
hut hitherto the guards had been soldiers of the royal army, such as 

pronunciation of h before a vow^i ; a guttural pronunciatioD, which, doubtlesf, derives 
its origin from the Saracens. 

The author is not aware of any errors in the Spanish phrases which he has had 
occasion to introduce. He has uniformly written Spanish words as they are written 
in Spanish, with the exception of such as have the tilde to indicate the suppressioB 
of a letter, for the sake of abbreviation. As the value of this maik may be little 
known, he has preferred restoring the words in which it may occur to their ori£[inal 
Arthography; Uius, Doila and Dueha, will be found written Donia and Dtnenia, 



76 VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 

bad accompanied us occasionally in coming from Barcelona. It chanced 
that these troopers belonged to the very regiment of horse, of which 
my companion was colonel; but as they lived dispersed in the villages 
over a large extent of country, they had never seen him before. It 
was curious enough to hear him occasionally addressing those who rode 
beside us, and telling them, ' Soy su coronelj or^ * 1 am your colonel/ 
showing at the same time, as if by accident, the three bands of gold 
lace, which bound the cuffs of his jacket, and which in iSpaia maik 
the rank of all officers above a captain ; for none of higher grade wear 
epaulettes. Indeed he would usually turn back his cloak to expose its 
red velvet lining, and project his arms, negligently, out of the window^ 
whenever he entered a village, and this he now did as we were whirled 
rapidly into Quintanar. 



Just before reaching the gate we had halted to take up two chiMren, 
a boy and a girl, who had come out to meet us, and seemed dressed 
for the occasion. They were the children of our mayoral Lorenzo, 
who had lately come with his family from Catalonia to keep a posada 
in Quintanar, and to be one of the conductors of the diligence. 
Having kissed each as he took it up, and placed one on each side 
of him, he cracked his whip, as if with contentment, and kept look* 
ing, first at one, and then at the other, the whole way to the door 
of the posada. I saw that there could be good feelings under the red 
cap of Catalonia. 

The noise of our entry into the little towp had brought into the street 
all those who had nothing better to do, as well as such stablemen, 
serving maids, and others, as had a more immediate concern in our 
arrival. Among them was a large and fine looking woman, who with- 
drew within the door-way of the inn, when the diligence halted, 
and there received Lorenzo, and in such a way as showed she could 
be no other than his wife. Here was an end to all services from our 
mayoral; so leaving him, iEneas like, to tell over his toils, and receive 
consolation, we descended with one accord to make the most of our 
momentary home. 

Most of the inns we had hitherto come to, had been established 
under the immediate patronage of the Catalan company. They were in 
consequence well kept, and though in a homely way, were wanting in 
no comfort that a reasonable traveller could ask for, but possessed many 
that I was not prepared to find in a Spanish posada. With none, 
however, was this so much ' the case as with the one we now entered. 
The building itself did not seem to have been originally intended for 
an inn ; for in this case alone, since I had been in Spain, the dwellings 
of man and beast, of men and mules, were completely separate. In 
the better days of Quintanar, it had more probably been the family 
mansion of a race of hidalgos. The large door on the street opened 
upon a vestibule, leading to a square court, which had in the centre 
the dry basin of what had once been a fountain, and was surrounded 



VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTaE. 77 

by light pillars of marble, behind which were an upper and lower 
corridor. Along both sides of the vestibule were stone benches, which, 
as well as every other part of the building, had been newly white- 
washed. Here were basins of glazed earthenware and pitchers of 
water, with a clean towel of coarse linen for each passenger hanging 
from nails against the wall. Having paused here to get rid of the dust 
which we had collected during the day, we next sought out the kitchen, 
which was in an entirely different style from the one in which we had 
warmed ourselves at Almansa. The cooking operations were, indeed, 
performed over charcoal furnaces, much in the same way ; but instead 
of the rude roof and bonfire in the middle of the apartment, ihete was 
here an immense fire-place, occupying the whole of one end of the 
room, and which called strongly to my mind a kitchen chimney I had 
seen more than a year before in the old chateau of the Count de Dunois, 
in times gone by, the appendage of baronial hospitality. At each side 
of the large aperture, were benches incorporated with the wall, and 
which, being within the chimney itself and covered with esparto, 
formed delightful sofas for the chilly and fatigued traveller. Here 
then did we bestow ourselves, to await contentedly and even overlook 
the preparations for our evening repast, and, as we snuffed up the 
well savoured odor that arose from it, we chatted sociably and cheer- 
fully among ourselves, or exchanged a complacent word with the Cas- 
tilian damsels who were performing so near us their well ordered 
operations. 

The evening, as it chanced, had set in cold, and the cheerfiil 
blazing of our fire offered an attraction which brought together many 
of the worthies of Quintanar. The ill favored members of our escort, 
now divested of everything but spurs and sword belt, were among the 
number. They were to accompany us the next morning the whole 
of the first stage beyond the village, and were talking over in monty* 
syllables with Lorenzo, the preparations for our departure. Wherever 
we had hitherto stopped, the robbery of the diligence near the Ebro 
had furnished a fruitful and anxious subject of discussion. A robbery 
of the diligence, attended with murder, was not so common an occur- 
rence in the country, but that it was looked to with interest, particularly 
by bur party, which, being similarly situated with the persons who met 
with the adventure, was liable to a similar interruption, Our student 
of the rotunda, calling up the rhetoric he had learned in Barcelona, 
was ever ready to give a colored picture of the transaction, whilst I, 
as a witness, was called on to add my testimony, or, in absence of the 
young man, to furnish, myself, the paiticulars. The escort, too, 
drawing inferences of what might be from what had been, were no 
less interested than ourselves. Besides, they had heard that a noted 
robber of Quintanar, not less cunning than bold, had disappeared from 
his home, and that several armed men had been seen in the morning 
by a muleteer in the direction of Ocania. This was matter for rellec- 
tion, and Lorenzo, after gazing a while upon the quiet comforts of our 
fireside, and on his yet handsome wife, as she busied herself in sending 
off our supper to an adjoining room, seemed to think that things 



78 VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 

would not be the worse for a little delay of our departure the next 
morning; for, when he had glanced round, to see that there were 
none near who should not hear it, he named four o'clock as the hour 
for starting. 

The escort continued still to linger a while beside the fireplace. 
They had many complaints to make of the insufficiency of their pay, 
many against their want of proper protection from the authorities. 
A year before they had repulsed an attack made against the diligence 
by five robbers ; for, having killed the horse of one of them, the fellows 
made off, carrying with them their dismounted companion. The horse 
was. at once recognised to have belonged to a man in Quintanar, who 
had been at the head of most of the robberies committed in the country 
for a long while, and who was the very same one of whom they were 
now in dread. The suspected person was found badly bruised in his 
bed, and was of course imprisoned ; but having brought many persons 
to swear that at the time of the attack he was sick at home in Quin- 
tanar, he was released after a short detention. The fellow neither 
lacked money nor friends ; he pursued Jobbery as a regular trade, and 
was actually getting together a little estate. ' Es hombre pequefiito,* 
said the narrator, 'pero el kombre mas malo que hay eti el mnndo ' — 
' He is a little man, but the very worst in the whole world.' What, 
however, they most complained of, was, that a cloak and some arms 
which they found with the horse, to the value of twenty dollars or 
more, had been ^seized upon by the justice, and either retained or 
appropriated by the members of the tribunal ; ' Because,' they said, 
^ the matter was not yet adjusted.' In this way, after having met the 
enemy and stood fire, the shoes and skin of the dead horsy, which 
they had sold for sixty reals, were the only fruits of their victory. 

"This conversation and the disagreeable reflections and conjectures 
to which it gave rise, were at length interrupted by the announcement 
of supper, and the past and future were soon forgotten amid the sub- 
stantial realities of a well filled board. Our supper room stood adjoin- 
ing the kitchen, and its arrangements showed the same spirit of order 
and neatness with the other apartments. The tile floor was every- 
where covered with mats, and the table in the centre of it, was 
furnished with as many covers as passengers, and at each a clean 
napkin and silver fork, afler the French ^hion. Beneath the table 
was a brasero, or brass pan, filled with burning charcoal, which had 
been kindled in the open air, and. kept there until the gas had escaped. 
The brasero was weU burnished, and stood in a frame of mahogany or 
cedar, upon which each of us placed his feet, so that the outstretched 
legs of our party formed a fence, which, together with the table, 
retained the heat effectually. Supper over, we dropped off, one by 
one, and sought the common bed-room of our party, situated at the 
opposite side of our court, with a complete carpeting of straw, and a 
clean cot for each placed at regular intervals along the apartment. 
The conversation which had commenced in the kitchen and was kept 
up at the supper table, still continued to be carried on by a scattering 
sentence, first from one and then another of the party, as he drew the 



TALENCtA, HURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 79 

elothes more c^om atoat him, or turned over in his bed, nor had it 
entirely subsided when I fell asleep. 



Our journey the next day commenced at four o'clock, as had been 
already concerted, and I found, on going to the diligence, that the 
seat between the colonel and myself was to be occupied by a hale, 
well made young woman, who had come the evening before from 
£1 Toboso to take passage for Madrid. When the colonel had taken 
bis place, which was farthest from the door, I put both hands to her 
waist to help her up, and, estimating the solidity of her body, pre- 
pared to make a strong effort. But she little needed any such assis- 
tance ; for a vigorous spring took her from my grasp, and brought her 
to the seat in the cabriolet. As she shot suddenly away from me, I 
was reminded in more ways than one of the baffled Don Quixote, 
when Dulcinea leaped through his fingers to the back of her borrico. 
The colonel and I had thus our Dulcinea del Toboso ; with this advan- 
tage, however, over the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance, that 
ours was both seen and felt. 

Our ride to Ocania was effected without interruption. Such, how- 
ever, was not the case with the diligence on its way to Valencia, 
about a week after. It was stopped by a strong party, and with no 
little advantage to the robbers; for there happened to be in it aft 
Englishman, who, ignorant, doubtless, of the danger, and of the 
express injunction of the Company against carrying a large sum of 
money, had with him near a thousand dollairs, and a watch of some 
value. This prize stimulated the band to new exertions, and, during 
the winter, the Valencia coach was plundered near a dozen times. 
Nor did Lorenzo always pass clear. I met him one day in the street 
at Madrid, with a long face, that told me of his misfortune ere he had 
given its history. 

Ocania is as old and ruinous in appearance as any other city in 
Castile. I went forth with the student, while breakfast was preparing, 
to look at the public square with its colonnades and antiquated bal- 
conies. Thence we went to a large reservoir of water in the outskirts 
of the town, where part of the inhabitants supply themselves, and 
where the women come to wash in stone troughs prepared for the 
fmipose. We found the place thronged with hoiricos, coming and 
going with earthen jars suspended in wooden frames upon their backs, 
and conducted by lads mounted behind the load on the very end of 
the animal, which was urged on with a cry of, ' Arre horricof and 
guided by tlie touch of a staff, first on one side of the head, then on 
the otfler. There were many young women gathered about the stone 
basins, kneeling down with their clothes tucked under them, laughing 
and chatting with each other, crying out in answer to the salutation 
of a lad of their acquaintance who had oome for Water, or singing 
seguidillas and wild love songs of Andalusia. The level of the town 
in thb WeigMbbtnrhddd of the reservoir, seemed to be raised with the 



80 VALENCIA, MURCIA, AND NEW CASTILE. 

course of centuries; for I saw several subterranean houses, now 
inhabited, which seemed to have been once on a level with the street. 
Ocania is quite celebrated in the late Peninsular war for a decisive 
battle fought in the neighbourhood, in opposition to the wish of 
Wellington, and in which the Spaniards were completely beaten. 



On leaving Ocania the eye is still fatigued with dwelling on a 
weary and monotonous waste ; nay, as you approach Aranjuez, the 
face of the country assumes a white and dusty appearance, as of a soil 
that has long been superannuated and worn out, and which would 
seem to belong to an older world than ours. A rapid descent down 
a hill, partaking of the gloomy character of the plain above, brought 
us in sight of the Tcqo dorado — the golden Tagus of the poets, 
winding along its deep sheltered bed, in the direction of Toledo. 
As we passed into the wide street of Aranjuez, on our right hand was 
the unfinished arena for bull-fights, on the left the residence of the 
Spanish kings, consisting of palaces, churches, and barracks for the 
soldiery, all bound together in a succession of colonnades ; before us 
opeded a wide square, peopled with statues, and animated by foun- 
tains of marble ; the Tagus flowed beyond. We crossed the river by 
a wooden bridge of a single arch, and of great elegance, and then 
entered an alley surrounded on every side by lofly trees, which con- 
cealed the palaces of Aranjuez from view ere I had time for a second 
glance. But there was that which recompensed me for the loss. 
Instead of the naked plains of Castile, we were now surrounded by 
noble trees that had not yet lost their foliage; we passed through 
meadows that were still flowered and verdant, and were serenaded 
by the singing of birds and by the flow of water. 

This state of things was too good to last long. It ceased when we 
reached the sandy banks of the Jarama, the larger half of the Tagus, 
and which only awaits the assistance of man to cover its shores with 
equal fertility. Here is one of the noblest bridges in Europe, built 
of beautifully hewn stone, with high walks for foot passengers, and 
parapets at the sides, in which the stones are arranged to resemble 
pannels. In the war of Independence, the English blew op the road 
over one of the arches, to check the pursuit of the French. The 
communication was, doubtless, immediately reestablished in the cen- 
tre ; but the parapets and sidewalks remain prostrate at the bottom of 
the river, though the king and court have made their annual passage 
of the bridge, every spring since the restoration of the Bourbons. 

Having crossed the Jarama we ascended its western bank by a 
noble road which mukes repeated angles to overcome the abruptness 
of the declivity. Arrived at the top, we still retained for a few mo- 
ments in view the verdant groves of Aranjuez, so different from the 
unvaried plain that spread out before us, and whose monotony was 
but slightly relieved by the dreary chain of €hiadarrama. As we 
receded, however, from the brink of the ravine, which the Tagus had 



TALBNCIA, MVBCIA, AND NEW CASTOX. 81 

ftsliicmed for its. Wd^ the le^el groan4 we stood on teemeil to reaek 
oTer and combine itself with the kindred plains of Ocania, swallowinflr 
up the ferdant valley from which we had just emerged, and which bad 
-mtervenedy like aa episode, to qualify the monotony of our jouroey. 



The mountains of Guadarrama form the boundary of New and Old 
Castile, and it is in the former- kingdom and on the last exptriBg 
deelirity of these mountains, that the city of Madrid is situated. 
This noble cham grew as we advanced into bolder perspective, iifUng 
its erests liighest immediately before us, and gradually declining to 
the northeast and southwest, until it expired with the horizon in the 
opposite directions of lirragon and EstremMiofa. Having passed a 
hermiuge which a'd^votee from America had perched upeti the pin* 
nade ol an insulated hill, we at length caught sight of the capital, 
rising above the iutervening valley of the Mansanares. 

Our first view of Madrid was extremely imposing; il offered a 
compact mass, crowned everywhere with countkiBa domes of temples 
and palaces, upon which the setting sun sent his rays obliquely, and 
which conveyed, in a high degree, the idea of magnificence and splen- 
dor. Nor was this effect diminished as we advanced ; for the cupolas 
first seen grew into still greater preeminence, whilst others at each 
instant rose above. the confusion. At the distance of half a league 
^m the city, we were met by a carriage drawn by two mules. It 
halted opposke us, and an officer got down to inquire, on the part of some 
ladies who were in it, for a female friend whom they were ezpectinff 
firom Valencia. There was none such in the diligenee. She had 
annoMiced her arrival, and these friends, who had come forth to meet 
jber, as is the amiable custom of the country, looked disappointed and 
anxious. After a short consultation, their carriage turned about and 
followed ours in the direction of the city. Soon after we came to the 
email stream of Manzanares, one of the confluents of the Jarama, and 
upon whose northeastern bank Madrid is situated. This river, taking 
its course through mountains, is liable to frequent inundations, and it 
Is to obviate the inconveniences to which this might give ooeasioo, 
that it is here crossed by the fine bridge of Toledo, which would do 
honor to the Hudson or the Danube. When we crossed it, one of its 
nine noUe arches would have been sufficient to allow the passage of 
the Manzanares ; for it flowed in a narrow bed of shingle, in the mid- 
dle of the ravine. The rest was abandoned to a light growth of grass, 
which some sheep were cropping quietly, while a few women moved 
with espial security in the neighbourhood of the arches, gatbmng 
together the clothes which they had been drying on the grass, whilst 
others, having already done so, were moving slowly with bundles on 
their heads in the directiim of the city. The Manzanares was seen 
. doubtless in the same dwindled state by the person, whoever be was» 
who first took occasion to remark, that he had seen maity fine rivers 
11 



tt VALENCIA, MURCU» AND NEW CASTILE. 

that wanted a bridge, but that here was a. fine bridge ladly in want 
of a ri^er. 

fieyond the bridge was a fine wide road, leading up a gradual ascent 
to the splendid poital of Toledo. It was thronged by carriajges, horse- 
men, and pedestrians, returning to the shelter and security of their 
homes. We left them to pursue their course, and, taking an avenue 
that led to the right, in order to avoid the narrow streets of the ancient 
city, we passed the fiury palace and garden of Casino, and came to 
the old gate of Atocha. Here our passports were taken to be sent to 
the police, and in another minute we were within the walls of Madrid 
and in the capital of Spain. It was already dark, but as we drove 
rapidly forward, my companion showed me the large building of the 
Hospital General on the left, cm the right was the garden of plants, 
and the wide alley of trees through which ire drove was the now 
4leserted walk of the Frado. Thence, passing^ Along the broad street 
of Alcala, we were set down in the court-yard of the post house. 
Having taken leave of my good-hearted travelling companions, and 
rewarded the kind attentions of Lorenzo, I put my trunk upon the 
back of a Gallego, and soon aftmr found myself at home in the F^nda 
dd CaboOero de QrmwL 



CHAPTER V. 

KINGDOM OF NEW CASTILE. 

AcamiinodatioBs for tfie Trayeller in Madrid. — Doa Diego the Impurificado. — A 
Walk in the Street of Alcala.— The Gate of the Sun.—A Retiew.—Doo Valentin 
Caraehoefo.— Hie G»eetw and Dlaifoi.-^Hk PMaon and P€litMieta.~Hia 
Id Howekold.— Hto Mods «f life. 



WuBiv I begin to look around me in Madrid, one of my first ob* 
jeds was to seek out winter quarters, which should oombine the essen- 
tials of personal comfort and favorable circumstances ibr learning the 
language. These were not so easily found ; for though the Spaniards 
have no less than six different and well-aounding names to express the 
vmriotis degrees between a hotel and a tavern, yet Madrid is so seldom 
visited by foreigners, that it is but ill provided for the accommodation 
of the few who do come. In the way of hot^s, the F\mda de Malta is 
the best in the place ; and yet the room in which I passed the first two 
days of my stay in Madrid, had but a single small window which look* 
ed on the will of a neighbouring house. There were but two chairs, 
one to put my trunk on, the otlm for myself, which, with a bed stand- 
ing in the alcove at one end of the room, comprised the whole of its 
furniture. There was no table, no looking-glass, no carpet, and no fire 
plaoe; though there had already been ice, and my window was so 
placed that it had never seen the sun. There was nothing in short, 
beside the bed and two chairs, and the grated window, and dark walls 
terminated overhead by naked bMuns, and below by a cold tile floor. 
What would have become of me I know not, if I bad not been taken 
from this cell on the third day, and moved into a large apartment at 
the front of the house, where the sun shone in gloriously, and which, 
besides, had a sofa and half a dozen straw bottomed chairs, a straw mat 
which covered the whole floor, a table with crooked legs, and even a 
minrav. As for meab, public tables are unknown in Spain, and doubtless 
kave been unknown for centuries; for men are here unwilling to trust 
themselves to the convivialities of the table, except in the society of 
friends* It is the custom for each party or person to eat alone, and in 
the lower part of wkxfemda was a puMic coflbe-room for this purpose, 
which I used to resort to, in preference to remaining in my room. It 
was fitted up with much elegance, having marble taUes placed about 
in every direction, mirrors with lamps before them, columns with gilt 
sapiCali, a pretty woman placed in an elevatad situation to keep order, 
and sometimes a band of asusic. 

Thongb Oiis mode of living was tolerable, yet it would not havo 
lean so for a whcl# wiirier. On ia^qr, I was told that there were 



84 NSWCAStlLE. 

cusmM de <dfuiUr in Msdrid, in wf^ieVt a person might rent a whoi» 
habitation, and hire or buy ibrnitare to please himself, and be scnred 
by a domestic of bis own; likewise, that there were other establish* 
ments called casas de kuesyecle$j kept by families, which, having more 
room than they had occasion for, wete in the habit of reoeiring one 
or more lodgers, taking their meals at (he eommon table or famished 
apart I determined at once for a casa de hunpede^ as according better 
with means that were rather limited, and because the intercourse of a 
family would be more favorable to the acquisition of the language. 
This done, tlie next thing was to find a place that would suit me, and 
J was yet pondering over the matter on the sixth day of my ai rival, 
when I was interrupted by the announcement of Dim Diego Redondo y 
Moreno, who came Mcommended by a friend to give lessors in Spanish. 
As I saw a great deal of this man during my stay in Madrid, it may 
not be amiss to give some account of him. 



Don Diego Redondo and Moreno, as he was called from the name 
of his wife, was a native of Cordova, who had resided some years ia 
Madrid, and who, under the Constitution., had been employed in. ihe 
office of the minister of «tate. On the overthrow of the ConstituiaDn 
be had been tossed out of his office, which had at once been taken" 
possession of by a relation of one of the new chiefs ; whilst he, not 
having yet undergone purification, remained in the simation of an 
impurifiecuh* The reader is not, perhaps^ aware that on the return of 
despotism in Spain, Juntas of Purification were established in all parts 
of the kingdom, before which all persons who had held offices under 
the abolished system were bound to appear and adduce evidence that 
they had not been remarkable for revolutionary zeal, nor overaction in 
support of the Constitution, before they could be admitted to any new 
employment Such as come out clean from this investigation, from 
being uiipurfieado$ or unpurified, become imdefmdos or indefinites, 
who Are ready to be employed and have a nominal half pay. These 
indejtmdoi have long formed a numerous class in Spain, and now 
more so than ever. They are patient waiters upon Providence, who, 
being on the constant look out for a god-send, never thinkof seeking 
any new means to earn a livelihood. They may be seen in any city 
of Spain, lounging in tbe^Mffee houses, where they pick th«r teeth and 
read the Gazette, but never sfiend anything; or else al the pablio 
walk, where they may readily be known, if they be military officers of 
rank, by the bands of gold lace which bind the cufis of their stwtouts 
of blue or snuff cotor, and by their mUilary batons, or stiU more readily 
by the huge cocked hats of oil doth, with which they cover their sharp 
and starvMl features. 




of the parifyang triboaalsi JOoa OiegD, beiim balb « p eaoet M e and 



NBWGASnU. i§ 

poor mui, WM pvobftUj mkni^ Um la«t ohMn; iodeod, I wii aftonmHs 
MBured thai be was» and tluit ho had boon ropoatodlj oolieitod by Tan* 
coo ominarieB, ooo of whom oame firoin the girl of the p ro aii l a at of tbo 
j mB im and offered lor a atipulated bubb Io pave Ihe way to hit thonNi^ 
piuificatioo. Whether he looked on the nonuDal pay of an im/e^niib ao 
tiearly pnrchaaod^ by an immediate expeoditurey or that be never bad 
enough money at one time to gratify official or sab official lapacityi ho 
still continaed impwrificado, and gained bis bread the heal way be 
epuldy aa a copyist and instcucier of the Castilian. This be was well 
qualified to teach, for, though he had never read a doien books beside 
the Ctuijote, and was as ignorant of the past as of the fiitore history of 
his Gountsy, he had, nevertheless, pursued all the studies usual among 
his countrymen, wrote a good hand, was an excellent Latiniat, and 
perfect master of his own language. 

The dress of Don Diego had evidently assimilated itself to bis Ukm 
fortunes; his hat hung in his hand greasy and napless; bis boots» 
firom having long been strangers to blacking, were red and foxy, whilst 
his peagreen frock, which, when the cdd winds descended from the 
Guadarrama, served Kkewise as a surooat, looked brushed to death 
and thread-bare. He had, nevertheless, something of a supple and 
jaunty air with him ; showed his worked ruffles and neck«cloth to the 
best advantage, and flourished a liltle walking wand with no eon* 
temptible grace. So much for his artificial roan, which was after the 
fashion of Europe ; the natural man might have bespoke a natit e of 
Africa. His face was strongly indicative of Moorish blood; it showed 
features the reverse of prominent and very swarthy ; coal black hair 
and whiskers, and blacker eyes, which expressed a singular combinn* 
tion of natural ardor and habitual sluggishness. What my friend bad 
said of Don Diego was greatly in his favor, and his own appearance 
did but strengthen my prepossession. Nor did 1 afterwards hare 
reason to regret it ; for though indolent and wanting in punctuality, 
I ever found him ready to oblige, and, on the whole, the most good 
natured felk>w in the world. Indeed, I never knew him to be angry 
but on one occasion, when a servant woman at the palace shut a door 
in our faces. Don Diego was doing the honors of his coi|ntry to a 
stranger ; he got presently into a terrible rage, foaoMd greatly al the 
mouth, and called her faenon^e* 



Having mentioned to Don Diego my desire to get inte comfortable 
lodgings ibr the winter, he propc^ed that we should go at ooee in 
search of a room. So, taking our hats, away we went together. The 
CoUe (kiktdhro de Orada^ which we followed to its termination, con* 
dueled us into the broadest part of the street of Alcala« Here we 
Ibmid a number of asses which had broogbt lime to the city. The 
commodity was piled into a heap, and the owners were sitting on the 
baga, dosing, or ainging songs^ and waiting for purebaaen; whilst 
the borriegs^ covered with lime dnst, were lying as motionless as the 



d6 NfiW CAStlLB. 

Atones beDesth Aem, or Manding upon three 1e^ with hetds down 
tnd penrife. Having turned to the right, we went in the direction of 
the PueHa dd Soi, looking attentively on both eides to the balconies, 
to see if there were any with white papers tied to the rails to show 
that there waa a roeiii to let We found two rooms thus advertised, 
hot the sun never shone on one of them, and the other was kept by a 
sour old woman, who did not seem to care whether she took in a 
lodger Or not i so we passed on> 

As we approached the Gate of the Sun, we got entangled in a drove 
of turkeys, which a long legged fellow was chasing up the street of 
Alcala. They went gobbling good nataredly along, pausing to glean 
the pavement, and unmolested by the driver; unless, ind^, when 
one, abusing the liberty, happened to wander out of the way, a rap on 
the wing from the long pole which the countryman carried, would send 
Hie offender hopping, and presently bring him back to a sense of sub- 
jeetion. Seeing me look about as though I might be in want of 
something, the connlryman caught up a well-conditioned and conse« 
<|ueiilial cock, and brought him to me, heki unceremoniously by the 
legs. * Vea usttd qm paoo 8emar!' said he. I admitted that it 
waa a noble bird. He insisted that I should buy it. ' Para su Senif 
0tat* I had no wife. * Pwra s« Queriditaf* Not even a mistress. 
The cock was thrown down, took the respite in good part, and we 
renewed onr prc^press. 

Passing on, we came to a long row of ealesines, a manner of gig, of 
grotesque Dutch figure. Many were oddly painted with the church 
of Buen Suceso, the fountain of the Sybil, or the Virgin Mary, on the 
baek, and took name accordingly. They were furthermore studded 
in «very direction with brass tacks, and so was the harness of the 
horse ; usually a long tailed Andalusian, decorated with many bells, 
tassels, and a long plume of red woollen, erect between his ears. 
As for the drivers themselves, they wore round hats, adorned with 
buckle, beads, and tassels ; jackets and breeches of velvet ; worsted 
stockings, and long-quartered shoes. Each had a second jacket, either 
drawn on over the other; or more commonly hanging negligently from 
the left' shoulder. This was of brown cloth, singularly decorated with 
embroidered patches of red or yellow cloth, to protect the elbows ; 
a tree and branches of the same upon the back ; and in front, instead 
of buttons, loops and cords, pointed with brass or silver, which were 
attached to the strengthening pieces of red in the shape of hearts. 
These eahseros were grouped together about the doors of the iahemas^ 
cracking their whips and jokes together. Nor did they fttil to make 
us proflbrs of their services, calling our attention to the elegance of a 
eaksa^ and the good points of a tabaUo. The merry mood, hyper- 
bolical language, and fimtastic dress of these fellows, so greatly at 
fariance with the habitual gravity of the Castilian, bespoke them 
■atives of the mercurfal region of Andalusia. 



mwcAflfiix w 

hbmnf thu low of vduolei behind «w, we euBe to the PtnrteAf 
Sol This is ED open place io the heart of Madrid, where eight of the 
principal streets come together, and where the city may 1^ said to 
We iu ibciis. In the centre is a fountain from which the neighbour* 
hood receives its supply of water. One of the forks is formed by the 
parish church of Bmem Smeeso and the others by the pcpt office and a 
Tariety of shops and dwellings. In former limes it was the eastern 
gate of the .city ; hence iU name of Gate of the Sun ; but when the 
court came to Madrid, the nobility who followed in its train, constructed 
their palaces in the open place to the east, so that the Puerta del Sol^ 
from having been the extremity, became the centre of Madrid. Go 
where you will, almost, you must pass through the Puerto del Sol, for 
here you can choose a street that will lead you directly to the place of 
which you are in search ; and put yourself into any street in the 
extremities of the city, it is sure to discharge you here. In this way 
all Madrid passes daily through this place of ^neral out-pouring ; so 
that a stranger may come here and pass in review the whole capi^. 

Here the exchange is each day held, and the trader comes to talk 
of his affiurs; the politician, rolled in his cfoak, signifies, by a shrug, 
a significant look, or a. whisper, the news which with us would he 
told with hands in breeches, straddled lege, and in the uplifted voice 
of declamation. Hither the tUgmie is mechanically drawn to show 
off the last Parisian mode, to whip his legs and poll forward the ends 
of his collar ; or the idle thief, envefoped in his dingy doak, to talk 
to a comrade of oM achievemento or to conspire uncommitted crimee. 
Here are constantly passing currento of sheep and swine, going to the 
shambles; moles and asses laden with straw oi charcoal, or dead 
kids hooked by the Iflss, and always on the very end of the last beasi 
of each row, a rough dad follow singing out, with a grave accent on the 
last syUable, 'Pigal p^al corbel cabriioi' There are, moreover, 
old women with oranges or pomegranates, pushing through the crowd 
and sodding those who run against their baskets ; also mfmuhnM with 



jars of water, who deafen yon with cries of * Qmm fyure agmm V 
Nor do beggars fail to frequent this resort, especially the blind, who 
vociferate some ballad which they have for ade, or demand ahns in e 
peremptory tone, and in the name of Maria Santisima. 

Here, too, may be seen all the costumes of Spain ; the kmg red 
cap of the Catdan ; the Vdencian with his blanket ^d airy hrifgma, 
though in the midst of winter ; the tmrntero cap of the Manchego ; the 
leathern cuirass of the Okl Castilian ; the trunk hose of the Leones; 
the coarse garb and hob-nailed shoes of the Gdlego; and the round 
lutt of Anddusia. Nor does the PMeriaMSoihik to witness prouder 
si^^ than the se. At one moment it is a regiment of the royd guard 
going to review ; in the next, a trumpet sounds, and the drums of the 
neighbouring piquets are heard beating the calL The coaches and sis 
approach, guarded by a qdendid accompaniment The cry of ' XiSf 
Mijfe§r passes from mouth to mouth ; and the Spaniards, unrolling 
thmr desks and doffing their hats,, give place for the abedute king. 
Preseully, a bdl rings, and every voice is hushed. A kmg prooession 



■i NBW CAOTILE. 

of HMD with eaeh a borning taper, k seen preceding a priest, who i» 
eairying the reeonciliag sacranieiit to smooth the way for some dying 
sinner. Does it meet a carriage, though containing the first gran& 
of Spain, the owner descends, throws himself upon his knees in the 
middle of the street, and aJiows the host to enter. *8u Mu^iadl' 
< His Majesty ! ' to indicate the presence of the Saviour sacramentized, 
passes in a tremulous whisper from lip to lip. The faithful are all 
uncorered and kneeling; they smite their breasts with contrition, 
and hold down their heiuis, as if unworthy to look upon the Lamb. 

We were yet standing in the midst of this buoyant scene of bustle 
and confusion, when a sturdy wretch brushed past us, frowning fiercely 
on Don Diego. He was rolled in the tatters of a blanket, an^ had on 
a pair of boots, so ruu down at heel, that he trod rather upon the legs 
than the feet of them. An old cocked hat, drawn closely over the 
eyes, scarce allowed a glimpse of features further hidden under a 
squalid covering of beard and filth. Though I had already seen many 
strange people in Spain, this fellow attracted my attention in an unu* 
soal degree. Not' so Dou Diego. The fellow's frown seemed to have 
forbid recognition, and he said not a word until he had been long out 
of sight He at length told me that the man had once been his 
acquaintance, and was like himself a native of Cordova. He had 
been a captain of horse under the Constitution, and having been a 
violent man, he had lain long in the common prison after the return of 
despotism. When he at length escaped from it, Don Diego took 
compassion upon him ; for he owned a common country with himself, 
and had snfiered by a common misfortune. He allowed him to sleep 
in the room without his apertmeat, and had even shared with him the 
cooteote of his own soanty purse. Very soon after, his lodgings were 
robbed of everything they contained, and his fiiend came no more to 
share his hospitality. In a short time some darker crime had forced 
tlie miscreant from Madrid, and Don Diego had not seen him for 
mese ^ma two years. I inquired why he did not send the police ater 
hiMi* He answered that the police would give him more trouble than 
the robber, and ended by saying, * Is it not enough that he has plnn* 
duMd ae ; would you have him teke my life ? ' 

The unpleasant refleetions excited by this renconter were soon ban- 
isbed by strains of music, and the clatter of advancing hoofs. The 
body of cavalry, which now attracted the attentkM of the multitude in 
the I^unim M M, and for which a passage was soon opened by 
the long bearded veterans who came in front of the array, was a 
leginient of lancers of the royal guard ; a beautiful and well nounled 
cerpe in Polish uniforms, with high schaikoe, eaeh with a lance havmg 
a penmm of red and white. Neit came a band of sonw thirty mnn- 
ohms, performing on every variety of horn or trumpet. They were 
pfeying that most beautifiil of all pieces Difiaeernd btdxa U ear, from 
the fi'tfnnXndGhiof Rossmi. I thought I had never heard any eonnde 
m divine. Even the horses seemed lulled of their ardor. Presently, 
however, the cadence pasKd into a biast ht livelier than the love song 
of Ninecu, and away they went at a gaUop in the direetioii of the Frmia. 



NBWCASTIIC. . V 

ImiiMMftteiy behind tie hneers e«ine a nsgimeiil of cmiraMcvt, 
moanted ehiefly on powerful utods, with fkywiog taite aod manes parted 
-in the otiddle, which hong down on both aides the whole depth of the 
4ieefc. The men were very stoat and iiie htoking lelbws, eneaaed i* 
ioog jach boots, with Greeian hehnets and cwtrasses of steeY, on the 
front of which were gilded images of the son. Their oflhnsAfe wea^ 
pona consisted of etout hors&pistols and straight sabres of great knq[th, 
from the royaJ armory ef Toledo. There was to be a review on the 
Prado^ and having ahrays been fond of listening to the music, and 
lcx>king at the soldiers, I proposed that we should see it Don Diego 
was one of those ready fellows who are pleased with ereij propositieo; 
40 we went at once in pursuit of the ftigitires. 



The reriew took place near the convent of Atoeha. The mMsfef 
of war, with a brilliant staff mounted on epl^iklld barbs ftom 1^ 
tneadowa of the Tagos or Gaadalqutvir, was posted in front of the 
convent, and received the salutations of the passing soldiery. It was 
one of those -bright and cbodleas days so common in the devaied 
region of Madrid. The snn shone fbll upon polished helmets, ff$S^ 
rasses, and sabres, or dickered round the ends of the knees ; witllsl 
the combined music of both corps, stationed at the point about which 
the platoons wheeled in aucceasion, sent £arth a martial melody. The 
display was a brilliant one, and I enjoyed it without reservation. I 
looked nnt to the extortion and misery which anvng the indosnrieiM 
classes must pay for this glitter and pageantry; to the caoao of 
njoatiee asd oppression it naight be eailed to sulpfort; to thotvphai 
and mmrder, the €tnnne and. pestilenee, the dioasand criaaen ^mk 
linmBand curses that foHow in the train of armies. 

The. corps of the royal gnard has been estabttahed within m- km 
years, to supply the place of the foreign mercenaries, the Swiaamid 
Waloon guarda, formerly employed by the kingi of fipain« It oonaisni 
of 4wentyfiva thouaand men ; at least aa weH ,eqoi|iped as Ihooa of tliw 
French royal guard, and in point of sine, sinewy oenibrmatiep, a l y n ai ty 
to <eodore Ihl^oe, and whatever eonstilutes f^qpsioal eaoaHeBco, w 
flpanarda me lar anporier. The oiicora, hoarever, and it is thaf 
who- give the tene to an army, are very inferior ; far the old Flpanhfli 
ofteora^ having hee» almost all migaged in hringisg nhoat aadismttaia* 
ing the Constitution, are now generally in ditpmco or hanishment*' 
Their atationa in the regimants of the linearoehmiy fitted by kw horn* 
men^ taken froos the pkmgh tail or the woikahap, who waM iedhgr 
avarice ea fimataciam to join the loyalist qmfiiin at the peiaod:of * th» 
hat levoitttion. In the royal gnard they have been -anhalatnlad hf > 
ynnngnohiea, who are many of them ehildrea m age, and aU of thaaa'' 
mAbU- in lexpaiience^ It is difficult, indeed, to conaofvo a gi sa i a r 
dii^Nurity than exists between those old French ttibrtwrs with their 
long mustaches and scarred features, who have gained eaeh grnda 
apon the fiekl of battle, and those beardless nobles of tha SfMiiah 
12 



JMiriA iThlPgkfiMg asd Mip«Miioed, howevwr, theae tfiom are 
fpjf iM» fiaci bokuRg feUmM. Thej ate said to be imhued with liberal 
idmi» and'ioibe.oiily difieient ffom their predecewors of the Coaititu* 
^ifimi mmy.in net iMVfing hid ao opportunity to declare themaelree. 
Thin i? Iba moie liMj to be true for their youth; , for thoogh at a 
miMe <adtail€ied.age meo easily adapt their opioioBe to the dictates of 
ilUflieat^ yet tba .young miad e?er leaas towards truth and reason* 
When ih^M is another refolulion in Spain, it will doubtless he brought 
abeiil by -the army^ which in point of iateliigenoe is far in advance of 
t^e. taiioii I and» though expressly created to prevent such a result, 
it is tnest Uktly m» enginale with the royal guard. 

By the time the review was over and we were on our way hack, 
Don Diego was very tired. His mode of walking with out^tumed 
toes, however graceful, did not at all answer on a march. He com* 
idained bitterly of his feet, sent his boot maker to the devil, and made a 
Uw bM al Qvery Map. I syaipathiaed in his suflferings, offered him my 
aw, aiMl bdped btan laeanry hinaalf back to the Pwrta dd Sol, from 
a^iqh the soMiersJu^ dtawn us. On the way he bethought him<> 
iiU «( an oM ftian4 in Iha CWb ifbalera, who might perhaps be willing 
to- vaaaive a lodger. The jsaa'a name was Don Valentin CamehuesQ, 
aiMl the particawrs of hk history were stoogly indicative of the chai^ 
MMfW of hii countrymea and of the misfartanes of his couatry.* 



: Hm ValsBlin waa a aalivf of Logaonio in the fertile canton of 
&Mfa. He was by hirlh an hidalgo, or noUe in the spcmH way, aftar 
IM paaanaiaf Don Quiaota, and had heea of soane iaqnnaaee im hia 
Mb tama, of which he was .one of the ngkhru. In the pditieal npa 
and downs of his country, he had several tiawa changed his raaideaca 
aaA ODoapation ; was fay turaaa dealer in cattle whiah he parduuied in 
Eanaaiar ia aha aarthempoviafles of the Peniasala^ to strength^ the 
saMaarhs rf ihn ir^'^rrr"-. r\r ^i^r^ f-j t^ j — r^-~ Y flp^» 
ar.elae adbth merchant, keeping hia shop .in the same house wheia 
l|a«Miivad, aaas tha Pmef4mdd8$L Em lasl^ccnpalioB was iatflTf 



i aaoavding taliiaDwa aaoomt, in a aeqr ainguhHT amy. Wbilsl 

lyaatasasaea of the towaklip* 



liaJiad faaea.m^^Mrin LrfMraaio, the 

eaasaaa4MdaMd «kh tha hidiag plaaa iatwhiek aoma Fiatoch IVNips^ 
issniraath^f lapidiytawards the frentiar, JMLd^sfasiisdi aJsigaigjaatJ^ 
or..|^.ani vakiaUai^ naUbed from the rsqral pi^laae. Oalhaiatqna 
of Msdiaaad, tlm aasoam af the buried plate reaalwi hiaaass^aa< 

1 a man ialiaiiid .vnha-kiaasr. 



halriag Ukawise leaipsd thai there waa i 

> it Ml beaa ecoaaalad, he sent at eaee fer Dba VateliB^.aani 

asi ia question. Whea infanned bgr his m^eaiy that 4ii 

laa aQudiictaiMiaylo the plaea of eaaeaaliasiilf hfl>am 

tlonsBipiy, Haa^adOttaitnatisoofbissfiam. IfhisaMHi 



r« »ai«h ita wq« he est liksly Mtead UMlf fir frm tile pkcs or it» 1^ 
tta^ifCnP Qfifanred to tho.^utbor thiit it would b^ lafiur to chaage the nsia^ qf 1^ 



NftW 04ST1U. 

toaimmBd open, it wmM be pillaged bjr the eleHM^ wito lie ^i 
ettptinoipled fellows, eeeept the uerAam$^ to IM ftiilii^ in fleewi^ 
iMi if k were to be sbot ep» he wmM hwe boA pieteil Mir imtm 
castom. Besides, the other rtgidorts^ his eelieigues aq the*— iihiin 
pelitj, were yet alive and still resided at Logronio. He hoped, there* 
lore, that his majesty would not send hhn from his aAirs, for he was 
bot a poor man, and had a wife and daughter. These exeoses, 
however, were not satislbetory, and were set «M4. Fetdiilaad pHihi- 
ised to reoompense all losses that Don Valentih might sesiMB bfi 
abandoning his trade, and to pay him well forthe snstMe } heeaiedi 
by putting it noon his k^alt^. Don Valentin was u OM Oestiliaa V 
m he hesitated no lenger, but sold out, shut his shop^ and w«nt e€ to 
Aioja. 

Whether it were owing to the smalt mmbef ef perions who hnd' 
been knowing le the secret, or to the sacredness #Mi whieh tin 
Spaniards regard eferytbing whieh belooflis a» their rdligico and their' 
king, the tfsesure was all fomid unteodhed in the piaoe ef lis r "^ 



ment It was brought safely to Madrid^ Den ¥41eiitin being at the 
eipens^ of transportation. He new presenle hie Yurleus olaimp to- 
geVemment, for damages soAred by fois o#ti«id4| hnd foe the eapeoser 
of the journey, including the subeietedee of the fosi eiMiers, #be hh*> 
esTfed as escort, which he had defrayed fitaMn> hii ewn puree. TheM^ 
elaima were readily admitted, and an earfy day eppojntsd for thelv 
liquidation. The day at length eomee, bat thp anone^ does net eorim- 
srith it. Don Valentin has an dudienoe of the king ; for no king nail 
he nMMe aceeesiMe than Ferdinandi He <#eeeMs >the t^fpA •nMd foe 



4he payment; for no king eoold be mere cosaoHanc. He Imm aMjr 

money* 



andiehees, reeeives asany pMhieetf^ hut do nioney. limmiiie hh' 
Jives upon kepe, and the more sebsieiitial bahMe iemahting fotm iiwl> 
eye of his stock. Theie trere upear foiling together when the7Mi^ 
imo btodght soflte relief i^ the misfdrtehes of 8pafai. It l ik iWdM r 
irtipHHdd the condition of DeH Valentin. Tsfeinif efdmntage of th# 
pubUelty whieh was hllewed in 0pain by the new eyetemi he anitM' 
Iftshte a reeding room, where all tlm daily papert of #» ceiiitil andef 
the chief oiiies 4if Euetpe irere regularly iecei«iad. This went M' 
¥ety tMH, tMUt Ihe French, who nerer yet cante toflpain on mf goi# 
4»ffa«d, ovenhreir the Coneiitation. 'Hae liberty of thot^ hnd 
^pee^ foil iriA ic Don Valentin was invHed «e idiwi tip hie readiiig 
Toom, and lie onee more redr^ to li¥e upon hit eaeinge^ anieenltMtf tn 
semefentcr twelTO h un dred Mlara, which he had eiowed ewwf ih a 
eeent eor*et <pf Ms dwellhig. This was taken out, pier^^ by pidhCi tor 
meet th» H ie ct s i tfes of hia fomily, o«ai one dny the Heeee tiM 
#iiteind 1^ tniec AMNwes,' who Mua^leo tne me women wHli a'teww, 
tind tier te the bedstaad, and then etrded off, nat Miy the eaming« 
of Am Vtlentin, bat eiirer seoonii and forks end drevytMtf <tf nif 
tMltrti^ to the very finery of l^lei%ndte» 'fhis intt blow laid pmit Bud- 
ValeMln completely en his beck. AU iftat he ndw did wneto tifo^ 
tbe DkiHa and OoeiNij which Ids wHb let om M^ sneh doifeda i Wft rf i 
x^ read them itt the eeoifoot edtry df tNr Mmm^ Tw 



NEW CASTILE^ 



the trio, of whieh the hmUj oonsitted, willi theif daily 
ymikero; his dftogbtev with silk stockings and satin shoes, to go i» 
wnm^vA walk of a least daj upoa the Prado,. and himseU* with now 
and ihMi his paper dgariUo. 



Bf the time we had discussed the history of Dob Valentin, we 
reaclml the door of his lioose in the Caiie Montera. Nearly the whole 
ftoa* of the haseaient story was hung with cloths festooned from the 
Ipwer haicoay,. toiihow the eonrimodity that was sold within. Beside 
the sjhop was a seeood door opening on a long entry, ahont four feet 
in width, which led to an equally contracted staircase at the back of 
the house. Here we entered, and found within the door-way a stone 
hasin.anda gutter^ which are phiced in all Spanish houses lor public. 
cotttenience. A man would be looked on as a mere brute^ who shpuld 
pAase in the street of a Spanish town for such occasions as are common 
among the French; but he is at liberty to enter the nearest door for 
the purpose, though it belong to KgraiuU da Espama; this being a 
leeipreoial accommodatbn, a sort of give and take, which the Spaniarda 
ebUend to each other* Our little basin was now, however, covered 
wth a board, upon vhiehsat an old woman, with a tvoollen shawl over 
has bead, and on her lap a bundle oC GkacHas and DUtrieB. The wholes 
OBtent of the entry was- strung with a file of grave politiciansv rolled in 
tbaireloaksy^as in «o ndany s^eveless frocks, with their hands coming 
o«t Mecemly from beneayi, to hold a Craceta. Don Diego b^ged 
lajtiparden, sad went in adiranee to- clear the way, with the cry of 
*€bm lUimditf seni^resl* The veaders let their arms fall beside them,, 
diew nigh to the wall^and turned sideways to make themselves as thin 
aa possible. We did the same, and went at oar literary and literal 
opfNMiettts* like pigs when they go to battle. Fortunately none of us 
wiape.very cotpiiient, so we g^l by with little detention or difficulty,. 
aAd aemm^Bfied asceodiog a stairway, partially illusninated by embra- 
sires^ like a (jothic towor. Ijct us pause to take breath during thia 
tudioua ascent up throe pairs of stairs, and profit of the interval to say 
say something of the\D»arto and Oaeeta^ which so greatly occupied 
the attention of the politiciana below^ and which contain, the first, all 
the eommercMl inftNrmation of the Spanish capital ; the second^ all the 
literary, scientific, and political intelligence of the wh<4e empire. 

The Diaria is a daily paper, as its name indicates. It is printed on 
a smail^aito sheet, a g«xid part of which is uken up with the namea 
of the saints, who have their feaet on that day; as, San Fedr0 AfosMy 
Mawiir, San Tdd^ro. Labrador^ or Sania Marim de la Caimm. Then 
folbwaen aecoa«l of tiheehurchea where there are to be most massoe» 
whait *troopa are to be on guard at the palace, gates, and thaaties. 
yieax the commercial adverttsemenU, telling where may be purchased 
Bafoniie haias and Fknders butter, with a list of wagons that are 
til^JMi' to ^cargo and pa s se ng CTS for Valencia, Seville, or Corunta, and 
tlwR^amea and pasideaceof wet nurses, newly arrived firom Astorias^ 



wiUi fresh roMk ind good charActors, Tlie Croeeto it puUiahed 
times a week, at the royal printiiig-office, on a piece of papet a<raM>« 
what larger than a sheet of foolscap. It usually begins with an accoant 
oi the health and occupation of their majesties, and is filled with 
extracts from foreign journals, culled and qualified to suit the n^ion 
of Madrid ; with a list of the bonds of the state creditors which &ve 
oeme out as prizes, that is, as being entitled'!^ payment by the Cafu 
it Amwrtixation, or Sinking Fund ; with lepublications of some, old 
statute, condemning such as neglect to come forward with their tithes 
to the infliotion of the bastinado; or with an edict against freemasons,' 
devoting them to all the temporal and spiritual curses which the throne 
and altar can bestow*— death here and damnation hereafter. 



Meantime, we had reached the landing place of the third story and 
pulled the bell cord which hung in the corner. Before ibe sound was out 
of the bell, we were challenged by a voice from within, crying in a sharp 
tone, ' Quien 1 '—' W ho is it ? ' * Gente de poa '— 'Peaceful people ! ' was. 
the answer of Don Diego. Our professions of amity were not, howexer, 
sufficient, and we were reconnoitred for half a minute through a. small 
trap door, which opened from within, and which was pro«idi9d with a 
mimic grating like the window of a convent. The man who-now looked 
at us from the security of bis strong hold, did not have occasion to cloaa 
oue eye whilst he peeped through with the other, for he had lo«t the 
right one. In short, he was one-eyed, or, as the Spaniards, who have 
a word for everything, express it, tuerto. When he had sufficiently 
assured himself of our looks and intentions, several bolls and latches 
were removed^ the door was opened, and Don Valentin stood befocetis. 
He was a tall and thin man, dressed in a square-tailed coat and narrow* 
pantaloons of brown, with a striped vest of red and yellow. The collar 
and raffles of his shirt, at the sleeves and breast, as well as the edges 
of a eravat of white cambric, were elaborately embroidered, and made 
a singular contrast with the coarseness of his cloth. Beside him were 
9U9 immense pair of stifT-backed boots with tassels, which he seemed 
about to exchange for the slippers which he wore. Don Yalentin'a 
fiwe, however, chiefly attracted my attention. It was thin, wrinkled, 
and salfow. His teeth were of a dark and unnatural color, and, like 
many of his countrymen, he had nearly lost two of the front one% 
opposite to each other; a circumstance which was sufficiently ao- 
oovnted. for by the cigariUo which he held in his fingers, the ends of 
which had been dyed by the heated paper to the color of saffron, I had 
obeerved friMn without, that of his right eye nothing remained but an 
inflamed and unseemly hollow. This gave a sinister expression to a 
laee, of itself sufficiently ill-favored, and which was further eet off by 
a ho9iff gaunt figure, and by black and bristly hair, which seemed to 
glow ixk all directfons from sheer inveteracy. 

These observations were made whilst the punctilious politeness 
which distinguishes the Old Castilian, and to which the Aodaluz i§ no 



M NfiW CAtTILB.; 

itrtiigdr, W88 eipendiog itMlf in kitid in^uiriM tfter th« hetlth df Meh 
other and family. *Om0 eda ust^d* — *Ht>w ftir^ jonr mer«jt' 
' iSifi mm>edadpam Htmr A tisied, y MSted'-^* Witliout iMVetty w Mrv« 
yoor mercy, and youradf f ' Then followed a km; Hit of inquirie« i^ 
j^miia Coaeha, on one part, and La Florencia on the other; with tha 
replies of ' Tan imewjh-^M guapa-^^pora sermr 6 usiid; ' ' BquaDy well-^ 
lkoioualy---at your mer^s service.' By this time, Don Valentin had 
discovered me in the obscurity of the door-way ; so directing his eye at 
me and inclining his ungainly figure, he said, with an attempt at unction, 
*Bfrmd4Mr de usitd eahMeiM* and bid as pass onward into th^ parlour, 
of which he opened the door. When he had got into his boots, he 
followed, and, after a lew more compliments, iSon Diego opened the 
subject of our visit. Don Valentin, after a becoming pause, replied 
that the room wc were in had served them as a parlour, and that the 
alcove had been the sleeping apartment of his daughter; but that if it 
soited me to occupy it, they would live in the MitiolA adjoining the 
kitchen, their daughter would move up stairs^ and I shonld have the 
Whole to myself. The room was everything one cimld have wished in 
point of situation ; for it overlooked the Puerta del 8oi, and had a broad 
window fronting toward the southeast, which, from its elevation above 
the opposite roofs, was each morning bathed by the earliest rays of the 
sun. But I did not like the look of Don Valentin, nor did f care to 
live under the same roof with him. So, when we rose to depart, I 
said I would think of the matter, secretly determining, however, ts 
seek lodgings elsewhere. 



Hon Valentin accompanied ns fo the door, charged Don Diego whh 
a RmmI of expresiones hr his family, and as is the custonf on a first visit 
to a Spaniard, told me that his house and aN it contained was at my 
entire disposal. He had told us for the last cTme, ' Qw no h^a ntm^dtid f 
Ymyan nsttdes em EHos ! ' — * May you meet with no novehy ! May QoA 
be with you! '—and was holding the door for us, when we were mef 
on the narrow landing, foil in the foce, by the retj Dania Pkfencia, 
about whom Don Diego had asked. She had just ceme frcsa AMSs^ 
and I very near missed seeing her. She might be nhseteen ov 
thereabout, a little above the middle size, and finely proportkNied} 
with features regular enough, and hair and eyes not so Uaek as is 
common in her country, a circnmstance upon which. When I ctnne to 
know her better, she used to pride herself; for in Spain, aobum htdr^ 
and even red, is looked upon as a great beauty. She bad on a matoUki 
of lace, pinned to her Innr and hanging abouc her iftmolders, tMd % 
haaquma of black silk, garnished with cord and tassels, and loaded 
at the bottom with lead, to make it fit closely around tiM body and 
show a shape which was really handsome. Thengh high In tlie aieak. 
it did not descend so low as to hide a weU tamed foot, eoVOrtli wMl 
a white stocking and low shoe of bladk, bomid over the instep by a 
ribbon of the same e<rior. 



MSWCASTILI. W 

Aft I atid hUm, ImnnfidliiitiieftMlwilM iMtmU «r 
Ia Riojt, to wbote clMok tke atoent of thret pairs of iUin had gitw 
a oolor whkh k not oomman in Madrid^ aad wUeh to horaaif waa Ml 
habiloaL Bar whola nuyanar afaowad that aaoaa of aatiabotioa, wlnali 
pao|>la who fed wall and virtnqoaly alwaya aspariaiioa on faaohing tba 
domatifi thfaahoU. Sha waa opeiiiiig aad linilliog bar fen witk 
livMity, and atoppad ahort in tho midat of a littla aong, whieb ia a 
a fvaatfevorila in Andaloaia, and whioh begins, 

*Oim! ao ^ero cijanne f 

We ca^na fer a moment to a stand in front of each other, and then 1 
drew back to let her come in, whether from a sense of courtesyor from 
a reluctance which I began to feel to effect my departure. With the 
ready tact which nowhere belongs to her sex so completely as in Spain, 
she asked me in, and I at once accepted the inyit&tion, without caring 
(n consistency. Here the matter was again talked over, the daughter 
lent her counsel, and I was finally persuaded that the room and its 
situation were even more convenient than I at first thought, and that 
I coold not possibly do better. So I closed with Don Diego, and 
agreed to his terms, which were a dollar per day for room, rent, and 
meals.* That very afternoon I abandoned the Fonda dt Malta, and 
moved into my new lodgings^ where 1 determined to be pleased with 
everything, and, following the advice of Franklin's philosopher, forget 
that Don Valentin waa tuerto^ and look only at Florencia. 



Being now eataUished fer Ibe winter, it may not ba ansisa lo mm 
aoane aooonnt of the domestic oeonoaay of our liltie hooaahold. Tba 
apartmeata of Don Valentin ocoupaed the whole of tho third floav 
and two raoma in the garret, a third being inbabiiad by a young iMn, 
oadel of aeme noble honae, who was studying for the Bsilitaiy oaioer. 
One of theaa raons was appropriated by Don Valentin as a bedroom 
and woiksbop; for, like tba Bourbon family, he had a turn for tankarinf^ 
and OBuatty passed his morniogs, to my no small inconvenianco, in 
pfening, bamoaaring, and sawing, in bia aerial habitation. I used 
samoliroea to wonder, wrhen I aaw hia neighbour the cadet, lying in 
bis bed Mid studying sigebia in his cloak, boola, and foraging cap*- 
for be kept no brasero — how he managed with suoh a din baaide him 
ta feiAasr the train of bia aqualbna. The iUrd room was the bed 
absaihsf of Fbrenoin. So much for the garret. As fw tba ioer 
belMi, it .was diwded mto no ksa than fiva apartments, two of wbieb 
mala fiutkar aubdividad into sitting rooms and alcoves. 

Immadiately wkhia tba door d* our babitatian waa a small room 
eallad oHliMiJii, where the family ato tbair maak. Gonoacted with die 



* la Madrid lodginfi ar« hired by the day. A tenant may abandon a bouae at a 
(kfs notice; but cannot be forced from it by the landlord, so long as he continues 
to ptf the stiimlafced rent. 



NE«r CASTOLX. 

t bjF a door-way \rhi0h >liad no door, was a kkehea eqoalljr ankalli 
aad of which near one half was occupied by a huge chimney, hanging 
over it like an inverted funnel. The space under the chimney w« 
£Ued by a brick dresser with several furnaces. Here the family cook- 
ing was done over embers of charcoal, in small stone pitchers, called 
jptfcA«fiM, which were seen hanging on nails round the kitchen, of 
every difierent size, like big and little children of the same family. 
In this mimic cocina, everything had its place ; the walls were garnished 
with platters, knives, forks, and tumbierSy bestowed in wooden racks, 
the handy work of Don Valentin ; in one corner stood a huge earthen 
jar, which the agvador filled every other day with water from the 
Gate of the Sun ; whilst the hollow place beneath the fvirnaoes was 
stowed with charcoal, bought once a week from a passing carbonero, 

A narrow passage led frorti the antesala to my own apartment. On 
one side of it was the bedroom of Don Valentin's wife, the same old 
woman whom we had seen in the entry, a good-natured soul, whose 
desire to oblige made a perfect drudge of her. It was always night 
in this room, for, being in the middle of the house, it was without a 
window. On the opposite side, a door opened into the alcove of an 
apartment which corresponded with and adjoined my own. This was 
inhabited by one Donia Gertrudis, an Asturian lady, whose husband 
bad been a colonel in the army, and who dared not return to Spain^ 
whence he fled on the arrival of the French, because he had given an 
ultra-patriotic toast at a public dinner, in the time of the Constitution. 
He was wandering about somewhere in America, she scarce knew 
where, for it was next to impossible to hear from him. This woman 
was a singular example of the private misery which so many revolu- 
tions and counter-revolutions have produced in Spain, and which has 
been brought home to almost every family. Of three brothers who 
bad held offices under the government, two had been obliged to fly, 
and were now living in England, a burthen to the family estate. This, 
witb the death of her two children, and the absence of their father, 
who alone could have consoled her for the loss, had so greatly preyed 
upon her health, that she was threatened with a cancer in the breast 
Her friends had sent her to the capital to procure better advice than 
could be found at Oviedo. She frequently told me her story, talked 
of other days, when her husband, being high in favor, had brought hec 
to this same Madrid, taken her to court, and led her into all the 
gaieties of the capital. Her situation was indeed a sad one, and I 
pitied her from my soul. 

Leaving both these doors behind, the one at the end of the P^MUge 
•pened into my own room. It was of quadrangular form, and sub* 
ciently large for a man of moderate size and pretenaiona. In addition 
to the principal entrance firom the aniesaia, there was a small glaoi 
door communicating between the room of Donia Gertrudis and mine. 
This, however, was partially concealed by a cnrtain. On the side of 
the street, my room was furnished with a large window, reachinff from 
the ceiling to the floor, which opened, with a double set of folding 
doors, upon an iron balcony. The outer doors were filled with glass 



NEW CASTILE. Wf 

^ vuioM forms aB4 sizes eurioiulj pot togeihw ki ft saih tf.kte ; 
She inner ones were of solid wood, studded wkh iron, sod fit to low s l 
A siege. When closed, thej were firmly seottred by a long fertieel 
fadt iiavJBg hooks at either end, wbieh projected abore aad betow the 
door and drew it close to the window frame. This foklinf window is 
fiittad all over Franoe, and the bolt whioh confines it is there called 
4SpagnoUiie. Directly in front of the window was a reeess or.aleofe^ 
^on^Jed by curtains. Within was a waslnrtand, a snail lo<d[iQ|^ 
g^asB, and pegs to hang clothes on. Here also was my bed. ll 
consisted of a set of loose boards supported on two horses, and painted 
green, to keep away the bugs. On this platform rested a woollen 
mattress, with sheets, pillow, and coverlet, making altogether a bed 
which was rather unyielding, but of which I grew fond presently. It 
had the advantage, that when 1 got into it, I cottld always tell when I 
had reached the bottom and was done subsiding ; and that I alwayn 
Iband myself in the morning in the same place. At the bedside was 
n dean merino fleece to alight on, in addition to the mat of straw or 
€qfari€, which everywhere covered the alcove and sitting-room. 

The furniture consisted of a dozen rush bottomed chairs, a cheit 
of drawers, which Don Valentin himself had made, and where, at mf 
request, Fiorencia continued to preserve her feast-day finery, and m 
huge table, which filled one end of the room, and which I had at fivsS 
taken for a piano. There were here but few ornaments. They 
ledneed themselves to two or three engravings hung about the watti^ 
in which one of Raphael's Virgins was pair^ with a bad pteture of 
hell and its torments. There was, likewise, on the bureau, a glass 
globe with a goldfish in it, whose only food was found in the elemenl 
he lived in, and which was renewed dally. Though the pet of 
Fiorencia, and well cared for, this little fellow seemed weary of his 
prison house ; for night and day he was ever swimming round and 
round, as if in search of liberty. On the whole, there was about this 
dwelling an air of snugness and quiet, to which I had been unacco^ 
tomed in France; and I had fi-equent occasion to remark, that, thougll 
inhabiting a milder climate, the Spaniard is far more sensible to notions 
of oomfort than his mercurial neighbour, who has not even been at 
the pains of adopting a word, which has become in our language so 
familiar and expressive. The balcony, however, was by far the most 
agreeable part of my habitation. There, leaning on the railing, I 
passed a portion of each day ; for though cavalcades and processions 
fiuled, there was always abundant amusement in gazing downward 
upon the consUntly circulatihg multitude, and in studying the varied 
costumes and striking manners of this peculiar people. Nor weiw 
other motives wanting to lead me to the balcony. The one tmmedt* 
ately next my own was frequented, at all hours, by a young Andeduzti 
ef surpassing beauty ; whilst over the way was the habitation of Leti- 
zia Cortese, the prima»donna of the Italian opera. 



13 



« NEW CASTILE. 

Aft fiir tile oeoopationa of our little family, they were such u are 
oommoD in Spain. The first thing in the morning was to arrange and 
order everything for the day* Then each took the little hi^tda of 
ehocelale and ptmeeHh, or small roll, of the delightful bread of Madrid. 
This neal is not Uken at a table, but sitting, sUnding, or walking from 
room to room, and not nnfrequently in bed. This over, each went to 
his peculiar occupations ; the old woman with her Diarios and Oaceias 
to qien her reading room in the entry ; Florencia to ply her needle, 
and Don Valentin to tinker overhead, having firet tiken out his flint 
and steel, and cigar and paper, to prepare his hne{ dgariUo^ which he 
would smoke, with a sigh between each puff, after those days of liberty, 
when a cigar cost two cvorloj, instead of four. Towards noon he 
would nA\ himreif in his capa /larda— -cloak of brown— and go down 
into the Putrta del Soi, to learn the thousand rumors which, in the 
abeence of all other publication, there find daily circulation. If it were a 
feast day, the mass being over he would go with his daughter to theProdb^ 
At two the family took its mid-day meal ; consisting, beside some sim* 
pie dessert, of soup and pueAcro, well seasoned with pepper, saffron, and 

Klic. If it had been summer, the siesta would have passed in sleep, but 
ng winter, Don Valentin profited of the short lived heat to wander 
fbrth with a friend ; and in the evening went to his tertuHa^ or friendly 
wmion. In summer, one or even two o'clock is the hour of retiring ; 
but in ivinter it is eleven. Always the last thing, before going to bed, 
was to take a supper of meat and tomatoes, prepared in oil, or other 
greasy stew, to sleep upon. 

Such was the ordinary life of this humble family. Don Valentin 
someftimes varied it, by going off with some friends on a shooting excur- 
sion, from which he scarcely ever returned without a good store of hares 
«id partridges. On such occasions he was always followed by his 
fkithAil Pito, a fat spaniel, of very different make from his master. 
This Pitt or Pito, so called in honor of the British statesman, had 
passed through dangers in his day ; for in Spain even the lives of the 
dogs do not pass without incident. He was one day coursing with his 
master in the neighbourhood of the Escurial, happy in being rid of the 
dnst and din of the city, when they were suddenly set upon by robbers. 
Don Valentin was made to deliver up his gun and lie down on the 
groand, whilst his pockets were rifled. When, however, the robber 
who took the gun had turned to go away, Pito gathered courage and 
seized him by the leg. The incensed ruffian turned about and level- 
led his piece, whilst poor Pito, well aware of the fatal power of the 
weapon, slunk to the side of his master. The situation of man and dog 
was indeed perilous ; but fortunately the piece missed fire, and both 
were saved. Nor should I forget to say something of a cat, last and 
least of our household. His name was Jaxmin, or Jessamine. It was 
only in name, however, that he differed from and was superior to other 
cats. Like them, he was sly, mischievous, and spiteful, and would 
onlv invite my caresses by rubbing his back against my leg or playing 
with the tails of my coat, when he wished to share my dinner, or be 
allowed to warm himself on the hrasero. 



NEW CASTILE. M 



Of my own. mode of life and occupations in Madrid it ia i 
io apeak, since they had little connexion with the customa of the 
country. It may, however, be proper to say something of the city 
and of the public spectades and amusements, which have so much to 
do with formings as well as elucidating, the manners and character of 
a nation. 



487402 A 



CHAPTER VL 

NEW CASTILE. 

Kinffdom of Castile.— SitaatioD and Climate of Madrid.— Its History.— General 
uescription of the City.—The Five Royal Palaces.— Places of Public Worship.— 
Museum of PaiDtiug. — ^Academy of Sao Fernando.— Museum of Armour.— 
Charitable and Scientific Institutions. — Royal Library. 

New Castile occupies the centre of the Peninsula^ and is enclosed 
OD every side by the kingdoms of Arragon, Old Castile, Cordova, Jaen, 
Murcia, and Valencia. It is subdivided into the provinces of Madrid, 
Guadalaxara, Cuenca, Toledo, and La Mancha. Its sarface consists 
chiefly of elevated plains^ intersected by lofty mountains, notwith- 
standing which its rivers are few and inconsiderable ; and as it rains 
seldom, the country frequently suffers from drought, particularly in 
La Mancha, where the drinking water is of very bad quality. The 
cold is often severe in winter in New Castile, especially in Cuenca ; 
but the air is very pure and the climate healthy. This kingdom pos- 
sesses mines of calamine at Riopar in La Mancha, and of quicksilver 
at Almadeu in the same province, and near the celebrated shrine of 
our Lady of Guadalupe. The mines of Almadeu produce annually 
twenty thousand quintals of this precious mineral. The mountains of 
New Castile supply the inhabitants of the plains with charcoal for fuel, 
and are covered beside with noble trees, suitable for ship building. 
They likewise afford pasture to horses, cows, mules, and swine, and 
to large flocks of wandering merinos which come in summer from the 
warmer plains and vallies below to crop their tender herbage. The 
level regions produce wheat and wine of excellent quality ; some oil, 
honey, saffron; a plant called alazor, useful in dying, and sumac, 
barilla, and glasswort. With the exception of manufactures of ck>th at 
GuadaJaxara, of silk at Toledo and Talavera, and such rude fabrics a» 
are necessary for domestic use. New Castile possesses no industry.* 



The city of Madrid is the capital of New Castile, as of the whole 
Spanish empire. It is situated upon the left bank of the small stream 
of Manzanares, on several sand hills, which form the last declivity of 
the mountains of Guadarrama. It stands in latitude forty, north, at 
an elevation of two thousand feet above the level of the sea, and almost 
mathematically in the centre of the Peninsula. It is the highest capital 
of Europe; for its elevation is fifteen times as great as that of Paris, 

« Antillon. 



NEW CASTILE. 101 

mA ncarl J twice that of Geneva. The neighbouring country is of very 
irregular surface and broken into an infinite succession of misshapen 
Mils, BO that, although there are near two hundred irillages in the vicinity 
of the capital, not more than four or five can ever be discovered at 
once. The soil is of a dry and barren nature, producing nothing but 
wheat, which yields only ten for one, but which is very sweet and of 
ezceQent quality. Madrid has no immediate environs, no country seatB 
at the rich inhabitants, none of those delightful little colonies, which 
are usually found clustering round the walls of a great city, and which 
combine the convenience of a town residence with the enjoyments of 
rural lile. Hence, the danger and dread of living secluded lead the 
inhabitants to gather together for mutual protection; so that if you 
wander a hundred yards from the gates of Madrid, you see no dwdlinge 
to allure you forward with the cheering assurance of society, but seen 
4o have taken leave of civilisation and the haunts of men. Nor are 
there any forests or orchards to make up for the absence of inliabitantt, 
if, indeed, you except the valley of the Manzanares, and to the east-a 
few scattering olive trees, as sad and gloomy in appearance as thm 
owners, the monkish inmates of San Geronimo and Atoefaa. In former 
times, however, the country about Madrid was covered with forevta, 
abounding in wild boars and bears, and hence it is, that thecity derives 
its arms of a bear rampant, with his fore paws resting against a tree. 
The total disappearance of these forests can only beacoeuiited .for tqr 
that singular prejudice of the Gastilians which has been already notieeid. 
The climate of Madrid, though subject to great variation, is, never- 
theless, healthfol, and has ever been a stranger to epidemic diseaeei. 
Its sky is almost always transparent aiid cloudless, and itsisir so pure, 
that the dead animals, which are often allowed to reaaaki :in Uie streeia 
until they are pulverized and blown away, never hMorae offbasivift. 
The ordinary extremes of temperature in Madrid, are ninety of Fahren* 
heit in summer, and thirtytwo in winter ; but there is scarcely a year 
that the thermometer does not rise above a hundred and fall below 
fourteen ; for, though the inclination of the city facilitate^ its ventila^ 
lion, it likewise exposes it more iully to the unintercepted rays^f a 
powerful stto, and in winter the neighbouring mountains of Guadar- 
iiina send down from their snowy reservoirs such keen itreezes, thut^ 
perhaps, in few places is the cold more pinching than in Madrid* 
This was especially the case last winter, the most inclement that has 
been known in Europe for many years. Several sentinels were frozen 
en their posts along the parapet, in front of the palace, and overlooking 
tlue ravine of the Manzanai es, down which the northwest winds de- 
tacend with, aceuimilated violence. Two soldiers of the Swiss brigade 
•were among the number, and though they were relieved at short inter- 
ivials^^md might have been supposed no strangers to cold in their own 
t41pine country, they were nevertheless found in their sentry boxes, 
Mi^ mad lifeless, at the end of half an boar. Several wariier<*women, 
too, going as usual to the Manzanares-*— for being poor they could not 
hrtURNe'by lor the weather — were overtad^en by a similar calamity; so 
-ttot.Ahe police . was obtiged to place sentinels to prevent others Aom 
going to their ordinary occupation. 



lOS NE^ 



CASTILE. 



I Kave said that the climate of Madrid was healthful in the extreme. 
This, however, like every general rule, has its excepticm. There is 
in winter a prevailing disease called puhnania, which can hardly cor- 
respond with our consumption, unless, indeed, when we add galloping, 
for it carries the healthiest people off, after four or five days' illness. 
I was one evening, in the month of November, at the house of a mar- 
quis, a very fat man, who in his early days had been an officer in the 
navy, and had even made a campaign of six weeks in a guardct<osta» 
Though he had retired to Madrid, decorated with a variety of crosses, 
to live upon the income of extensive estates which he possessed in 
America, his tastes were still altogether naval, and his rooms were 
hung round in every direction with plans of ships, dry-docks, and sear 
fights. A short time after, I met him in the Putrta id Sol, as fat and 
smiling as ever ; but at the end of three days I was told that he was 
very sick of apuAnonta; on the fourth, that he had received the oto^ 
cum and extreme unction; and the next day the poor marquis was 
no more. This was not a solitary case ; for during the months of 
November and December, this disease carried off its hundreds in a 
week. The Madrilemos have a mortal dread of a still cold air which 
comes quietly down from the mountains^ and which they say, * Mata un 
hombre, y no apaga una litzJ — ' Kills a man, and does not put out a 
candle.' In such weather you see evety man holding the corner of his 
cloak, or a pocket handkerchief to his mouth, and hurrying through the 
streets, without turning to the right hand or the lefl, as though death, 
in the shape of a pubmonia, were close upon his heels. For myself, I 
never felt the cold more sensibly. It seemed to pierce my clothes like 
a shower of needles, and I found there was no way of excluding it, but 
10 get myself a cloak as ample as John Gilpin's, and roll myself up in 
it, until I became as invisible as the best of them* 



Such are the situation and climate of Madrid. As for its antiquity, 
the pride of its inhabitants would carry us back to a period anterior to 
.the fojj^ndation of Rome, when some foolish Greeks came, passing over 
the fair regions of Andalusia or Valencia, to found in this cheer- 
less waste, and among the savage Carpitanians, a city to which they 
gave the name of Maniua. If such were, indeed, the case, these 
colonists could only have been members of some Stoic sect, wliose 
chief ambition it was to reject ease and comfort for self-denial and 
mortification. The first mention that is anywhere found in history of 
Madrid, is in the tenth century, two hundred and twentyfive yean 
after the Moorish invasion, when Don Ramiro II. king of Leon, fell 
.upon the Moors of the town of Magerit, entered the place by force 
.of arms, threw down its walls, and committed all sorts of ravages. 
Hence, it probably owes its foundation to the Moors. 

Don Enrique III. was the first king of Castile proclaimed in Madrid. 
The ceremony took place in 1394, in the midst of the Cortes i 



NEW CASTILE. 168 

Med in the old Moorish Alcazar,* which stood on the site of the 
present royal palace. The court, however, was afterwards removed 
to Valladolid, until Henrj IV., having passed his youth in Madrid, 
became fond of the place and fixed his residence in it. This prince, 
returning in 1461 from the war of Navarre, was met at Aranda by 
the unhoped for intelligence of the pregnancy of his wife. Henry was 
80 much rejoiced at this piece of good news, that he sent, we are told, 
for her to come to him, and being followed by a great accompaniment 
of captains and courtiers, he made his public entry, bringing his wife 
npon the croup of his mule, as a mark of distinction and to make his 
good fortune notorious. But Juana, the princess which the queen 
bore him, never reached the throne ; for the Castilians, doubting her 
legitimacy, notwithstanding the exhibition on. the mule, raised up in 
her stoad Donia Isabella, who afterwards became the wife of Ferdi- 
nand, and shared with him the title of Catholic. The court continued 
still to fluctuate between Valladolid and Madrid, until the accession 
of Philip II., who finally settled it in the latter place, where it has 
remained ever since with little interruption. He is said to have been 
chiefly attracted by the salubrity of its climate, the excellence of the 
water, and the vicinity of the mountains of Guadarrama, which 
fiirnished abundance of game. At the same time the principal nobles 
removed to Madrid, in order to be near the court, and the city began 
to acquire the magnificence becoming a capital which was the focus 
and rallying point of the whole Spanish monarchy. The arts and 
sciences were soon In a flourishing condition, and churches and 
convents rose in every direction, to bear testimony to another age of 
squandered wealth and mistaken piety. 

In 1038, was born in Madrid, Donia Maria Teresa, who by her 
marriage with Louis XIV. introduced afterwards the house of Bourbon. 
The Duke of Anjou did not, however, find a quiet throne, nor did he 
win without exertion the title of Philip V., the prize being contended 
for by the Austrian Archduke, who took the title of Charles III. 
The rival pretenders drove each other repeatedly from the capital, 
until the cause of Philip prevailed, through the valor of the Duke of 
Berwick. Notwithstanding the civil wars which disturbed the arrival 
of Philip y. to the throne, he found means to increase and embellish 
the capital, by establishing the royal library and various academies; 
he constructed the bridge of Toledo, and commenced the building of 
the palace. But it is to Charles III. that Madrid owes all its present 
magnificence. Under his care, the royal palace was finished, the 
noble gates of Alcala and San Vincente were raised; the custom- 
house, the post-oflice, the museum, and royal printing-office were con- 
structed; the academy of the three noble arts improved; the cabinet 
of natural history, the botanic garden, the national bank of San Carlos, 
and many gratuitous schools established, while convenient roads lead- 
ing from the city, and delightfiil walks planted within and without 
it, and adorned by statues and fountains, combine to announce the 
solicitude of this paternal king. In the unworthy reign of Charles IV., 

* Castle or fortified palace. 



IM NEW 6ASTI1.£. 

of his wicked quieen, and of Ciodoy, Madrid waa the scene of every^ 
thing that was base and degrading, until the nation, wearied of such 
an ignominious yoke, proclaimed Ferdinand YII. at Aranjuez, and 
the populace testified its joy by plundering the palace of the Prince of 
Peace. Vevy soon afler the accession of Ferdinand, he left Madrid 
on his infatuated journey to Bayonne, and Murat took possesakm of 
the city at the bead of thirty thousand French. The occasion of the 
departure of the remaining members of the royal family for Bay^sne, 
first gave vent to the indignation of the Madrilenios. The gallant 
partbans, Daoiz and Velarde, turned two pieces of cannon upon, the 
usurpers, and fell gloriously in the cause of their country, whilst the 
populace, rushing forth with their knives, assassinated the defenceless 
French wherever they met them. The vengeance of Murat waa 
terrible. Sending patroles into every street, he seized all such as 
were found with knives upon them, drove them into the neighbour- 
hood of the Retiro, and fired opon the^i by voUies. This is the 
celebrated Dos de Mayo, second of May. The news of the atrocity 
spread like wild-fire throughout the Peninsula. The Spaniards flew ta 
arms, and the war of independence was commenced. Afier the s}ied«> 
ding of oceans of blood, and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives^ 
Ferdinand at length returned to his capital, to which he was cbiefljn 
restored by the fierce energies of his subjects. 



Such are some of the events of which Madrid has been the theatre. 
When the stranger, newly arrived within its walls, looks round in 
search of the local advantages which led to its foundation, he is at a 
loss to conceive how it should become a great city. The surrounding 
country is so little adapted to pastoral and agricultural pursuits that 
meats and fruits, and almost all the necessaries of life, are brought 
from the extremities of the kingdom. Thus supplies of fish come 
on the backs of mules from the Atlantic and Mediterranean ; cattle 
from Asturias and Gallicia, and fruit from the distant orchards of 
Andalusia and Valencia. With these disadvantages, manufactures 
can never flourish in Madrid; and as to commerce, the mountains 
which form its barrier on the north and west, check its communica* 
tions with half the Peninsula; whilst the inconsiderable stream of 
Manzanares furnishes no facilities of transportation ; none of any sort, 
indeed, except supplying water to accommodate the washerwomen. 

Though accident or caprice have alone given existence to Madrid, 
and though a city raised to wealth and power must necessarily relapse 
into insignificance, when the interests of the whole, and not the wUl 
of one shall govern the concerns of Spain, yet it is not the less a 
great city. It is nearly eight miles in circumference, of square figure, 
and contains a population of one hundred and fifty thousand inhabir 
tants, living in eight thousand houses ; so that there are about eighteen 
persons to a house, each house containing, in general, as many fami- 
lies as stories. Madrid has one hundred and fortysix temples for 



NEW CASTILE. IM 

worafaip, including collegiate and parish churcheSy conyents, heaterios, 
oratories, chapels, and hermitages. Among this number are sixtytwo 
convents for monks and nuns. It has, beside, eighteen hospitals, 
large and small; thirteen colleges, fifteen academies, four puUio 
libraries, six prisons^ fifteen gates of granite, eightyfive squares and 
places, and fifty public fountains which supply the inhabitants wiUi 
delightfiil water, brought from mountain springs, thirty miles firom 
the city. 

The water is in all cases conyeyed from the fountains to the houses 
of the inhabitants by people whose business it is. This gives occu- 
pation to several thousand Gallegos and Asturians, and is entirely in 
their hands. Indeed, a Gallego who has established an extensive 
custom, when he has made a little fortune of two or three hundred 
dollars, wherewith to retire to his native mountains and rear a family, 
has the conceded privilege either of selling his business or of bequeath- 
ing it gratuitously to a relative. To lay up money on their scanty 
earnings, of course requires the most narrow economy. Accordingly, 
we find them doing menial offices for a family for the sake of sleeping 
on the entry pavement, or else clubbing together, a dozen or twenty, 
to hire a little room in the attic. As for their food, ihey buy it at a 
tabenutj or from old women who keep three-legged walking kitchens 
at the corners, dining and supping on the spot, or more commonly 
seated on their water kegs about the fountains, two or three messing 
together, and eating with wooden spoons fiom the same earthen vessel. 
Others there are, who, instead of carrying water for domestic use, 
parade certain streets, taking due care not to infringe the domain of 
a brother, and selling it by the glass-fiiU to those who pass. They 
carry simply an earthen jar, suspended by a leathern sling behind the 
back. The mouth of the jar has a cork with two reeds; one to allow 
the water to pass out, the other to admit the air. When asked for 
water, they take a glass from the basket on their left arm, and stoop- 
ing forward, fill it with great dexterity. They do not wait, liowever, 
for the thirsty to find them out, but deafen all equally with cries in 
badly pronounced Spanish, of— 'il^a/ Agnafresca! Que ahora 
mismo viene de la fuente ! Quien bebe seniores f Quienbebef' 

In stature the Gallegos are low, stout, and clumsy, different as 
possible in form and figure from the Spanish in general, and equally 
different in manners and in dress. They wear a little pbinted cap, 
iacket, and trowsers of brown cloth, execrably coarse, not more than 
half a dozen threads to the armfiil ; heavy shoes, armed with hobnails, 
and made to last a lifetime ; a large leathern pocket in front to receive 
their money, and a fender of the same on the right shoulder to protect 
the jacket. They are but a rough set, and little mindful of the cour- 
tesies in use among their countrymen. They even take the right 
hand side along the narrow walk, and never turn out for man or 
woman. One day Don Diego came up to my habitation to give the 
customary lesson, with his hat in hand, endeavouring to rid it of a 
dint, and cursing the GaUego who had run against him at the turning 
of a corner. He had undertaken to lecture him; but the Gallego, 
14 



109 NEW CASTILE. 

putting down hm k«g, md diawing )iiiQ8elf up whh dignity, wdd to him,. 
1 1 aiD a BQble ! '— ^i^ thlAg not uncoqunon among his couutrymeii — 
\ you, may be, are no more! ' — ' Sgy noble I ustqd acaso no sera mast' 
NotwithManding their bluntness, however, they have many good quali- 
ties, and are tfu^y and bithfui in a rare degree. They and the 
Asturians act as porters; in which capacity they are even employed 
\o deliver money and take ^p notes. Such is the unshaken probity 
of these rude sons of the Suevi. 

The streets of Madrid are in general strait and wider than those 
of most cities in Europe ; a fact which is probably owing to its being 
almost entirely modem, and having been built under royal patronage. 
They are all paved with square blocks of stone, and have sidewalks 
about four feet wide and on a level with the rest of the pavement. 
In order to avoid contention for this narrow foot hold, it is the custom 
always to take the right side, and you may thus, in a crowded street, 
notice two currents of people, going in opposite directions, without 
interfering with each other. This has, however, the inconvenience 
that a person cannot choose his own gait, but must move at the pace 
of the multitude. Some of the palaces of the high nobility are built 
in a quadrangular form with a square in the centre. The mass of the 
dwellinghouses, however, are built much in our own way ; they are, 
in general, three or four stories high, with a door and small entry at 
oae side. They have rather a prison look, for the windows of the first 
floor are grated with bars of iron ; thp upper windows hav§ balconies, 
whilst the stout door of wood, w^ studded with spike heads, has 
more the air of the gate of a fortified town than of the entrance to the 
dwelling of a peaceful citizen. The oi^ter doors of the different suits 
of apfntmenU indicate the same jealousy and suspicion, npr are tfoej 
ever opened without a parley. These precautions are rendered nep^s- 
sary by the number and boldness of the robbers in Madrid, wbp 
somatimes enter a house, when left alone with the females, in tho 
middle of the day, and, having tied the occupants, who dare i|pt utter 
a word of alarm, they help themselves at leisure, and mak^ off witl| 
their spoil. This is of no uncommon occurrence, indeed I scarce 
became acquainted with a person in Madrid who had not been robbe4 
one or iQore times. The greatest danger is, however, at night in the 
strepu* I knew a young man, a native of Lima, who was encoun- 
tfsred in a narrow street, on his way to an eveniog party, by three 
men, who drp^^[ed him into the conceabnent of a £iorway. One pf 
them held a kmfe to his throat, whilst the two others stripped him qf 
his clothes and finery, until nothing was left but his shiit and boQl4, 
Then giving him a slap on the trasero^ they told him, ' Vff^ usf^ 
^um Dios hMHO ^ !' and, gathering the spoil under their clodcs» \^ 
moved away in another direction.* 



* Vmia uUefi am JHo$ humaao /'•< Go with God, brother !-~God be with ypuT 
ptitinf; tthitftioQ anoDg Spaniards. 



NEW t'ASTII.E. 



m 



By far the noblest building in Madrid ts th« royal palaee. It i« 
built on the same site where formerly stood the old MootSfth Alcazar. 
Philip v., who caused it to be erected, conceived originally the idea of 
m palace which was to have four faf odes of one thousand six hundred 
feet by one hundred high, with twentythree courts and thirtyfbur 
entrances. A mahogany model of the projected palace is still shown 
in Madrid, and roust of itself have cost the price of as j[ood a dwelling 
as any modest man need wish for. This palace wtm to have lodged the 
royal body guard, tlie ministers, tribunals, and indeed everything con- 
fleeted with the machine of state. Though this stupendous project 
was never realized, the present palace is, nevertheless, every way 
worthy of a prince who had been born at Versailles. It consists of a 
hollow square, four hundred and seventy feet on the outside and one 
hundred and forty within. Within is a colonnade and gallery, running 
entirely round the square, and without, a judicious distribution of win- 
dows, cornices, and columns, unencumbered by redundant ornament, 
except, indeed, in the heavy balustrade, which crowns the whole, and 
hides the leaden roof from view. The construction of this palace 
is of the noblest and most durable kind, being without any wood, 
except in the frame of the roof and the doors and windows. The 
fimndation stands entirely upon a system of subterranean arches. 
The first floor is occupied by th^ officers and servants of the court. 
A magnificent stairway of marble, on which the architect, thd sculptor, 
and the painter have exhausted their respective arts of deci>ration, 
leads to die second floor, which is likewise sustained upon arches. 
Here is a second colonnade and gallery, which looks upon the court, 
and which, like the whole of the ^ty, is paved with knarhle. This is 
always filled with groups 6f body guards and halberdins on service, 
and with people in court drtsMies ready to go before the sovereign. 
This gallery opens upoti the apartments of the differebt tn^inbers of 
the royal family, the chapel, and audience chamber. Their diflerent 
ceilings are appropriately painted by the pencil of Metigs, Bayeuk, 
Velasquez, or Giordano, Whilst the walls are hung rt>und with the best 
productions of Rubens, Titian, Murtllo, Velasquez, and EsfMinioleto. 
The mnall oratory of the king is, perhaps, the most beautilbl apartment 
of the palace. It is adorned with the richest and most elegantly varie- 
gated marbles, all Ibund iti the Peninsula. A single glance at them is 
su1B6ieht te cfMltince one, that the marbles of Spain are surpassed t»y 
none in the World. The clocks, fumitmre, tapestry, beds, dreminj^- 
tahles, aird glasses are in the highest style of magnificence. It wm 
gH^ a suffidieikt idea of this to mention, that m otoe iroom there are 
fbtff ihifrots^fie hundred and sijrtytwo inches high by ninetythree wiAe. 
They Mret« made at the royal matauikctory Which formerly exirted iti 
8an tldefonso, and, with sotne others cast in the same mould, are the 
lat^t ever known. This palace, whether it lie viewed with reference 
to its architecture or decoration, is, indeed, a noble one. I have heatd 
it aaid by those who had visited the chi^f capitals of Europe, that they 
had seen hone supetior te it, and, thoagh Versailles may eircd in detafl, 
as a perfect whole the paKice of Mnind may even claim preeminence. 



NEW CASTILE. 

The pdaoe of Baen Rotiro, where the court liTed before the eom^^ 
pletion of the new palace, is at the eastern extremity of Madrid, and 
stands upon the Prado. It consists of a variety of aucient and disjointed 
edifices, which are rapidly falling to ruin, and which look like anything 
bttt a royal mansion. The progress of decay would have been assisted, 
and the whole pile long since demolished, were it not for some admira- 
ble paintings in fresco which still cling to the mouldering ceiling, and 
which are in Giordano's best style. The most remarkable one is allu- 
sive to the institution of the Golden Fleece, in which Hercules, who 
figures in the fiction of the Argonauts, is seen offering the prize to 
Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. This order of knighthood, which 
has preset ved its splendor better than any other in Europe, has the 
king of Spain for its head, as Duke of Burgundy, one of the many 
titles attached to the crown since the time of Charles V. In another 
room are some scenes from the wars of Grenada. The Moors are of 
course in the attitude of the vanquished ; horses and riders are strewed 
upon the dust, already lifeless, or else an entangled cavalier yet lifts a 
broken ci meter to protect his head and agonized features from the 
hoof of a charger, which a christian knight, or, it may be, Santiago 
himself^ is urging forward with a heart as hard as his own cuirass. 

The garden of the RetirO is of great extent, but its situation is high 
and exposed,' and the walks are by no means agreeable. The present 
family has directed the different improTements, if indeed they may be 
so called, which are in process here, and perhaps nowhere has there , 
been so much labor expended and so little produced. In one place is 
an artificial monnd with a Chinese temple perched upon it; in another, 
a little cottage with an old woman of wood sitting by a painted fire, 
and rocking her baby in a cradle ; overhead are wooden hams and 
leather sausages, whilst in an adjoining room the good man of the 
hoose is lying sick between the bed clothes, with a pot of soup beside 
him, and is made to rise up when strangers come to see him. In 
another part is an oblong lake, enclosed with a wall of cut stone and a 
rich railing of iron. On one side of it, is a small building surmounted 
by naval emblems and a flag*«toff, and beneath it is a dock or cove for 
the royal galley. The elevation of the Retire is an obstacle to the 
bringing of water in pipes to fill the lake, and the object is therefore 
effected by the labor of a mule, who turns a wheel hard by, and who ia 
hidden under a rustic shed, adorned with Egyptian pagods. Sometimes 
the royal personages come to take a water excursion upon the lake; 
the basin is then filled, the gilded barge, which is truly clasaic in its 
construction, is floated to the stairs of the navy-yard, and the august 
individuals enter and put forth. Their perfect contentment and an- 
afiected complacency, the admiration of the beholders evinced by war* 
ing of hats and handkerchiefs, and if you happen to be near the wheel* 
hoooe, the creaking of the machinery, the Arrtf of the muleteer, and 
the grunting of the mule, combine to prodoce a singular spectacle. 

They are likewise now constructing here a new house for the wild 
besBts of the royal mmage^ and it is not a little singular, that, at a moment 
when the debts of interest, honor, and gratitude were left unpaid, at tha 



N£W CASTILE. MD 

▼«r J time when rooney was wanting to buy horsea fi>r a train of artiUtry^ 
then waiting to depart for the frontier of Portugal, a considerable snin 
should have been remitted to make additions in foreign countries to 
the rojal collection of wild beasts. There is one thing, however, in 
the garden of the Retire which any man may admire, it is a bronie 
statue of Philip IV. cast by Taca, a Florentine sculptor, after a painting 
of Velasquez. Though the figures are four times as large as life, and 
the enormous mass, weighing no less than nine tons, is supported on the 
horse's two hind feet, yet the beholder is not struck with astonishment; 
for there is such a perfect harmony in the parts and perfection in the 
whole, that he is apt to undervalue its dimensions. This beautiful 
colossus stands in an elevated situation of the Retiro, and looks the 
modern gewgaws into insignificance. And yet the prince, thus immor- 
talized by the hand of genius, was even less than an ordinary man ; 
he never did anything to promote the interests and add to the honor of 
human nature; he was imbecile in character, and of mean appearance. 
What American can reflect on this, and remember without shame, 
that,^in a country where men possess great wealth and the fireedom of 
doing with it what they please, there should be no disposition thus to 
commemorate the brightest virtues and the most exalted services ? 

The Casino is a mimic palace, on the scale of a private dwelling, 
it is situated in a populous part of the city, and is decorated with equal 
good taste and elegance. The last queen took great delight in this little 
retirement, and spent much of her time there ; but since her death it 
is rarely visited by any of the family. The Casa del Campo is anothes 
royal mansion, which stands low in the valley of the Manzanares, and 
directly in fi'ont of the palace. Its gardens offer shade and seduaion, 
but their chief ornament is a bronze statue of Philip III., the joint 
work of Bolonia and Taca, which, though weighing twelve thousand 
pounds, was sent from Florence as a present from Cosmo de Medieis* 
in its present situation it is scarcely ever seen, and there are doubdess 
many persons in Madrid who are ignorant of its existence. There is 
yet a fifth royal mansion in the environs of Madrid ; it stands upon a 
hin, and overlooks the valley of the Manzanares and the grove of 
the Florida. 



Although Madrid contains in all near one hundred and fifty places' 
of worship, yet it cannot boast a single temple of superior magnificence. 
In those days when most of the Gothic cathedrals, which we meet with 
in the older European cities, were erected, Madrid was but an incon- 
siderable place. Even now, though the political capital of Spain, it still 
belongs to the diocese of Toledo, and is not so much as the see of a 
suffragan. Most of her temples are small, of mixed Grecian archi- 
tecture, and many of them, in their exterior appearance, are hardly 
distinguishable from the common dwell inghouses which surround them. 
The interior, however, is usually decorated with much architectnral 
ornament, and with a profusion of paintings and statues. The Jesuits 
have by fair the largest and most imposing church in Madrid. This 



110 NEW CASTILE. 

tfrder is the most enlightened of the Spanish clorgy, and I took much 
fol^asare in going to hear them preach, especially during the Carnival. 
As it was the winter season, the pavement was covered with mats, 
gpen which the multitude kneeled during the exhibition of the host. 
WTien the invocation was over, and the sermon commenced, the women 
assumed a less painful and more interesting posture, sitting back ou 
ttiB mats with their feet drawn up beside them. If pretty, as was 
generally the case, one foot was allowed to peep out from beneath the 
pos^itnta, presenting itself in its neat thread or silken stocking, and 
Kttle shoe of prunello, in the most favorable position for display. The 
tnen stood intermingled with the women, or apart in the aisles and 
chapels, or reclined agaitist the columns, making altogether a very 
singular scene, not a little augmented in interest by the deep obscurity, 
approabhing indeed to dkrkness, which is ever carefully maintained 
tVithin the walls of the temple. 

Some of the preachers were very eloqiient, and the strong, yet 
sracious language in which they spoke, gave additional force and 
beauty to every hiappy sentiment. By far the greatest treat, however, 
is the enchanting music that one itiay hear on these occasions. No- 
where, indeed, perhaps not even in Italy, is the luxury of church music 
carried to a greater extent than in Madrid. The organs are played in 
peifection ; and, in ordeV to procure fine tenor voices, a practice is still 
continued there, which has been abolished in Italy since the domina- 
tion of Napoleon. In the Musical College of Madrid, vulgarly called 
the "Colegio de bs Capones, the mutilated victims of parental avarice 
are received %i an early age, and their voices carefully cultivated. 
Some are admitted to holy orders, evading the strict canon of the 
church which requires physical perfection in its ministers, by a most 
whimsical artifice. Others earn their bread easily as public singers, 
living in the world, or rather enjoying a negative existence, readily 
recognised by the unnatural shrillness of their tones, and by the heavy 
expression of their beardless, elongated, and unmanly visages. One 
or two of these miserable beings are employed in the choir of the royal 
chapel. The maintenance of worship in this establishment, costs Spain 
annually one hundred thousand dollars, no small part of which is for 
singers and musicians. A solemn mass witnessed in this chapel, is, 
indeed, one of the greatest treats in the world. The structure is of 
octagonal form, and surmounted by a dome, not dissimilar, tior alto* 
ffether unworthy of being compared to the Dome of the Invalids. 
Here architecture, statuary, and painting have lavished all their beau- 
ties in a narrow compass. The organ, with a choice selection of 
bassoons and viols, and the full choir, are placed in a hidden teocsa 
beside the dome. Thence the music follows the sacrifice, throtigh all 
Che sad symbols of the Saviour's Passion ; and when the expiation is 
made, and man is reconciled to his Maker, the circling concave rings 
with-exulting peals, which the entranced listener is ready to ascribe to 
the angelic hosts, which he sees in the hollow hemisphere above, 
mirroanding the throne of the Eternal. 



N£W CASTILE* 111 

The muteuia of stataary and painting at tb,f^ ^T^9^ ^ & n¥Mwi^ W). 
admirably contrived buildings which extends its front along the puj^fio 
walk, and adds greatly to its elegance. No huilding coukl be better 
adapted to the exhibition of paintings than this, which was commenced 
under Charles III. with an express view to its present object. The 
collection of paintings in the Prado was made in the better days o( 
the Spanish monarchy, when the gold of America could command the 
presence and services of living artists, and purchase the production^ 
of such as were dead. It is said, in the illustrious names of the con- 
tributors and the excellence of the pieces, to be inferior to no other; 
^d when the additions which are now making from the different royal 
palaces shall be completed, it will doubtless be the first in the world. 
To give an idea of the Italian school, it will be sufficient to name some 
of those great men who are here represented by their finest productions. 
Such are Guerchin, Tintoret, Poussin, Anibaland Augustine Carracci, 
Guido Reni, Luca Giordano, Leonardo da Vinci, Paul Veronese. 
Michael Angelo, the head of the Florentine school; Titian the prince of 
Venetian painters, and Raphael of Urbino, the ^reat father of all, who 
is here represent^ by his great painting of Christ Carrying the Cross^ 
which is esteemed second to nothing but the Transfiguration. It was 
originally painted on wood, but with the lapse of three centuries the 
wood became rotten, and there was a danger of its being entirely lost. 
This was of course among the immense number of paintings carried 
away to Paris by the French; it was likewise among the smaller 
number of those which returned after the final overthrow of Napoleoi^. 
In this case the voyage was a serviceable one ; for the French arti8^ 
were so fortunate as to succeed in transferring the painted surfacf» 
f|rom the wood to canvass, and have thus saved it from p^ematur^ 
destruction. 

Nor are the Flemish masters without their representatives in ^e 
Prado. It is there, however, that one may study and appreciate thf) 
Spanish school, which had scarce been known in Europe until the 
invading armies of Napoleon carried off some of the best piecea to 
cpnstitute the brightest ornaments of the Louvre, and to form several 
private collections. Witness the undisgorged plunder of the Duke ot 
Dalmatia.* 

The Spanish school is chiefly celebrated among painters for perfec- 
tion of perspective and design, and the vivid and natural carnation of 
its (coloring. One pf the first painters who became celebrated in Spain 
w^s Morales, who began his career about the time that Raphael's was 
so prematurely closed, in the early part of the sixteenth century, an\( 
^hose heads of Christ have merited him the surname of Divine. 
Morales was a native of Estremadura, but the art in which he so 
greatly excelled made mwe rapid progress in the city of Valencia, 
where a kindly soil i^d kindlier sky seem to invite perfection. Joan 
de Juanes is considered the father of t^e Valenciaii school, which in 
tlie beginning ^as in imitation of the Italian^ but which afterwards 

* Soalt, whose collection is readily wen at Paris. 



118 NEW CASTILE. 

tfBimilated itself to the Flemish, and to the manner of Rembrandt and 
Vandyke, until, under the name of the school of Seville, the Spanish 
painters had acquired a distinctive character. 

Under Ribera, better known at home and abroad by the singular 
surname of Espanioleto, the Valencian school attained the highest 
perfection. The subjects of Espanioleto are chiefly Bible scenes, 
taken indifferently from the Old or New Testament; but his most 
successful efforts have been the delineation of scenes of suffering and 
sorrow, such as are abundantly furnished by the lives of our Saviour 
and the saints. In describing the extremes of human misery, a 
macerated wretch, reclining upon a bed of straw in the last agony of 
starvation or infirmity, he is perhaps unequalled; and he has been 
able to give such a relief to the perspective, such a reality to the 
coloring, that the deception, at a first glance, is oflen irresistible. 
Indeed my memory became so strongly impressed with some of his 
pieces, that I can still call them up at wUl in all their excellence. 
Enmnioleto was, however, a gloomy painter, giving to his works the 
sad coloring which he borrowed from the religion of his day, a 
religion which was fond of calling up reflections of despondency, and 
thinking only of Christ as the bleeding and the crucified. 

Another great painter, who, like Espanioleto, flourished at the 
beginning of the seventeenth century, was Diego Velasquez. Velas- 
quez is sometimes an imitator of his great cotemporary ; at others, his 
style is materially different, and he is generally allowed to be superior 
to Espanioleto in correctness of design and fertility of invention. 
His portraits, for furnishing accurate representations of individuals, 
are perhaps superior to those pf Titian and Vandyke. They are not, 
indeed, highly wrought, but have about them the strong strokes of 
a master. 

Bartholomew Murillo, who, like Velasquez, was born in Seville, 
studied at Madrid under the direction of his countryman, and never 
travelled out of Spain. There is in his manner all the correctness 
of Velasquez ; all his truth to nature, Which he seems to have studied 
thoroughly, and at the same time a more perfect finish, and a warmth 
and brilliancy of coloring to which his pencil was a stranger. Nothing 
indeed can be so true and palpable as Murillo's scenes of familiar 
life, nothing so sweet and heavenly as the features and expression of 
his Virgins. Murillo brought the school of Seville, or more properly 
of Spain, to the height of its glory. He seems to havq combined the 
excellences of Vandyke and Titian, the truth of the one and the 
warm carnation of the other ; and though Raphael be looked on by 
painters and connoisseurs as the most perfect of known artists, yet if 
the chief excellence of the imitative art consist in showing nature, not 
as it ought to be, but as it is, and in producing momentary deception, 
this excellence belongs to none so entirely as to Murillo. 

The decline of painting throughout Europe during the past cen- 
tury, has likewise extended itself to Spain, with, however, some 
honorable exceptions^ such as £ayeu in the past century, and Mailla 



• NEW CASTILE. IW 

imd Lopez in the present The latter is a living axtist, whose portraits 
mxe admirahle. 



The cabinet of natural history stands beside the stately edifice of 
the Aduana, or customhouse, and with it constitutes one of the prin* 
cipal ornaments of the noble street of Alcaia. Here is a fine collection 
of birds, quadrupeds, and fishes, arranged in elegant cases of plate- 
glass and mahogany. The collection of minerals is, however, the 
most perfect, especially in whatever relates to the precious metals, so 
abundantly found in the former possessions of Spain. There is also a 
small cabinet of marbles, brought from every corner of the Peninsula, 
and which can scarcely be surpassed for variety and beauty. The 
cabinet of natural history is open twice a week to the visits of the 
public ; and the learned and ignorant may there pass in review the 
whole realm of nature, compare the narrow shades of distinction 
between those umimals that are most similar, and then admire the 
immense disparity between the extremes of creation. 

In the same building are the school, library, and museum of San 
Fernando, where the three noble arts, painting, statuary, and archi- 
tecture, are taught gratuitously. In the academy of San Fernando, a 
variety of excellent masters are provided, who superintend the labors 
of such persons, whether children or adults, as choose to tarn their 
attention to either of these arts ; and by a happy arrangement, the 
school is only opened in the evening when the ordinary studies or 
labors of the day are over. Here I have often spent an hour in the 
evening, passing through the different rooms of the school. In one, 
the beginners Were occupied in their first rude attempts to copy 
engravings, or to imitate the foot or hand of a broken statue, la 
another, the more advanced pupils were arranged at a circular desk 
round a plaster cast of the Apollo or the Laocoon, representing it in 
the attitude it presented itself to each, either on paper or on a board 
with clay to form a relief Whilst in the last apartment one or more 
living subjects were standing or sittiug in the attitude of the evening, 
and in a state of nudity. I more than once found a finely formed fellow 
standing under the shade which was made to throw a gloomy despond- 
ing light upon him, with his heai^ reclining on one side and his hands 
extended to the extremities of '4 cross. This posture he would main- 
tain without moving a muscle fof minutes together. The fellow, 
however, wks not much to be pitied, as he must, of course, have pre- 
ferred this passive sort of labor to the more active exertions for which 
he was so well qualified by a powerful conformation. Every three 
jrears premiums are distributed to such of the students as are most 
distinguished, and when a young man of great promise is discovered, 
he is sent to Rome to study at the puUic expense. 

Lectures on descriptive geometry are given in the academy ibr the 
advantage of the students, and there is likewise a library, which, beside 
a general collection of books, is very rich in such as relate to the arts. 
15 



114 NEW CASTILE. 

The mo0l remarkaUe purt of the institution, however, is a museam of 
paintiogSy intended as a studj for the scholars, and which contains 
some of the finest in Spain. The stolen benediction of Jacob by his 
father Isaac, is the most perfect thing I have seen from the pencil of 
Espanioleto; and in a private room, which is seldom shown to any 
one, are some interdicted paintings of singular merit. Here one is 
surprised to see a full-length portrait of Napoleon, in his imperial 
fobes, a cq>y of the celebrated portrait of Gerard, which the emperor 
sent to Madrid, at the time he was alluring the royal family to Bayonue. 
There are likewise some naked beauties by Rubens, water nymphs 
closely pursued by greedy satyrs, whose ill made legs and clumsy ankles 
are perfect prototypes of his own Dutch models. Such is not the case 
with the blooming mistress of King Philip II., whom Titian has repre* 
sented with so much truth of design and reality of carnation, as to 
bring the beauty and the spectator into the presence of each other. 
But he is not admitted to the privilege of a t^te-drtUt; for on the foot 
of the silken couch upon which she reclines half sleepy, half voluptuous, 
Mts young Philip playing on a piano. His head is turned to gaze upon 
the unveiled charms of the beautiful creature behind him ; his thoughts 
seem to wander from the music, and his fingers are about to abandon 
the keys of the instrument. That a young man should have been 
willing to place himself in such a situation is not incredible ; but that 
1m should have been willing to be seen in it, and even thus to appear 
befbie posterity, is a thing of more difficult reconciliation. This, too^ 
was the prince who afterwards became so bigoted and so blood-thirsty, 
and though not the murderer of his own son, at least the persecutor, 
and k nay be destroyer, of his brave brother Don Juan of Austria. 
The most remarkable painting, however, of this collection, and it is 
ittdeed the most so of any I ever saw, is Murillo's picture of Saint 
Isabel, the good Queen of Portugal, so celebrated in regal annals for 
hmevolence and charity. She is represented washing the sore of a 
bc|;gar. At one side is an old man, one might almost fancy a living one, 
btodiBg his leg. On the other, a ragged lad, afflicted with some loath- 
some disease, and who, unable to endure the pain and irritation, is 
seralohtng his head in agony. The subject of this painting is disgust- 
i«g enough, and the reality of its execution renders it still more so. 
It will, however, offend less, if it be remembered that Murillo painted 
it in Seville, to himg in the Hospitiil of Charity. It is, perhaps, the 
roost perfect imitation of life which exists on canvass. 

The academy of San Fernando deliberates on the plans of all public 
twildings, proposed to be erected ; a censorship whose good effects are 
evident in all the fine monuments with which Charles III. has enno* 
bled the capital. Institutions similar to this, and which like it bear 
the name of San Fernando, are found sinse the time of the same 
beneficent monarch, in all the larger cities of Spain; and though 
checked and counteracted by a hundred obstacles, their effect cannot 
be other than beneficial to natiqnal industry. .There is, indeed, scarce 
a station in life in which a knowledge of d^gniog may not be tomed te 
goed aceount The bnilder will make a handsomer hoase, the cabinet 



NEW CASTILfi, l^lfr 

and coach maker will turn out more elegant furnhnre and cqBifMges, 
and even the tailor will cut a neater coat from powemng the princi* 
pies of the art. As for men of leisure, their perceptions of beauty, 
whether it exist in the productions of art or nature, must bj it be 
sharpened and developed, and new avenues thus opened to pleasure 
and happiness. One would think that no great city, which has an eye 
to the advancement of industry within its walls, should be without ao 
institution like this of San Fernando. 



Another museum is that of artillery. It contains a large colleotiott 
of models of gunpowder manufactories, cannon founderies, and of all 
such machines and weapons as are useful in warfare. The moet 
remarkable objects to be seen here, are models of the fortresses of 
Cadiz, Carthagena, and Gibraltar, made of clay, and colored to imitate 
more closely the reality. The scale of these models is so large that all 
the streets and public buildings are laid down in them, and perhaps a 
better idea may be formed of the whole of one of these places flrom 
looking down upon the model, than from any single view that could 
be caught of the place itself. Gibraltar is so accurately represented, 
that the plan of an attack could be as well or better devised at Madrid, 
than before the fortress, by a general who shonld be witbont snoli 
assistance. 

The museum of the armory, in front of the royal palace, is of a 
similar, but far more interesting character, at least in the eye of poetry; 
for in it are arranged the armour of all the illustrious warriors which 
Spain has produced ; of many whom she has conquered, and a variety 
of trophies, arms, and banners, which have been won in battle. 
On entering the hall you first see, without knowing why, the faoeral 
litters, in which the remains of Charles IV. and his queen were broaght 
from Rome to be interred in the Escurial. Here is likewise the ooiuob 
of Joana the Foolish, which was the first used in Spain since Uie fall 
of the Roman domination. It is oddly carved and fashioned, not ranoii 
more so, however, than some that are still seen of a feast day on the 
Prado. Near this is the litter in which Charles V. used to make his 
journtes and excursions. It was carried like a sedan chair by two 
horses, one going before and the other behind, between shaiis which 
were supported on their backs. Before the seat within, is a raoveable 
desk which could be adjusted in front of the occupant Here the 
emperor transacted business as he travelled, in order to economise 
time, so valuable to one who took care of the afiairs and bore the 
burthens of so many people. The remainder of the large hall is foil 
of armour, either hung in detached pieces against the wall, or arranged 
collectively in standing postures, or mounted on wooden iMirses. 

Among the antiques are many shields and helmets, curiously and 
beautifully worked into relief, representing land and sea engagesMata 
in which the armies had doubtless taken part, charges of catalry and 
eoDtending gallies. There is one helmet, however, of uMMre than ordi* 



115 NEW CASTILEL 

nary beauty^ worthy in all respects to have covered the head of Jufiiv 
Cssar, to whom it is said to have belonged. In answer to all my 
inquiries concerning the way in which this precious piece of antiquity 
came into the possession of his Catholic Majesty, I could get nothing 
but, ' Es de Julio Casar y no liay mas J — ' It 's Julius Cesar's^ and 
that 's an end of it.' There is likewise a shield of one of the Scipios. 
The armour of the Cid has nothing remarkable about it, but the having 
belonged to him. The same may be said of the suit of Guzman the 
Good, the royal governor of Tarifa, so celebrated in the annals of 
Andalusian chivalry. At the extremity of the room is a chapel of Saint 
Ferdinand, the conqueror of Cordova and Seville, the sainted king of 
whom it was doubted whether he was most distinguished for valor, 
or piety^ or good fortune. The armour of the saint is so arranged 
that he seems seated on a throne in his proper person, having on the 
left side his good sword, and on the right a list of the indttlgence» 
which the father of the church grants to such as shall there say a 
Pater or an Ave. 

In one of the most conspicuous stations is the suit of armour usually 
worn by Ferdinand the Catholic. He seems snugly seated upon hi» 
war horse, with a pair of red velvet breeches, after the manner of the 
Moors, with lifted lance and closed visor. There are several other 
suits of Ferdinand, and of his queen Isabella,, who was no stranger to 
the danger9 of a battle, fiy the comparative heights of their armour , 
Isabella would seem to be the bigger of the two, as she certainly was> 
Ihe better. Opposite. to these is the armour of Abon-Abdallah, or 
Boabdil, whom the Spaniards have surnamed Chico, the last of the 
Qrenadian kings, and who was by turns the friend, the enemy, and the 
captive of Ferdinand and Isabella. His armour is of beautiful finish, 
in all respects like the other suits, except that the helmet, instead of 
being in the form of a Grecian casque with a visor, having apertures io 
ity to close down from above, is made of a solid piece, of gpeat thick* 
ness in front, and screws upon the cuirass. Instead of sight-hole» 
io front, it has a broad gap, like a skylight, running across the top 
above the eyes, the lower part overlapping so as to keep out the 
point of a lance. On the right side is a small window, which swing» 
upon hinges, and is fastened with a steel button. This may have 
served to take in refireshment ox for the purpose of a parley. I was at 
a loe» to conceive what could have been the object of this unwieldy 
head-gear,- and the explanation of the keeper was not very satisfactory* 
According to* his account, the cavaliers of former times were used to 
fight duels with iron maces of arms such as he showed me, and which, 
being full of knots and irregularities, would make a forcible impressioD 
upon a bare bead. Thus encased, however, a couple of wranglesome 
fellows might belabor each other over the face and eyes for an hour 
together. It is, perhaps, as likely that casques such as this were used 
in the tilting matches and tournaments, so frequent among the Grena- 
dian chivalry, as offering more effectual resistance to a splintered reed 
or the point of a lance, than the visor of a common helmet. Though 
a cavalier might be safer from harm with this box upon his- head,, ha 



NEW CASTILE, 117 

would likewise be less able to injure his antagonist ; for it could not 
have weighed less than twenty pounds. If he should fall from his 
horse thus accoutred, he would never be able to stir ; but must lie and 
be trampled upon by friendly and hostile feet, like poor Sancho sweat- 
ing between two shields. I was generally struck with the great weight 
of these suits of armour, and saw in it an explanation of instances that 
more than once occurred in the Spanish wars, of valiant princes falling 
from their horses and fainting to death upon the field of battle. 

Gonsalo Fernandez of Cordova and Hernan Cortez stand forth in 
full array. The armour of Philip I. surnamed the Handsome, shows 
him to have been a giant, certainly not less than six and a half feet 
high; nor could Charles V. have been less than six feet. There are 
many splendid suits, which the great emperor received from foreign 
princes and from the cities of his vast empire. Philip II., too, though 
be never came within reach of a blow, was no lens abundantly supplied 
than his father with the means of warding one off. The helmet of one 
of his suits is covered with a variety of figures, so beautifully executed 
as to compare with those on the antique shields and helmets. Beside 
the suits of his father and brothers, is the giant armour of Don Juan of 
Austria, the natural son of Charles V. and the hero of Lepanto. This 
great battle was fought in the Gulf of Lepanto between the Turkish 
fleet of two hundred and thirty gallies, under the Pasha Ali, and the 
allied ibtces of the Pope, Spain, and Venice, under the command of 
Don Juan. The news of this uietory was received with great joy 
throughout Christendom, and Pope Pius V., when he heard it, exclaimed 
in a holy ecstacy, * There was a man sent from God, and his name 
was John!' It was of Lepanto, too, that Cervantes speaks, when, on 
being reproached by a literary rival, he breaks forth in this noble strain. 
* What I cannot help feeling deeply, is, that I am stigmatized with 
being old and maimed — as though it belonged to me to stay the course 
of time ; or as though my wounds had been received in some tavern 
broil, instead of the most lof>y occasion which past ages have yet wit- 
nessed, or which shall ever be witnessed by those which are to come. 
The scars which the soldier wears upon his person, instead of badges 
of infamy, are stars to guide the daring in the path of glory. As for 
mine, though they may not shine in the eyes of the envious, they are 
at least esteemed by those who know where they were received. And 
even, was it is not yet too late to choose, I would rather remain as I 
am, maimed and mutilated, than be now whole of my wounds, without 
having taken part in so glorious an achievement.' I looked in vain for 
the armour of the poet-warrior. 

Such are some of the suits of armor arranged in standing attitudes 
around the, hall'; and in which one may almost fancy that he sees the 
cavaliers they once enclosed, still keeping guard over their trophies. 
In the middle of the room are a variety of weapons, ancient and 
modern. Among the number is an old machine, mounted like a field- 
piece, which was used to project iron balls, upon the principles of a 
eross-bow. On each side of the shrine of Saint Ferdinand, are glass 
cases, containing a variety of cimeters and fire-arms, the handles of 



11^ NEW CASTILE. 

which are profusely inlaid with gold and precious stones. Theise, with 
some splendid housings, the bits and broad stirrups of which are of 
gold or silver, came as a present from the Turkish Sultan. It is a 
singular instance of the changing destinies of nations, that mention 
should be found in the Arabic historians of the Caliph of Spain, re- 
ceiving rich presents some eight centuries before, from the christian 
emperor 9f Constantinople. 

In these are also the swords of the Ctd, of Guzman, Gonsalo, and 
Cortez. They are all straight, long, and two-edged, with plain scab- 
bards of red velvet, and hilts in the shape of a cross* Thus armed, a 
cavalier carried with him at once the emblem of his faith, and the 
instrument of his valor: and if mortally wounded on the field of battle, 
he could, like Bayard, kneel and pray before the emblem of the cruci- 
fixion.* Here are likewise some swords of immense length, which 
would seem to have been forged by Vulcan for the Cyclops. They 
were made at Rome, and consecrated by the Pope, who sent them to 
be used in the crusades against the Saracens. In those wars of the 
Faith, they were borne by bishops in the midst of the array, together 
with the bones of a saint, or some favored statue of the Virgin. Thus 
sustained, the Christians were sure to conquer, for they carried with 
them the pledges of victory. Overhead hung the banners taken in 
battle. Many have doubtless been removed, with the sword worn by 
Francis at Pavia ; but many still remain. The whole hall is surrounded 
by large leathern shields, taken from the Turks at Lepanto. 

The Cabinet of Armory furnishes a ^reat historical record, in which 
the Spaniard may come and read of the better days of his country, 
and, ^mid these pledges of departed greatness, lose sight of her present 
degeneracy. Here the Cid still stands fortbl the unequalled cavalier; 
Ferdinand frowns upon Boabdil; Cortes strikes terror into the tremb- 
ling Montezuma, whose feathery armour still flutters to the breeze, 
whilst Don Juan of Austria may see around him the three tails, and 
the bloody turban of the Pasha Ali, whom he slew, with five and twenty 
thousand of his followers, in the bloody battle of Lepanto. 



There are a vast number of charitable institutions in Madrid, and it 
would be an endless task to enumerate the different hospitals, three of 
which alone receive annually twenty thousand patients or paupers. 
Among them are houses of refuge for old men, poor gentlemen, siek 
priests, and worn out players. Also one or two houses for pregnant 
women, in the principal of which such decent persons as have eome 
into this situation by accident, are shut up with great secrecy, and may 
be supposed absent in the country. There are also several hospitals 
for foundlings ; one of which, the Inclusa, receives annually a thousand 
infants. It has an open porch, with a shrine that is illuminated in the 

* Thers is at Grenoble, the native place of Bayard, a bronze statue of very noble 
•xecutkm, in which the dying hero is seen reclining against a tree, in this attitude 
of devotion. 



NEW CASTILE. 119 

light by a single lantern. Here the infants are placed in front of the 
altar, and are taken in at stated periods during the night. From that 
moment they are consigned in flocks to the care of mercenary hands^ 
and sink into the condition of orphans ; whilst the mothers, whom 
crime or poverty had stimulated to sever the strongest of all ties, may 
be seen skulking away to check the yearnings of their hearts^ to repent, 
and to sin again. There are likewise two houses of refuge for women 
who have l^en pablio sinners. The first, called Recogidas, is under 
the invocation of Mary Magdalene. No woman is admitted to the 
benefits of this institution, for its inmates are well lodged and fare 
sumptuously, unless she can prove that she has been no better than 
the Lady Patroness. Nor can they leave the walls of the building, 
except to become nuns or be given in marriage. Under the same roof 
is a room of seclusion, where women are kept in confinement at the 
desire of their husbands. 

Such are some of the institutions, called charitable, to be found in 
Madrid. They are supported on the rents of houses that have been 
entailed upon them by their founders, or by assignments on the income 
of the theatres, lotteries, and bull-fights. Many similar establishments 
have degenerated from their primitive destiny into hermitages and 
oratories, where a few monks say mass and fatten from year's end to 
year's end, under the pious title of Arrepentidos, AJligidos, or AgonA' 
zanies. Those which still exist are for the most part appendages of 
vice and misery, which they, doubtless, tend more to promote than to 
cheek or alleviate. The same may not be said of the Monte^'Piedad. 
This is an establishment, the object of which is to alleviate the neces- 
sities of the poor, by lending them money upon pledges. These pledges 
are preserved a year, and then, if they remain unreclaimed, are pnl^ 
licly sold. The loan being liquidated, the balance is returned to the 
borrower, who, though he may have saved but little from the wreck, 
has at least escaped the greedy clutches of the pawnbroker. 
. Nor are the learned institutions of Madrid less numerous than those 
of which the object is benevolence. The first of these in rank and 
Uame is the Real Academia Espofnola, whose object is to refine and 
perfect the national language. The academy has not failed to promote 
the object of its institution by the publication of a grammar, in which 
everything is defined by invariable rules, conformable in an unusual de- 
gree to reason and the soundest logic. It has also produced a dictionary, 
which is considered the most perfect of any known. The Spaniards 
doubtless owe no little of that rare and admirable symmetry for which 
their language is conspicuous, to the labors of this learned society. 

The Real Acctdemia de Historia has for its object to inquire into the 
past, and record the present history of Spain. The Society of Amigos 
del Pays was instituted to investigate all subjects relating to agricul- 
ture, manufactures, and commerce ; to suggest the means of raising 
them from their fallen condition, and to stimulate and direct the dor- 
mant energies of the nation. Similar societies are found in all the 
Gities of Spain. There are likewise royal academies of surgery, 
vetctinary surgery, botany; of roads and bridges, of cosmography, and 



120 NEW CASTILE.: 

even of stenography. In each of the thirtytwo barrios into which 
Madrid is diFided, is a school for boys, and another for girls. The 
children whose parents are unable to pay the small charge for tuition, 
are taught gratuitously, and the teachers are recompensed by the 
Junta of Charity. 

Madrid had formerly an academy for the instruction of deaf-mutes, 
and claims the high honor of having originated this noble art. It was 
invented, towards the commencement of the seventeenth century, by 
Don Juan Pablo Bouet, and was put in practice, under his direction, 
by Father Bernardino Ponce. Bouet, being secretary to the Constable 
ef Castile, was led to turn his attention to the subject, by the grief 
which he felt at seeing the brother of his patron deprived of the use 
^f speech. This wonderful art is a triumphant proof of what man is 
capable, when guided by the noble desire of alleviating the misery of 
the unfortunate. It is one of the proudest efforts of the human mind. 

There is one institution which is more remarkable than those which 
have just been enumerated. It is called the Hidrogrtzfica, and its 
object is to collect all such information as relates to naval affairs. 
For this purpose the principal of the establishment is in constant 
correspondence with the officers of government in Spain and the 
colonies, and with men of science in every country, in order to receive 
the earliest information of newly discovered land or dangers in the 
ocean, or of corjections in the positions of such as are already known. 
These are forthwith inserted and made public in the charts which are, 
from time to time, published by the Hidrogrqfica, Connected with 
the establishment is an engraving press ; a shop where all the books 
and charts published by it are sold at cost; and a well selected library, 
in which one may find all books, in whatever language, of mathematics, 
astronomy, navigation, voyages, and travels, in short, everything which 
in any way relates to the nautical art Of two draftsmen employed in 
the Hidrogr(ifica, I found one occupied in Correcting a map of Cuba, 
the other in making a new chart of the coast of the United States. 
It was odd enough to see a Spaniard, in the heart of the Peninsula, 
laying down the soundings of Chesapeake bay, which is scarcely visited 
once a year by the flag of his country. The execution of such charts 
as were finished, was as good — nay, better,'than that of any that are pub- 
lished in France or England. Don Martin Navarrete is at the head 
of this establishment ; and in this character he has lately published a 
collection of Spanish voyages and discoveries, which contains the jour- 
nal of Columbus. He is an old sea-officer, who has a high character 
for science, and the admirable order visible in the Hidrogrqfica speaks 
greatly in his favor. 

Though such an institution as this may be looked on as an useless 
encumbrance to a nation, which, like Spain, is absolutely without a 
marine, its utility to one which covers eVery sea with its ships, will be 
readily admitted; one which, like the United States, claims the rank 
of second naval power. ^ With us, a man of science invested with the 
authority of a government office, could call upon our consuls in foreign 
countries and upon our naval commanders who visit every sea, for sach 



NEW CASTILE. 121 

information as they might be able to procure of a novel or interesting 
nature ; such, for instance, as collecting correct charts of the coasts 
and harbors which they visit ; pointing out any errors which they may 
discover in those which had hitherto been received as perfect ; deter* 
mining doubtful or disputed longitudes, and in furnishing such obser- 
vations, as may aid in forming a general system of winds and currents. 
There are few of the oldest countries, whose coasts have been known 
and frequented from time immemorial, which are delineated with per- 
fect accuracy, but the coasts on both sides of America, and even of the 
United States, are in a measure imperfectly known. Now these are 
precisely the coasts, an acquaintance with which most closely concerns 
us; for whatever voyage an American ship may make, she must, before 
it be completed, come twice in contact with the shores of our country. 
It may be urged in reply to this suggestion, that the value which navi- 
gators set upon accurate information of this nature will always offer a 
sufficient bounty to the publishers of charts to make them seek the 
earliest and best advice, and strive to excel each other in furnishing 
correct publications. But let it be remembered that the object of these 
publishers is not so much to be at great trouble or expense in order to 
render their charts correct, as to induce navigators to believe that they 
really are so. Beside, individuals could not possess that extensive 
means of procuring information which a public officer would, and 
which is now entirely lost to the world. If the troublesome plea of 
economy be urged against such an establishment, I answer, that it 
might easily be made to pay its own expense. And though it should 
not, the saving of a single vessel in a year, would balance many times 
the deficiency. The people of the United States, collectively, are as 
much poorer for the loss of a single vessel, as though an equivalent ia 
money were taken from the public treasury and cast into the sea. 
I say nothing of the loss of valuable lives to the community ; of drown- 
ing sailors, of widowed women, and of children that look in vain 
towards the sea for the return of their fathers. 



There are in Madrid four public libraries, which are constantly open 
from nine until two o'clock, with the exception of feast days* Of these 
the Bibiioteea Real is the principal. It has been lately established ia 
a building erected for the purpose, which is finely situated on the 
square beside the palace. The reading tables are placed in three noble 
rooms, corresponding to as many sides of the edifice, which is built 
round a court, and has a fine stairway in the centre. These rooms are 
carpeted with straw mats, and in the middle are files of tables with 
pens and ink, and comfortable chairs beside them. Against the walls 
are the book shelves, numbered and tastefully ornamented. Here are 
arranged two hundred thousand volumes, which comprehend everything 
that is valuable in literature; a precious banquet, furnished by the 
learned of every country and of every age. In each corner of these 
rooms are persons reading at their desks, who rise instantly to head 
16 



I» NETW CASTILE*. 

down such books as are asked for ; and in a smaller room apart is the 
index where two others give the number and shelf on which the desired 
book ift to be found. They are not servants dressed in livery, as in 
the French library, but well bred men, apparently literary persons, who 
find here a maintenance and leisure to follow their pursuits. Beside 
these attendants, ten in number, there were, a porter who lived in a 
small room upon the lower court, and whose business it was to kindle 
and place the braseros of burning embers in the diflTerent rooms ; a 
gardener, who cultivated a small spot adjoining the edifice, and over 
all, an aged chief, who was decorated with three or four ribbons and 
crosses, and who came and went every day very quietly in a low-hung 
carriage, drawn by two fat mules and driven by an ancient postillion. 
Thus there were no less than thirteen persons attached to the Royal 
Library, without counting a picquet of the Spanish Guards, who kept 
sentry at the door, to see that every one doffed his hat and unrolled 
his cloak, before entering this sanctuary of learning. This fact may 
serve to give an idea of the manner in which every branch of the public 
service in Spain is burthencd with officers. 

Beside the printed volqmes, the Royal Library contains a good num- 
ber of Arabian, and an immense quantity of Spanish manuscripts, that 
have never seen the light This fact is not owing to their want of 
jnerit, but to the barrier, which has for centuries been maintained here, 
against every species of publicity. I have even heard it said, that in 
l^in, the manuscript was well nigh as valuable as the printed litera- 
ture. The mofM^ono— -cabinet of medals — is arranged in one of the 
most beautiful rooms I have anywhere seen ; and indeed it well de- 
serves the care that is taken of it, for it contains perfect and extensive 
aeries of Greek, Roman, Gothic, Arabic, and modern coins and medals. 
It is considered the third in the world, and is estimated at two hundred 
thousand dollars. 

No establishment of the kind could possibly be on a finer footing 
for convenience, comfort, and elegance, than the Biblioteca Retd, 
Its rooms have a pleasant exposure, are well furnished, and appro- 
priately ornamented ; they are kept warm in winter and silent at all 
times. Indeed the most fastidious reader, ' as he sinks into one of 
their ample chairs, glances round upon the well filled shelves, and 
thence upon the busy people about him, each intent upon his book, 
and at length lets his eye fall upon the volume of his choice, spread 
out before him, could not possibly find anything to desire. This 
prosperity is doubtless owing to the library's drawing its support from 
sources which are independent of the necessities of the state. It is 
one of many institutions which awaken the admiration of the stranger 
in Spain, as being at variance with the pervading decay. 

Such are some of the claims which Madrid possesses to be called a 
great city. So great, indeed, is the enthusiastic opinion which the 
inhabitants entertain of it, that they will even tell you, with the bombast 
in which they are apt to indulge, that Madrid is the only capital, and 
that where Madrid is, let the world be silent — ' Solo Madrid es Corte^ 
•aj they, and ' Donde e$ta Madrid CaUe el Mundo ! ' 




CHAPTER Vn. 

NEW CASTIL£. 

Sodal Pleasures in Madrid.— Drama.-— Tragedy.— Sainete — ^Theatrae.— Aetora.— 
Bolero.— Bull Fight— Ancient Fight— Modern Fight— Corrida de Novillos. 

Tbe late period of the Constitution was, in Madrid, a 
jubilee. The public mind, so long shackled by despotism, and th 
so long compressed by inquisitorial dread, were now abandoned to 1 
exercise and unrestrained expression. The people, intoxicatad by i 
distinct notions of liberty, evinced their joy J^y crowding to the places 
of public amusement, and by festive entertainments, given in the open 
promenade of the Prado. This, however, had its end, like the seasoB 
of stupor by which it had been preceded. The French were admitted 
to an easy conquest of Spain, and Ferdinand, having exchanged one 
set of masters for another, returned once more to his capital. Fury 
and fanaticism came with Rim. Robberies, murders, and public execu- 
tions took the place of rejoicings, and the Spaniards who still continued 
to think and feel, sought io conceal it under a cloak of apathy. The 
effect of such a change on public manners is perfectly obvious. Friends 
no longer cared to meet friends, where every topic of discourse miglit 
lead insensibly to something that was proscribed, and when no man 
was willing to trust his security to the keeping of another. Each 
person sought his amusements within the well bolted door of his own ' 
q>artment, and festivity no longer gained by participation* As dbe 
storm passed over, and the panic abated, the intercourse of society was 
partially resumed ; but, in general, it still confines itself to meeting at 
the theatres, public walks, or in the evening teriulias, when the ladies 
remain at home and receive the visits of their male acquaintance, who 
circulate until a late hour from house to house. In the mast distin- 
guished class, consisting of the higher noblesse and the diplomalie 
-corps, the French usages are so entirely adopted, that when they 
occasionally come together/ even the national language is partially 
superseded. With the French customs, however, the French fondness 
for society has not been adopted, or else it is restrained and coun- 
teracted by political dissension. 



Notwithstanding the stagnation of public festivity, brought about bf 
the counter-revolution^ those who cater for the Spanish nation in all 



134 NEW CASTILE. 

matters, whether of politics, information, or amusement, still continoe 
to provide certain diversions, to give employment to the public mind. 
Of these, the most prominent is the drama. 

The Spanish theatre is said to possess the richest fund of dramatic 
literature which exists^ and to have contributed abundantly to the other 
stages of Europe. It counts upwards of twenty thousand standard 
comedies, of which Lope de Vega alone furnished near two thousand. 
Lope de Vega is by far the most prolific dramatist that ever lived, and 
a line of his own has been quoted to show, that the same day has 
frequently witnessed the writing and performance of his comedies. 
They are not, however, so much esteemed as those of Calderon-de-la- 
Barca, who wrote less and better. Calderon is remarkable for a fruit- 
ful invention in developing a plot and in bringing about unexpected 
coincidences, for nobleness of sentiment, too, and harmony of diction; 
but his compositions are wanting in attention to general effect, abound 
in play upon words and equivoque, mix together pathos and buffoonery, 
and sometimes set all moral at defiance. They are chiefly copies of 
Bpanish manners, as they existed in the heroic days of the nation^ 
abounding in those higk handed actions of courage and patriotism, 
of disinterested geperosity, and of revenge, the consequence of that 
easily offended honor which distinguished the old cavaliers. They 
Hkewise show the intrigues which passionate love suggested in a 
eonntry, where the obstacles to feinale intercourse, the bolts and 
bars, bequeathed by the Moors, which compassed the Spanish women 
aboat, in a seraglio, served to inflame desire and awaken ingenuity. 
Boarcelj one of them but has a lover, meaning no harm, yet caught 
by accident in the apartment of his mistress, and forced tb resort to 
•oncealroant. The brother of the lady enters and discovers the sup- 
poaed delinquent ; a duel ensues, and, without time for explanation, he 
M left dead on the pavement. The lady is casually saved from a 
•ioiilar fate by the interposition of a third person, and presently after 
her innocence is manifest. Sometimes there are three or four duels,. 
Mid as many dead men crying out, ' Muerto 9oy ! ' in the very first 
Jornada, This furnishes abundant perplexities for the heroes and 
bereines, of whom there are usually two or three sets, and ties matters 
Wf into such a knot of trouble, that to cut off the whole dramatis 
pmonas would seem the only means of extrication. But is one man 
left dead at the door and another killed in the house, and does the 
justice, which in Spain is looked on as the most terrible of all visitar 
tions, set upon the afflicted parties? — ^the ready wit of a lady saves all ; 
tbe algwudl is told that the man in the house killed the one at the door, 
tad this difficulty is removed to make room for a succession of others, 
which appear and vanish before the ingenuity of the author. 

How little the moral is sometimes regarded by Calderon, may be 
•een in the tragedy entitled, A Secreto AgrdmOy Secreta Venganza^ 
which I saw represented at Madrid. It begins with the story of one 
Don Juan, who, having killed a rival for giving him the lie at Goa, 
escapes in a ship to Lisbon. At Lisbon he is publicly pointed at as 
«Q insiilted man, and at once puts to death this new assailant of hie 



NEW CASTILE. i95 

honor. These two preliminary deaths are introduced for no other 
purpose than to prove that an affront is often remembered when its 
reparation is forgotten. On his arrival at Lisbon, Don Juan finds his 
old friend, Don Lope de Almeyda, newly married to Donia Leonor, a 
lady of Toledo. This Donia Leonor had been affianced to Don Luis 
de Benavidas, who, being at the wars in Flanders, is, through some 
mistake, reported to have been slain in battle. Donia Leonor, l^lieving 
hei lover dead, becomes indifferent to life, and is easily prevailed upon 
by her father to give herself away to Don Lope de Almeyda. Scarcely, 
however, had she contracted this unhappy tie, when her former lover — 
the only lover of her choice — ^returns from Flanders, and appears be- 
fore her in Lisbon. The first surprise over, she reproaches his delay 
as the cause of her misfortunes; then yielding to the necessities of 
her situation and to the new obligations which bound her, she grants 
him an interview, that they might make their peace and bid adieo 
forever. For this purpose, Don Luis is admitted into the house of 
Leonor. As bad luck, or the will of the poet, would have it, he is 
there discovered by Don Lope in concealment. The latter, however, 
dreads the stain which his honor would suffer from public scandal, if 
a fatal affray should take place in his own house. He, therefore, 
affects to believe the evasive explanations of Don Luis, and conducls 
him secretly to a door, whence he makes his escape; consoling himself 
with the reflection, that a man who seeks revenge must await the occa- 
sion, and, until it be found, suffer, dissemble, and be silent. At length 
chance throws the husband and the lover together into the same boNit, 
embarked upon the Tagus. There, Don Lope grapples the supposed 
destroyer of his honor, and throws him into the stream. Thus much 
of his revenge accomplished, Don Lope returns to land, as if shifH 
wrecked; and, having told Donia Leonor that his companion had per- 
ished in the destruction of the boat, he affects to receive her grief at 
the death of her lover as if excited by his own danger. In the dead of 
that very night, he fires his country-house upon the banks of the Tagus, 
and murders his wife. Fire and water have thus combined to cleanse 
his honor of its stain, and he consoles himself with the reflection, that 
his secret is in good keeping, and that they will not proclaim his 
affront who cannot proclaim his revenge. The story is only related 
to King Sebastian, who observes, that a secret injury calls for secret 
revenge, and they all go away to fight for religion in Afirica.* 



The Spanish saineies, farces, are very different from these long- 
winded old tragedies of capa y tspoda. The scene, instead of passing 
in the capital, is always laid in some obscure aUdea; and the personages^ 
instead of being princes or nobles, are of the lowest class. The stage 
is alternately trod by a gipsey, a courtezan, an tdcalde or alguazMl, 

* Thoee who would know more of this subject, will do well to read a full and 
satisfactory article Id the eighth number of the AmericaD Quarterly, entitled, * Eariy 
Spanish Dnma.' 



126 NEW CASTILE. 

a robber, a contrahandista^ or a sexton. The plot of the sainete is always 
perfectly simple, and turns more frequently upon the passing interests 
of a moment, than upon matters which concern the future happiness 
of the parties. The inside of a dwelling or postxdn, or the public square 
of a village, are laid open to the audience. A few of the worthies of 
the place come together and talk for half an hour, uttering equivoques, 
, and sometimes saying things that are not^at all equivocal. They at 
last begin to quarrel, and get by the ears; the chairs and tables are 
overturned in the confusion, and the parties fall to beating each other 
off the stage with pasteboard clubs, which make a loud report, and 
gratify the audience, without breaking the bones of the comedians. 

There is no people who have in their manners so much that is 
grotesques and amusing as the people of Spain. For this reason, the 
sainete, which, like Gil Bias, is a copy and not an invention, is always 
full of amusement. The play upon words, and the lively sallies of the 
gracioso, so offensive in serious pieces, are here no longer amiss. One 
has to laugh, not only at the wit of the sainete, but often at its very 
absurdity. The name of the piece, too, and the list of personages, 
are often sufficient of themselves to promote merriment. At one time 
it is Saint Antonio's Pig, in which the characters are a peasant, his 
wife, an alcalde, a castrador, and a sexton, who makes love success- 
fully and talks Latin. At another it is the Ckmse of a Jackass, plead 
by his driver and an innkeeper, before some worthy alcalde, who 
administers justice much after the manner of Sancho in his island of 
Baritaria. The interlude of Olalla is a good specimen of the Spanish 
sainete. 

Olalla is a country lass, sadly perplexed by the solicitations oT several 
equally detested suitors. One of them is a sexton, another a soldier, 
and a third no less a person than the village doctor. In order to rid 
herself of their entreaties, she determines to set them all by the ears 
together. When, therefore, the sexton comes to see her, she promises 
to grant his most unreasonable request, if he will dress himself as. a 
dead man and lay himself out in the church at midnight. From the 
soldier she next obtains a promise that he will go at the same hour and 
keep watch over the corpse ; and the doctor is persuaded to assume the 
attributes of the devil, and go to turn the dead man out of his coffin. 
Last of all she gives notice to the alguazils — constables— of the 
expected disorder. At the appointed hour, Rinconete', the sexton, 
goes to the church, rolled from head to foot in a white sheet, with 
a light in his hand and with his face covered with flour. Having 
stretched himself out in the place where the funeral mass is performed, 
he puts the candlestick on his breast, and commences a soliloquy on 
the wonder-working power of love. Presently the soldier appears and 
takes his post tremblingly, though with shield and buckler. The 
sexton is greatly alarmed at the soldier, and the soldier much more so 
in finding himself in private with a dead man, who presently begins 
to talk with him and tell him that there is no jest about it, but that he 
is really dead. Upon this the doctor enters, covered over with little 
bells, having a pair of horns on his head and a great long tail behind. 



. NEW CASTILE. 1*T 

He 18 the least frightened of all, and finds that the guise of the devil 
lends him courage. The soldier, unused to face such foes, is greatly 
dismayed, and the dead man believes that the deceived devil has indeed 
come for his own. Meanwhile the devil advances, catches the corpse 
by the feet, and pitches it over upon the pavement. The dead man 
resents the blow; he falls upon the devil, and the soldier, gaining 
oourage as the strife grows warm, begins to lay about him furiously. 
As a finale, they are all pounced upon in the midst of the a£Bray and 
carried off by the justicia. 



In addition to the tragedies, comedies, and farces, they have in Spain 
short musical pieces, cdled tonadxHas and seguidallas, which are sunff^ 
danced, and recited by two or three performers. The music is entirely 
national. One may find in these primitive little pieces the earliest 
stage of the opera. As for the theatres of Madrid, they do not confine 
themselves to Spanish productions; but more frequently represent 
tragedies, comedies, and melodramas, in the modern taste, which are 
chiefly translated firom the French. They likewise have Italian operas 
once or twice a week, which are given alternately in one of the theatres. 
.The opera company is pretty good, and it possesses a great attraction 
in Letizia Cortessi, who takes the first parts. Though a poor singer, 
she makes up for this in a fine person and in a high tragic talent, which 
has few equals. Cortessi is, in fact, one of the very best actresses of 
the day.^ Her being degraded into a second rate opera singer is the 
best proof that there is no genuine drama in Italy. 

There are at present in Madrid two public theatres, the Teatro de 
la Cruz and the Teatro del Principe. Their decoration is neat, though 
plain, and their scenery very good. Each is capable of containing 
about fifteen hundred persons. In arrangement these theatres cannot 
well be surpassed for comfort and convenience. The half of the pit 
immediately behind the orchestra, is divided into rows of seats, each 
with a back and arms. They are likewise numbered, so that a person 
may, late or early, find his place unoccupied. These seats are called 
lutteias, and are either hired for a month or for the evening. They 
cost twelve reals, or sixty cents. The remaining half of the pit con- 
tains seats of inferior price and convenience; and, still fiirther in the 
rear, are people who stand up and see the play, mixed with royalist 
volunteers, who are present to impose and keep order. The galleries 
are divided into private boxes, which are either hired for the season or 
the night. Except one little pigeon-house, next the ceiling, which is 
known by the sociable name of the tertuUa, the men, in the public 
parts of the theatre, are always kept separate from the women. For 
the accommodation of the latter, there is a large place directly in front 
of the stage. It is separated from the rest of the theatre, and none 
can enter there but women in black mantiUas, In the intervals of 
performance, the gentlemen rise from their seats in the btnetas, and go 
to wait upon their female acquaintances in the boxes ; or else they 



IM NEW CASTILE* 

Stand up with their backs to the 9tage and sweep the whole range of 
the house with their double opera glasses. When they catch the eye 
of a friend, they beckon with their hands and take their hats off; a 
salutation which the lady returns with a nod, a smile, a brightening 
of the eye, and a pleasing beckon of the fan •r fingers. The whole 
range being well examined, and this task of salutation over, all eyes are 
turned towards the cazuela, or stew-pan; it were better named the cage 
or jcmia. Cage or stew-pan, it is at all events a most curious place* 
To look on the pale faces, black mantillas, and blacker eyes of the 
assembled damsels, one might almost believe them a party of nuns, 
such as may be seen in the chapel of a convent, peeping through a 
grating upon some solemn ceremony, and casting now and then a 
furtive, I have sometimes fancied, a wistful glance, upon the assembled 
Aiultitude. This deception, however, is but momentary ; ibr the in- 
mates of the cazuela are, many of them, anything but nuns. It is 
somewhat unfavorable to the gentler sex, to remark, that whilst every* 
thing goes on orderly in the lunetas, the cazuela is often the scene of 
scolding and contention. This, however, may proceed from their be* 
ing more crowded together than the men, and being, furthermore, left 
entirely to themselves ; whilst the men are watched and taken care of 
by sundry fierce looking realistas. Be it as it may, there was some* 
times more real amusement in glancing into the cazuela, than in .gazing 
at the stage; for, what with confusion of voices, adjusting of hair and 
vuuUillas, nods, glances, and agitation of fans, it was indeed a singular 
scene, and might well be compared to the squall and flutter of a rookery. 



The two companies of Madrid are of pretty equal force ; if there 
be any difference, it is in favor of the Principe. At the Cruz, the 
first parts are filled by Oarcia Luna; at the Principe, by La Torre, 
who is the first Spanish tragedian of the day. La Torre is a pupil of 
the celebrated Maiquez, who must, from all accounts, have been a 
wonderful actor. Maiquez had formed himself under the eye of Talma, 
and played for a while with great success in Madrid. But being in- 
fected with liberal notions, he found a difficulty in smothering his 
feelings, and allowed himself on several occasions to direct his indig- 
nant declamations towards the king, who used to come frequently to 
the theatre during the life time of his last queen. For this or some 
other reason, he fell into disgrace, and was driven from the capital. 
Being unable to delight other countries with those talents which could 
only be appreciated in his own, he languished in poverty somewhere 
in Andalusia, where he at last pined away and died, just before the 
return of the Constitution. As for La Torre, he is above the middle 
size, and finely proportioned, but his face is far fi-om handsome. His 
features are large and of an ugly, exaggerated cast, an effect which is 
increased by their being deeply pitted with the small pox. La Torre 
is, on the whole, a good tragedian, equal, perhaps, to the best actor of 
the French theatre, but very inferior to our countryman Forrest. He 



NEW CASTILE. 1^ 

has to a certain extent shaken himself free from those prescribed modes 
of declamation, those gestures established by custom for every sentiment^ 
and that forced and inflated style which is general among Spanish 
players, and which they doubtless borrow from the exagge;rated and 
bombastic character of their national drama. Though following nature 
rather than the rules of critics, La Torre is still a long way from per- 
fection, and is entirely a stranger to those quiet, those wonderworking 
touches, which gave such a charm to the acting of Talma. 

Nor should I forget to mention <juzman, who likewise plays at the 
Principe, and who is far better as a gracioso, than is La Torre as a 
tragedian. As for the female performers, they are equally poor in both 
theatres ; a singular fact, which may, perhaps, find a cause in the dis- 
reputable character of the dramatic profession in Spain, which excludes 
educated women from the si^e; and in the looseness of morals, which 
soon leads such as are beautiful to abandon an ungrateful profession. 
In private life, the Spanish females are remarkable for amiable attenp 
tion to the courtesies of society, for tact in directing, and sprightlineas 
in sustaining conversation, as for everything that can give a charm to 
social intercourse. When they step upon the stage, they seem to leave 
all their fascination behind them. Their manner is by times inflated 
and unnatural ; or else they exhibit symptoms of weariness by looking 
round and gaping, or of a sense of ridicule by exchanging a glance of 
recognition and a smile with an acquaintance in the audience. What 
can be less easily forgiven them, they are no longer young and beauti- 
ful, as in the days of Gil Bias and Laura; but have all grown old, fat, 
and ugly. Can anything be more repulsive than to see a waddling^ 
hackneyed old sinner, pleading the cause of injured innocence and 
endangered chastity t 

But by far the most objectionable appendage of the Spanish stage is 
its prompter. He is always placed in a tin pulpit, which rises a few 
feet above the floor, and which is reached from below. The tin^ being 
polished and kept bright, reflects the glare of the lights between which 
the pulpit is placed, and renders it a most conspicuous object. Hence 
the prompter reads the whole of the piece, which is afterwards repeated 
by the players. His book and hand usually project upon the boards, and 
are seen pointing from one to another of the actors, to indicate whose 
turn it is. His voice is always audible, and, occasionally, in a pathetic 
part, his declamation becomes loud and impassioned, and he forgets 
where he is, until called back by the audience. Since the prompter 
precedes the actor, you frequently know in anticipation what the latter 
IS to say, and the idea is conveyed by the ears before you see the actioa 
which is meant to accompany it. After a while the actor draws him- 
self up in a mysterious way, to repeat to you a secret which is already 
in your possession. This is even more monstrous than the custom 
which prevailed in the infancy of the Greek drama, of having one man 
to speak and another to gesticulate. Hence all deception is destroyed, 
and the chief pleasure of the drama, that of making one forget that he 
has actors before him, instead of persecuted orphans, hapless lovers, or 
great souls bearing up under misfortune, is lost Qi^tirely. It is an 
17 



13b NEW CASTILE. 

excellence^ which, with one or two solitary exceptions, is absolutelj 
unknown to the Spanish comedians. They are all players. 

At all events, this is true of them considered as tragedians. In the 
sainete, the case is different. Indeed, no sooner is the tragedy over, 
and the men, throwing away cloak and sword and kicking oflf the 
buskin, appear in the e very-day garb of peasants, gypsies, and anUroF^ 
handistas; and the women, laying aside their assumed and ill-worn 
look of innocence, step foith loosely and boldly as coquettes and cour- 
tesans, then the audience is at once lost to everything but the reality 
of the scene. The jokes and equivoques call down unremitting bursts 
of laughter, and the finale of breaking each other's heads with clubs 
of paper, is the signal for shouting and uproar amidst the dispersing 
audience. That the Spaniards should fail in tragedy and succeed in 
farce, may clash with dl those received' notions of lofly bearing and 
Gastilian gravity, which the reader may have formed to himself. Such 
is, nevertheless, the case ; and I would describe things as I found them^ 
and not as I expected to find theoi. 



But I had well nigh forgotten to say something of the bolero, which 
usually comes as an interlude between the play and the farce. Who 
has not heard o€ the fandango 7 — a dance which has been bequeathed to 
Spain by the Arabs,. together with the guitar and the castanet; and which, 
though now banished from refined society in Spain, still prevails in all 
the cities of South America. The fandango is danced by two persons, 
who stand opposite to each other, and who, without touching so much 
as a finger,, still contrive to interest each other by alluring postures, by 
advancing, retreating, and pursuit ; the female flying before her partner 
like a scared pullet, and showing at least evident symptoms of languor, 
hesitation^ and approaching defeat. No one can deny that ihefandango 
is a roost fascinating dance, and there is even a story told of it, which 
would set the matter beyond a doubt, and which is, perhaps, as true 
as many other very good stories. 

The holy see, it appears, being incited by the solicitude of th& 
Spanish clergy, to attempt Uie reformation of public morals in Spain, 
issued a decree forbidding the exhibition pf bull-fights, and sent a 
Roman bull to drive all the Spanish ones out of the arena. This 
triumph paved the way for another. The fandango was presently 
attacked in form, as having a tendency to excite unchaste desires^ and 
to promote sensuality. But as the reverend consistory of cardinals was 
too just to pass sentence unheard, even upon the fandango^ a couple 
were brought before the grave assemblage to exhibit the character of 
their dance. The dancers made their appearance in the usual costume,, 
took out their castanets, raised their voices, and commenced the 
fandango. The venerable fathers first received them with the moderate 
look of sages, determined to bear in patience and decide justly. When 
the dance began, however, they contracted their brows and looked oa 
f^Qwningly, as ifeach would conceal his own secret satisfaction. But 



NEW CASTILE. 131 

•1 laai nataxe overcame dissimulatioD^ their hearts warmed, their coan- 
tenances brightened, and, slinging their long hats and sctdlcaps at 
each other, they began to caper over the floor in vain imitation of 
ihefcoidango. 

The fandango having thus successfully plead its own defence, con* 
tinued to appear nightly upon the Spanish stage, and the progress of 
refinement in the public taste has gradually stripped it of all inde» 
corura. The bolero is neither more nor less than a new edition of the 
fandango, which contains all the beauties of the original, curtailed of 
everything which might offend the most scrupulous delicacy. There 
are several varieties of the bolero, known by distinct names, and which 
may be danced by two, four, six, and even eight persons. To ray taste, 
however, the roost beautiful version of all, is the cachucha. It consists 
of a natural succession of movements at once easy and gracefbl, and 
has been well defined ' a just and harmonious convulsion of the whole 
body.' You are not astonished, as at the French opera, by the execu- 
tion of feats of force and agility, which you wodd deem impossible 
did you not see them, nor by a combination of intricate movements in 
which the art consists in reducing confusion to order ; bat you are led 
along, delighted by a series of motions and attitudes, which succeed 
each other so naturally that the dancers seem to be on the floor rather 
for their own amusement than for the purpose of exhibition. In France 
the standard of excellence consists in who shall jump the highest, and 
turn round longest on one foot, the other being raised to a level with 
the chin. There the legs do everything; but the Andalusian bokra 
dances, not only with her feet, but likewise with her arms — she dances 
with her speaking eyes, and, indeed, in every muscle. 

I have seen the cachucha danced in many Spanish cities, bat never 
80 well as one night in the theatre of Malaga. On that occasion, the 
couple could scarce have been surpassed, either for good looks or good 
dancing. Of the young man it is but small praise to say, that he waa 
of fine size and perfect proportions ; — for how could it be otherwise, 
when he had been selected from a whole nation of well made men, to 
do the honors of his country? All this nature had given him; nor had 
art failed to lend its assistance. He was dressed in the genaine gala 
of Andalusia; a gay rig, still worn in that country, and which is knowtt 
all over Spain under the well received name of mioQo, or dandy. His 
long hair was combed backward and platted into a iatqueae, inter- 
woven with ribbons, whilst his luxuriant whiskers were trimmed into 
the true Andalusian carve. Over a shirt, richly worked at the breast, 
sleeves^ and collar, he wore a green velvet *jacket^ too narrow to meet 
In front, and trimmed at the lappels and cufis with abundanee of 
dangling buttons of gilded basket-work. Under this jacket, and indeed 
forming part of it, was a waistcoat of the same material richly em- 
broidered with gold, and which served to tighten the outer jacket to 
the body^ The collar of his shirt was confined by a narrow scarf of 
yellow silk, which descended along the bosom, and his loins were 
girded with many turns of a sash of the same material. He wore white 
«tockin£s and black shoes, with snail-clothes, likewise of green velvet 



134 NEW CASTILE. 

is, however, pretty well established that the Taurilia of the Romans 
were similar to those of modern times.* It is equally certain that the 
bull-fight held an important rank in the chivalrous sports of the Arabian 
Spaniards. Having adopted this custom of the conquered country, 
they carried it to great perfection; for with them it furnished a means 
of finding favor with the fair, who attended the spectacle, and was, 
besides, a miniature of those scenes of strife and warfare in which they 
were constantly engaged. They, doubtless, introduced the mode of 
fighting the bull on horseback and with the lance; for they were a 
nation of cavaliers, who did everything in the saddle, and had even 
conquered Spain at a gallop. Thus improved, the bull-fight, with 
many other usages, was transmitted by the Moors to their christian 
conquerors, who also inherited many beautiful ballads on the subject.f 
These are still preserved in the Castilian, and form part of the spoil 
which the exiles left behind them when they crossed the water. 



Even in the last century, the Fiestas RtaUs were still given in Spain 
on all great occasions, such as the birth, marriage, or coronation of a 
prince. In Madrid, these feasts always took place in the Plaza Mayor, 
an extensive quadrangle, four hundred and fifiy by three hundred and 
fifty feet, which stands in the centre of the city. The Plaza Mayor 
is surrounded by uniform ranges of houses, five and six stories high, 
with wide balconies and an arcade below, which runs round the whole 
interior. At each of the corners, and midway between them, are arched 
portals, which communicate with the streets without, whilst within, the 
arcade furnishes a covered walk round the area, which serves as a 
market place. The buildings around the Plaza Mayor consist of the 
royal bakery and of one hundred and thirtysix dwellinghouses, which 
contain a population of three thousand persons. When the royal feasts 
took place, the front apartments of these houses were let out by their 
occupants, and were thronged with people to the very roofs. Below, 
wooden benches were erected for the population, and the royal halber- 
diers, with their steel-headed battle-axes, formed a barrier to protect 
them from ihe fury of the bull. The royal family drove into the Plaza 
in splendid coaches of state, and being attended by the first cavaliers 
and most distinguished beauties of the court, took their station in the 
gilded balconies of the Panaderia; whilst all the surrounding houses 
were hung with curtains of variegated silk, intermingled with fans and 
handkerchiefs, set in motion by the hand of beauty. 

When all was ready, the cavaliers selected for the combat, made 
their appearance in gala coaches, attended by their sponsors, who 
were usually the first ^rraudees of Spain ; for, in the days of chivalry, 
to meet the bull was the peculiar privilege of gentle blood. They were 
followed by companies of horsemen, dressed in the Moorish garb, who 
Jed the horses of their masters. These, having mounted and received 

* Clarke, Letters concerning the Spanish Nation. 
t Poesias Escogidu-Homancero. 



NEW CASTILE. 135 

their lances, went beneath the royal balcony to salute the king, and 
each took care, doubtless, to catch the approving or cautionary glance 
of his mistress. The arena being cleared by the aiguazils, the king 
waved his handkerchief, warlike music repeated the signal, and a 
boll was let in. The cavaliers approached him, one by one, with 
lances in rest, and their ardor was shared by their proud-spirited horses. 
Sometimes the boll would receive the spear deep into his neck, at others 
he would shiver it to pieces, and overturn everything in his course. 

There were on these occasions several modes of combat. Dogs 
were occasionally introduced to meet the bull, and though often tossed 
and mangled, it was more frequent for them to succeed in seizing his 
nose and holding him motionless to the ground. Another manner was 
much more harmless. The skins of different animals, blown into 
whimsical figures, were placed in the arena; and it was oflen found 
that the dread of the bull for an armed antagonist was less than what 
was inspired by these immoveable objects, which awaited his attack 
without apprehension or display. There was, however, one mode more 
cruel and dangerous than all. A man dressed in fantastic colors, to 
attract attention, placed himself in front of the portal by which the 
bull was to enter. He held in both hands an iron spear, one end of 
which was fixed in the ground, whilst the point inclined upwards in 
the direction of the portal. The combatant crouched closely behind 
this spear, which served him the double purpose of weapon and defence. 
Thus prepared, he awaited the career of the bull, who, on the opening 
of the portal, made at once towards the only object which stood in the 
way of his fury. If the career of the bull were direct, the spear 
entered deep into his forehead, tlnd he remained nailed to the earth. 
If, on the contrary, the hold of the combatant became unsteady through 
fear, or the bull glanced to either side, he would pass the point of the 
weapon with a grazed face or the loss of an eye, and dart with fury 
. upon his unprotected victim, toss him high into the air, and moisten 
the arena with his blood. 



The bull-fight has been several times abolished in Spain ; once in 
1567 by an edict of Pope Pius V., which was revoked in 1576 by 
Clement VIII. In the present century it was again abolished by 
Godoy ; but is now reestablished, and will doubtless long continue to 
form the favorite amusement of the Spanish people. It is true that 
they are no longer the splendid spectacles which they once were. 
We look in vain for gilded balconies, thronged with the wealthy and 
the beautiful, and for that soul-inspiring enthusiasm which has died 
with the days of chivalry. But though princes and nobles no longer 
descend into the arena, their places are filled with equal oourage, and, 
perhapis, greater skill, by butchers from Andalusia, who become toreros 
by profession. The toreros of modern times no longer contend from a 
thirst afler honorable distinction or a desire to win the approving smile 
of beauty ; but only for money, to be spent in brothels and tahemas. 



186 NEW CAOTILE. 

where such as escape the dangers of the arena, usnally £nd their lires 
by the knives of each other. 

At Madrid the bulJ-fight now takes place in an edifice, called the 
Plaza-de-Toros, which stands upon an eminence without the sate of 
Alcala. The Plaza is of an elliptical form, and not circular, like the 
Roman amphitheatres. It dilSers from them, too, in being of frail and 
paltry conntruction, and in being partially covered with a roof, whilst 
the amphitheatre consisted usually of huge masses of uncemented 
granite, with no other shelter than a canvass awning, which protected 
the audience, but left the arena uncovered. The extreme diameter of 
the Plaza is three hundred and thirty feet; the diameter of the arena 
is two hundred and twenty. It is capable of containing eleven thou- 
sand spectators. The exterior wall is of brick, but the barriers, benches, 
and pillars, which sustain the two covered galleries and the roof, are 
all of wood. The upper gallery is divided into commodious boxes, of 
which the one which looks to the north, and which is never shone on 
by the sun, is decorated with the royal arms, and set apart for the king. 
Beneath the first gallery is another similar to it, except that it is not 
divided into boxes, but is led open the whole way round. Beneath 
this last gallery there is a succession of uncovered benches, sloping 
down towards the lobby which encloses the arena. These benches 
make the complete circuit of the edifice, and give a good miniajtujre of 
the Bx)roan amphitheatre. 

The portion of the Plaza alloted to the bulls, horses, and toreros, 
is of very simple construction. The arena is enclosed by a barrier six 
feet high, without which there is a circular lobby, into which the com- 
foataits escape when too warmly pursued. This lobby is pierced by 
four sets of fiilding doors communicating with the arena, and which, 
when thrown open, form as many passages leading to the dilOferent 
apartments beneath the amphitheatre. One of these is the toril. Into 
this the bull is either driven by force, or else enticed by a likely heifer, 
introduced before him through a prison, the iron doors of which imme- 
diately close upon him, whilst the involuntary coquette passes on, to 
aid in entrapping others. A second door in front of the taril, gives 
admittance to the alguazils, who act as marshals; a third to the horses 
tjkdpicaeiores; whilst through a fourth are dragged away the carcasses 
of the victims. 

In summer the bull-feast usually takes place in the morning of a 
week day, which is spent by the laboring classes in idleness and de- 
bauchery. In winter it is given on Sunday afternoon. The winter 
feasts are called Corridas de NoviUos, because young bulls only are 
then brought forward. . The style of the handbill issued on these occa- 
sions is singularly indicative of that propensity to be pompous and 
bombastic, which the Spaniards ridicule in the Portuguese, and for 
which they are themselves equally remarkable. It begins thus; ' The 
king our master, whom may God preserve, has been pleased to name 
this day for the fifth course of tuwiUos^ granted by his majesty for the 
benefit of his royal hospitals and the gratification of his vassdb. His 
excellency, the corregidor of this very heroic city, will preside over 



NEW CASTILE. WW 

the Plasa. The fanction to commence with two Tilia^t Jimfcs, which 
will be attacked by the intrepid amateurs, B^nardo Bennudez and 
Ramon de Rosa.' 

This modest invitation was always sufficient to bring together seTeral 
thousand motley Madrilenios and Madrilenias. Few or none of the 
Spanish gentry were present on these occasions, and the boxes of the 
upper row were almost entirely deserted. I do not know, however, 
whether they continue to avoid the Plaza in sammw, when the number 
«of nmertoS'--bMB which are to die in the arena — instead of two, is 
increased to six, and when a hotter sun maddens the victims into dead- 
lier fury. The second row was nsually better fiUed, wkh company, 
however, by no means select. The well dressed persons were chiefly 
strangers belonging to the different legations, intermingled with officers, 
royalist volunteers, shopkeepers, and women, congregated together, or 
else singly with small children by the hand, and not a few suckling 
their infants. Here and there, too, one might see a dirty priest, who, 
having chanted himself hoarse in the momiBg, comes with his snuff 
or ctgariUo to pass more congenially the evening of the Sabbath. But 
the uncovered benches of the paHo were ever filled to overflowing. 
They were the favorite resort of the populace, and no vagabond ever 
remained away who could muster the ebs reaUs demanded for admission, 
whether by stealing or starvation. Here the canalla are in all their 
glory. Whilst the contest lasts, they encourage or reprove theeom- 
tMttants, applaud or bellow at the hull, then shout, swear, and whistle 
iduring the period of the interlude. It is they, in fact, who give a lone 
and character to the whole entertainment. 

The hour appointed for ihe commencement of the feast having at 
length arrived, the carregidor takes his seat in the royal box, supported 
by his officers. A priest also remains in waiting with su moffutadr-^^ho 
host — ^ready to administer the saerament to the dying torer#i« The 
trumpets now sound, the gate under the royal box is thrown open, and 
two dtguaseiU «nter the lists, mounted on proud Andalosiaa studs, 
whose heads are half hidden under manes parted in the middle, with 
eyes ghuring fiercely through their forelocks, and tails which sweep the 
arena. TImo nohle beasts are seen to still greater advantage by being 
richly hoosed, with (powerful bits, piqued saddles and browl aiirrups, 
after the* manner of the East. As for the aLguumU themselves, thcgr 
have in their hands their blaek wands of office, and are dressed in cloak, 
buskin, slashed sleeves, ruffles, and plumed hat — the gracious costume 
of Hemaa Cortez and the Cid. Having rode round the lists, to clear 
them of tlioee who have been sweq>ing and sprinkling the |pround, and 
of the canaUa who have been wrestling and rolling over in the dost, 
they meet each other in the centre, and then ride to the box of the 
carregidor^ before which they make an obeisance to signify that every- 
thing is ready for the opening of the feast. Upon this the carregidor 
w«ves his handkerchief, and the music stationed at the opposite side 
4»f the amphitheatre, sounds a march. The fdUmg gates are thrown 
Men al the left, and the cAiclos enter, escorting the;two picadores. 
18 



m IfKW CASTILE. 

The cimhs, or cbeiis, are dressed aa nui^68f some m blaok, I 
in ffreen, and some in erimson. They are all beautifully made mett, 
and are seen to peculiar advantage in their tight suit, omamealed 
with bunches of ribbon at the knees and shee-Ses, and in the hair. 
Beside a worked cambric handkerchief floatinff from either pocket, 
each ehth wears a silk cloak of green, red, or jeUow. This serree 
to irritate the bull and to divert his attention. 

The picadtres wear Moorish jackets embroidered with g<4dy large 
flat hats of white, oraameated with roses or gaj ribbons, and which 
are confined by a string passing round the chin, and buckskin tiowsers 
Hned with plates of armour to protect the leg. Their lance is long 
and heavy, with a small three^^rnered point c^ steel at the end. 
This point is wound round with yam, so that the more it is pressed 
by the buH, the deeper it enters. The lance of the picador serves to 
turn the bull olF, but does him little injury; indeed it may rather be 
looked on as a defensive, than as an omnsive weapon. Thus, in the 
contest between the bull and the picador^ the danger is altogether on 
the side of the horse and Ms rider. The piauhres enter the lists 
mounted on jaded beasts, which are evidently within a few months of 
Uieir natural death. They are bought for a few dollars, part of which 
tile proprietor gets back bj the sale of the skin. When brought into 
the lists, they are halMidden under huge Moorish saddles, which rise 
before BOd behind, near a foot from the back, in order to strengthen 
the seat of the picador. If they have a good eye remainiag, he blinils 
it with his podcet handkerchief. The attire of the picador is usua% 
soiled by frequent rolling in the dost; mdeed, as he poises his lance 
and kicks his limping heist forward by dint of ^Nirs to paj his devoirs 
to the corregidor, his whole appearance offers a striking contrast to 
the gallant bearing of the olguaxiL 

llie winter feast always commenced with nooiUos emkoiadoo, whom 
horns were covered with balls, and who overtnmed the picadores mmi 
their horses widiont doing them mnch mjury. This contest is sn^ 
tained^ usually, by novices, whose chimsy efforts to tm^ aside the 
buH give infinite ammemettt tb the audience,, and prepare them to 
estimate the exedlsnce of the veteran picadores, who eome idtor to 
contend with the msurios. Indeed^ to appreciate eerreotif the dii^ 
eidly of aay task, we should not not only see it wdl,. bol iM eneoted. 
The itooiOos and the novices who contended with them. Inuring left 
the lists, two old ftsf^rer ride through the portal, and are greeted with 
the appiause of the multitude, to whom ^y have he^ semfaied 
fhmfliar by many a feat of skiU* and courage, and by many a scene 
of danger. 



To give a general idea of the mode of attacking the boll, it may 
he sufficient to describe an individual fight, b^ fiur the most bloody 
of many that I saw in Hpnin. On the occasioii to which I allude, 
the bull, though ht bore the name of noeilJEs, was a sturdy beast, who 



NKW CASTILE. lit 



kttTB GouateA m imtruni. Though not krge, the < 
of Ihia bull could scarce hftye been more powerful. He wu nlher 
UghAy built behind^ wideoing, however , in spea towards the shoulders^ 
whieh serred as foundation to & thick neck and short head, armed 
with a pair «f hwas, which were not long, but stout and well pointed. 
His coat was of a matj brown, darkwing into black towuds the 
neck and shoulders, where it became thick and euriy, like the mane 
af alioB. 

This ball had taken the place of a companion who had preoeded 
hira to slanghtor, ia the narrow entry which leads fiom the imil to 
the arena. The ckulos having taken their stand with the two jnoiK 
dbrsy drawn up behind them, the signal was given and the trumpets 
aoaaded a martial flourish. The gates were at <mce thrown open to 
admil a passage into the lists, and we now first discovered the bull, 
inch as I have described him, endeavouring to force his way through 
the iron grate which separated him firom the tarU. The poor animal 
inui been tormented by separation firom his flock, by confinement^ 
by tortures to which his lacerated ears bore testimony, and by desires 
which had been pampered, but not gratified. At this mom^t a prick 
firom a torero in the lobby caused him to turn about, when he di^ 
covered an open passage into the lists, and rushed at once madly 
m, hoping, doubtless, that he had at .last found an open road to con* 
dmt him to the fisrtile marshes of the Guadtana, where he had so 
long reigned lord of the herd. 

This moment is one of the most interesting of the whole spectacle. 
Tim buR is seen coming forward in mad career; his tail writhing 
fiwioQsly, head down, mouth foaming, nostrils wide open, and fiery, 
and eyes glaring fiercely through the matted curls of his forehead; 
whilst the red ribbon, nailed with a barbed iron to his neck, fiutteni 
wildly back, and serves at once as a torture and device. Having 
reached the centre of the arena, he discovers that his hope of escape 
waa illusory, he pauses, glares with wonder upon the multitude drawn 
ap in a oontiBnous ring around him, and who greet his arrival with 
sboats, whistling, and the waving of garments. But though aslon* 
iahed, he is not terrified. Determined to make good his retreat, he 
endeavours to accommodate his bewildered eye to the broad day of 
the wena, and to seek out an enemy iqpoa whom to wreak the fin^ 
eflirts of his fiiry.* 

No Boener then did the bull discover the ekuloM, flutterii^i their gay 
cloaks, and inviting hkn to victory by showing a diqposition to fly 

*Tliriee80iuidsdieclaiioa; lo! the ngnal &Uf, 
llie den exoands, and expectation mute 
Gapea roond the dlent clrele^v peopled walla. 
Honnda with one laahing iprtoc the mighty brute. 
And, wildly itacing, apama* with aoondlng foot, 
^ The aand, nor bliiioly niabea on hia foe : 

Here, there, he pointa hit tlireatenmg front, (o suit 

nil Brat attaclc, wide wavingr to and fro 

ffia angry tafl; 4*ed roBa bb eye'a dHsled fiaw. 



140 NEW CASTILK. 

Imhte Idm, than he made after the neareei at the top of his speed* 
The chuio, thus warmly pursued, waved his crimson cloak to the right 
and left, to retard the progress of the beast by readying it unsteady^ 
and, having with difficulty reached the barrier without being over- 
taken, he placed his feet upon the step, and grasping the top with n 
certain hand, leapt at once into the lobby, The escape of the cMe 
was by no means {wemature ; the bull reached the barrier at the same 
instant, and, as the legs of the fugitive were vaulting over, his horns 
caught the fluttering silk and nail^ it to the boards of the barrier. 

Excited by victory, the bull now makes for the picador. Here is 
another situation which would furnish a fine study for the pencils 
The picador is seen drawn up at a short distance from the barrier,, 
with his lance grasped tightly in his right hand and under the arm» 
and presenting the right shoulder of his horse to the attack of the 
bull. Before aiming his blow, the bull usually pauses a moment U> 
eye his antagonist. Then, if he be cowardly, he paws the ground^ 
bellows, and makes a great display of valor, going backwards all the 
while, as if to gain epaee for his career; but in reality to place a. 
greater distance between himself and his adversary. Such, however, 
was neither the character nor conduct of the bull in question ; indeed, 
no sooner had he cleared his horns of the cloak of the chulo^ than he 
moved at once towards the first picador. The shouts of the multitude 
BOW gave place to silent glances of anxiety ; for the bull, having aimed 
his blow, dropped his head to cover it with his horns„ and, shuttin^p 
his eyes, darted upon his enemy. This first effect, however, was 
easuccessfuUy made, or at least it was defeated by the address of the 
picador. The bull was met by the lance just as he rose on his hind 
legs to make his last bound, and was turned dexterously astdOw 
Without checking his career, he darted at once upon the second 
picador, drawn up behind his comrade. This second attack wae 
more successful. The lance of the picador was driven in by foroe, 
and thei horns of the infiiriated animal entered deep into the side of 
his victim. The wounded horse now turned to escape in the direction 
oppos i t e to that whence this unseen attack had come ; but he wae 
instantly overtaken by the bull, who, goring him in the flank, threw 
his head upward, and completely overturned both horse and rider* 
But the fury o# the animal was not yet satisfied. He darted upon hie 
fallen adversary, and most unluckily came upon that side where laf 
the entangled picador, trampled him under foot, and drove his horns 
deep into the saddle. The anxiety of the multitude was new at ite 
height, and horror was plainly painted upon every countenance. 
The men rose from their benches, and some seemed preparing to rush 
to the rescue of the picador. Some of the women uttered prayers and 
crossed themselves, whilst such as had infants, clasped them tighter. 
At this moment the chulos came up with their cloaks, and drew the 
bull to another quarter of the lists. It was for a moment uncertain 
whether the fallen man were dead or living; but being at length 
raised from the dust, it appeared that he had sustained no serious 
injury. The horse, beiof the more prominent object of the two, had 



NSW CA8TIUE. 141 

altnie<6d Ae chief attealioii of the hidl; bat a deep rent in the jaeket 
of the pieador^ showed how narrow had been his escape. 

Whilst this was doing, the first horseman, who had turned the boll, 
rode rouid the lists to take his place in readiness in the rear of his 
comrade. His second eflbrt to torn the ball was less successful than 
before ; {Hrobably through the fitult of the horse, which being imper* 
fectly blinded saw the i^roach of his antagonist, and retreated side* 
wajB beloTe him. The lance of his rider was fiwced in, and the boll 
darting his horns into the side of the h<«se held him securely to the 
barrier. The picador now abandoning his lance caught the top of 
the barrier, and being assisted by people firom without was drawn 
over into the k>bby. The ckuios again diverted the attention of the 
bulL He released the horse, and the wounded beast no longer sup- 
ported by the murderous horns which had rendered support necessa* 
Hf c^g®'^ sideways towards the centre of the lists. At each step 
the bkxHl gushed in a torrent from behind his shoulder, until he feU 
motionless to the earth. The saddle and bridle were at once stripped 
from the carcase of the horse, and carried away to lead another to the 
same doom. 

Meantime the second picador raised bis horse fiom the ground, 
reached the saddle with the assistance of a chdo, and commenced 
spurring the mangled beast around the arena. I felt more' for this 
poor horse than I had done for his hireling rider, when trampled be» 
neath the feet of the bull. He was an elegantly made animal, once 
doobtless the pride of the Prado, and fit to have borne a Zegri be» 
neath the balcony of his mistress. He even yet showed a shadow of 
his former grace, and something of his former ardor ; for though his 
bowels were gushing fix>m his side, and were at each instant torn and 
entangled by the spur of the picador^ he still struggled to obey. In 
this sad condition the poor horse made several times the circuit of the 
lists, his bowels getting nearer and nearer to the ground, until they 
actually reached it, were drawn a while over the dirt, and were at 
length trampled upon and torn asunder by his own hoofs. Even yet 
he continued to advance, and would perhaps have stood another at^ 
tack, had not the audience, barbarous as it was, interceded in his 
fiiTor. He was led staggering away, and as the gates closed upon him, 
we even lacked the poor satisfaction of knowing that his sufferings 
were over. 

The lists were now cleared, and the bull wandering about unoppos* 
edy came at length to the spot which was wet with the blood of his 
comrade. When he had rooted the ground awhile, he turned his 
nose high into the air ; snuffed the passing breeze, and then, having 
sought in vain to discover the passive by which he had entered, made 
a. smgle desperate efiort to leap the barrier. He was very nearly suc- 
ceotfol ; his body for an instant balanced in uncertainty on the top» 
and in the nemt fell back into the arena. This new hope thus speeds 
iy defeated, he bellowed in a low indistinct tone, and being excited 
by the taunting shouts which greeted his fiiilure, he fell to wreaking 
Ids Inry opoa tiw dead body of his first victim. 



14S NEW CASTILE. 

By this time the pieadores were again mounted and in tiie litta; 
The first horse was forced round and overtaiien in his flight as before, 
and being gored behind fell back upon his rider. The ektUos with 
their cloaks most opportunely diverted the attention of the bull, uoA 
the grooms hastened to raise the wounded horse and drag him ont of 
the lists. The thigh bone of the poor animal had be^i either broken 
or dislocated ; for the leg, being useless and dangling behind^ as ho 
was forced away upon the three which remained to him. The fote of 
the next horse was sooner decided, and was even more shocking. He 
received a single gore in the belly ; the whole of his bowels at oaoe 
gushed out, and with an agonised moan, he commenced scratchiiif 
them convulsively with his hoof until they were completely entangled. 

Hitherto the bull alone had been the assailant ; he vras now in his 
turn to be the sufferer and the assailed. Some of the duUoB, having 
laid aside their cloaks proceeded to arm themselves with ftoiMlmlto— 
light darts which have a barbed point and are adorned with flattering 
papers of variegated colors. The chief art in placing the batukrii& 
is to make the bull attack. If he do not, this operation, likethe inal 
office of the matador, is full of danger ; for a capricious motion of the 
horns by a cowardly bull is infinitely more te be dreaded than the 
straight forwarded career of a chore. The bull in question was of this 
description. With a dart therefore in each hand, one of the ehuhs^ 
now become banderiUero, placed himself before the bull, and invited 
him to attack by brandishing his weapons. When at last the bull 
rushed with closed eyes at his antagonist, the handerUUro likewise 
ran to meet him, and directing the darts at each side of his neck, al» 
lowed the horns of the animid to pass under his right arm, whilst he 
ran away to gain the security of the lobby, or to get a new supply of 
banderiBas. With the repetition of this torture, the bull became 
madder than ever ; rubbed his neck against the boards of the barrier 
in the vain hope of alleviation— a hope which was set at nought by 
his own ill directed exertions, or by the malice of those in the lobby 
who would reach over and force the darts deeper, until at last the 
persecuted beast bounded foaming and frantic about the arena. 

The bravery of the bull, though fatal to the lifo of more than eae 
victim, can never avail to save his own. Nor, can the torments he 
has suffered, be urged in alleviation of his destiny. The laws of tte 
Plaza are inexorable — his name is Muerto, and the red ribbon fbaH^ 
tering from his neck proclaims that he must die. The e0mgidor » 
seen to wave his handkerchief, the trumpeto Mow a warlike blasts 
and the nuUador faces his antagonist. 

The man who now entered the lists at the sound of the trunipet» 
was no other than the principal maiadar of Spain — ^Manttel Ronevo 
by name, if my memory serves me. He was a short man, extremely 
well made, though inclining to corpulency, with sraafl regular feal» 
ures, a keen, sure eye, and such an air of oold-blooded fofoehy as 
became one whose business it was to incur danger, and to deal d eat h. 
The dress of Romero was that of a mago, ooverad with more than the 
usual quantity of lace and embroidery ; his hair combvd bftokwards 



NEW CASTILE. 143 

iiMl pktted into a flat queue, was surmotuited by a blaek cocked hat. 
Ib Ina left hand he held a sword, hidden in the folds of a banner 
which was fastened to a staff. The color of this banner was red, 
deepened here and there into a deadlier die, where it had been ased 
after former combats to wipe the sword of the matador. It was to 
him at once a trophjr and a buckler, as with the warriors of old, who 
earried their achierments emblazoned on their shields. 

Romero did not enter with the jaunty air of one who knew his own 
farce and deq>iaed his adversary ; nor as though he had to hide a faint 
heart vnder a careless brow; but with a fearless, determined, yet 
deeent step. Having approached the box of the carregidor, he took 
off hie hat and made a low obeisance ; then returned the salutations 
which greeted him from the whole circuit of the amphitheatre. This 
dcme, he threw his hat away, brushed back a few hairs which had 
escaped from the |datting of his queue, stretched his limbs to ease the 
elastic tightness of his costume, and then taking his well tried blade 
from beside the banner, he displayed a long straight Toledano, such as 
were oace worn by cavaliers and crusaders. 

Meantime the chulas were occupied in running before the bull and 
waving their cloaks in his eyes, in order to excite the last fit of feroci- 
^, wlttch'Was to facilitate his own destruction. In this way, the bull 
was enticed towards the spot where the matador awaited him. Hold- 
ing ont the banner, he allowed the animal to rush against it, seeming- 
ly astonished at its little opposition. This was twice repeated ; but 
en the thkrd time the matador held the banner projecting across his 
body, whilst with his right hand extended over the top, he poised and 
direioted the sword. Here is the last and most interesting moment of 
the whole contest ; the multitude once more rise upcm the benches, 
and each assumes, according to his disposition, a defensive or intimi- 
dated air. All eyes meet upon the glittering point of the weapon. 
The bull now makes his final career ; the banner again gives way 
before him ; his horns pass closely beneath the extended arm of the 
matador^ but the sword which he held a moment before is no longer 
seen. It has entered full length beside the back of the bull, and the 
esoes at the hilt is alone conspicuous. 

Having received his death blow, it is usual for the bull to fly b^ 
bwing to the extremity of the arena, and there fall and die. But the 
anim^ which had this day sustained the contest so nobly, was coura- 
geous to the last. He continued to rush again and again with blind 
fiiry at the matador, who each time received the blow on his deceptive 
buckler, laughed scornfully at the impotent rage of his victim, and 
talked to him jestingly. The admiration of the audience was now 
complete, and cries, whistling, and the cloud of dust which rose from 
die trampled benches, mingled with the clang of trumpets to proclaim 
the triumph of the matador! 

A few more impotent attacks of the bull and his strength began to 
pass away with the blood which flowed fast from his wound, spread 
itself over his shoulder, and ran down his leg to sprinkle the dust of 
the araaa. At length he can no longer advance ; the tnotion of his 



144 KCW CASTILK. 

head becomes tremuloue and unsteady^ he bpwa te hit lite, paa^ 
4 moment upon his knees, and then with a low, repining moaii, settles 
upon the giound> At this moment a vulgar murderer caime from 
behind the barrier, where he had hitherto remained in securily. He 
caught the animal by the left horn, then aiming a Gettnn blow with a 
short wide dagger, he drove it deep inio the spine* A oonvulsif^ 
shudder for a moment thrilled over the whole firame of the victim-^ 
in another he had passed the agony.* 

At this moment the gates on the right were thrown open, and three 
mules rushed in, harnessed abreast, and covered with bells, Mags, and 
feathers. Their driver hastened to fasten a strap round the Inms of 
the dead bull, and dragged him to where lay the carcases of the two 
horses. Having tied a rope about their necks, he whipped his team 
into a gallop, and the impatient beasts stirred up a cloud of dust, and 
left a wide track to mark the course which had been passed over by 
the conqueror and the conquered. The canaUa too, who had jumped 
into the lists to spat with the noviUos, unmindful that the animal, 
which to-day furnished them with amusement would to-morrow supply 
them with food, now jumped upon him, greeted him with kicks, and 
even fastened upon his tail. Trumpets had announced the entry of 
the bull, trumpets are again heard at his departure. But who can 
recognise the proud beast, which a few minutes before overturned 
everything before him, in the unresisting carcase which now sweeps 
the arena? 

Scarcely had the gate closed, when the trumpets once more sound- 
ed, and a runfiUo en£olado was let into the lists ; by this time filled 
with a ragged crew having hats, cape, or handkerchief on their heads, 
and their backs partially covered under the remnant of a cloak or 
blanket. Now begins a most singular scene. The bull, taunted by 
the waving of jackets, cloaks, and blankets, pursues and tramples 
npon one, tosses another into the air, and dragging a third along by 
the cloak, at length escapes with a portion of the tatters hanging to 
his horns, to the infinite amusement of all except the sufferer, who 
must go half naked for the remainder of the winter ; and who, further- 
more, if he be not hurt, is beset and banged for his clumsiness by the 
blankets of his companions. 

I had seen enough of this, and was turning away in disgust to leave 
the amphitheatre, when I was met by the matador Romero, who had 
ooncealed his gala dress under a capa parda. He made at once to- 
wards a pretty girl in a black mantiQa who sat near me during the 

« Fdled, bleedlDK, bmalfaleM, furioiH to die iMt, 
Full in the centre itandB the bull et bay. 
Mid wounds, and cUocing dartB, and lances brast 
And foes disabled in the brutal fray ; 
And now the matadores around him play, 
Shake the red cloak, aad poise the feadiy tonnd; 
Once more throagh all he bursts his thttadering wa]r<— 
Vain ra^e ! the mantle quits the conyuffe hand. 
Wraps his fierce eye— *t is past-— he 4mci upon the sand! 

neOMUe. 



NKW CAffriLE. 14& 

whole entertainment The floomhes of her fan and the wtnton 
glances of her rolling eye had long since proclaimed the courtezan. 
Having unfolded his cloak and made his obeisance, Romeropresented 
her with a small iron barb, strung with a red ribUm. The whole 
iron was stained with blood, and the ribbon vras the same &tal device, 
whidi had fluttered from the neck of the last muerio, 

* Fan y tares! — ^bread and bulls I' exdaims the philooopher Jovil- 
lavos, like the Roman of old, in lamenting the fallen fortunes of his 
country. The Spaniards have still their boH feast; but where shall 
we look for the qpirit of the Cidl 



W 



. . CHAPTKR VUl. 

NEW CASTILE. 

The P»seo.^The Pnido.^l1ie Paaeadorcs.— MadrileDlo and Madrilania VehiclM 

and HorMBieo.^— The Prado on a Feast Day.—San Anton.— Beffgan.—BUod 
Menw — Lottery. — Hog Lottery. — An ExecutioD. — La Plazuela-de-la-Cebada. — 
Mode el Execution in SpQin.~The yerdug;o and the Multitude.»I>elay.~The 
CriminaU. — Conduct of the Crowd. 

Tub word^^mcion is applied by the Spaniards to all public amuse' 
ments, such as plays, bull-iights, and public promenades. We have 
already spoken of the theatre and the bull-fight : it remains to take no- 
tice of the PaseOy or stated walk, which is daily taken in Madrid by the 
wealthy classes, and on Sundays and festivals by the whole population. 
There are several public walks within and about the city, such as the 
Florida, which lies without the walls, along the sheltered basks of the 
Manzanares, and the Delicias, which, leaving the gate of Atoeha, 
passes through a double tow of trees, until it reaches the canal of 
Manzanares and Xarama. This canal was commenced by Charles III. 
with a view to open a water communication between Madrid and 
Toledo. To effect this, it was necessary to make the canal four leagues 
long ; but the first half only has been completed, and at present, instead 
of being a source of utility and wealth, it only serves to keep up an 
expensive establishment, whither the royal family goes every year or 
two, to be drawn along the canal hi a gilded galley. This establish- 
ment is situated at the extremity of the Delicias, and bears the high 
sounding name of Embarcadero. It is reached through an imposing 
entrance, surmounted by bales, barrels, ropes, and anchors, and all the 
other emblems of commerce. A guard of royat marines are seen with 
anchor buttons standing sentry at the gate, and there is neither flag 
staff, nor piles of shot, nor cannon wanting, to constitttte a perfect 
naval arsenal. 



The principal promenade, however, is the Meadow o^ Prado. Thiv 
DOW delightful resort, was, so late as the last century, nothing more 
than a broken and uneven waste, frequented by politicians or lovers 
lor such deeds and consultations as required secrecy. Here, too, has 
been comniitted many an act of treachery, in the unsuspecting confi- 
dence inspired by the seclusion. For these reasons it frequently figurev 
as the spot where the Spanish dramatists and romance writers have 
laid the scene of their inventions, and it may very well be, that fire- 
quently they did no more than embellish incidents which aetoaUy 



NEW CA8TiL£. 14^ 

oecorred in tbe Pra^. Cbtrles III., the most beneficent of Spaniah 
kings, witli a view to reclaim this place from ita stale of proatitn* 
tioDy had it le?elled at great expense, and pUnied with namberleaa 
rows of elma and chestnuts, which, having been artificially watered, 
have already grown to a noble size. He likewise provided it with 
marble bench^ for the public accommodation, enlivened it with many 
noble foantains, and, in short, converted it into the charming resort 
which is now the pride and pleasure of Madrid, and tbe admiration of 
all Europe. 

The Prado begins at the neat gate of Recoletos, and takea its course 
soQthward, between monasteries and palaces, as far as the street of 
Alcala, which crosses it at right angles. The street of Alcala is the 
finest in Madrid, nay, I have even heard it called the finest in Europe. 
It has a gradual dtelivity from the Puerta del Sol; widening as it 
approaches the Prado ; on either hand are churches^ convents, public 
buildings, and palaces of the grandees and ambassadors. Crossing 
the Prado, it once more ascends, having on the right the iron railing 
which encloses the garden of Retire, on the left barracks for infautrVp 
and in firont is terminated by the triumphal arch of Alcala. This noble 
monument forms the eastern egress of Madrid. It was erected to 
commemorate the happy arrival of Charles III. from his kingdom of 
Naples, to receive the crown of Spain. It is surmounted with emblems 
and trophies, and is adorned with ten Ionic columns after the modeb 
left by Michael Angek>; and, taken altogether, for favorable situation 
on the summit of an eminence, combined with beauty of design, it is 
probably without equal. 

At the angle formed by the Prado and the street of Alcala, is a large 
fimntain formed entirely of marble. In the centre of the basin a rocky 
islet is seen emerging out of the water, and a sybil is drawn over it by 
Jmmis hamassed to her chariot Hence to the street of San Geronimo, 
the Prado is enclosed on one side by gardeus and palaces, on the other 
by the railing of the Retire; the two avenues of noble trees, which run 
parallel to each other, enclose a wide place for walking, called the 
Saloon, and« immediately beside it, the public way for carriages and 
horsemen. Here you meet a fountain surmounted by an elegant Apollo, 
whilst bek>w the Four Seasons are beautifully and appropriately charac- 
terized. Opposite is an object which awakens leas pleasing associations. 
It is an anfinished monument to the Spaniards who were there mas- 
sacred in maaa by the bloody order of Marat, on the fiimous Dos 
de Mayo. 

Farther on is the finest founuin of Madrid. It represents Neptune 
riding over his watery dominion^ His chariot is a conch shell resting 
on water wheels, about the paddles of which the real element is thrown 
off by numerous jets, as though it were dashed from the sea. It is 
drawn by two unreined sea-horses, so well executed, that they are 
almost seen to dash impetuous through the waves. Vegetation has 
iastened itself to tbe joints of the marble, and the plants emblematie 
of the sea are overgrown with moss ; even live fishes are seen s{x>rtinf 
idMNit and rubbing their_silvery. sides against the marble scales of those 



M8 NEW OAflTIUE. 

which owe their existence to the imitatiTe creation of the seolptor; 
Indeed, the real and the artificiaJ are here so happily blended, that the 
beholder is for a moment nuabie to draw the distinction. 

Having passed the fountain of Neptane, the road makes an angle 
to the east and brings you to the museum of statuary and paintmg, 
with its noble colonnade following the course of the Prado. Next is 
the botanic garden, a luxuriant and well planted field, in which are 
collected all the v^^able productions of a kingdom, upon which but 
a few years ago the son never set. £ach plant is neatly labelled, and 
in summer there is here delivered a gratuitous course on botany for 
the benefit of the public. The garden is entered through two beauti- 
ful doric portals, and is surrounded by an open railing of iron, which 
gives passage to a thousand varied perfumes, and rather improves than 
conceals the beauties which lie within. Following the course of this 
railing, you come at length to the gate of Atocha, where there is 
another fine fountain, enlivened by the amorous gambols of a Triton 
and a Nereid. Nor does the Prado end here, but, having made a 
second angle to the east, it terminates only at the convent of Our Lady 
of Atocha, whose peaceful inmates are often disturbed by the military 
reviews, which take place beneath the windows of their sanctuary. 



The whole extent of the Prado falls little short of two miles. Hence 
it fiirnishes such a variety of promenades as to please people in every 
mood and of every disposition. The seclusion ot Atocha is frequented 
by priests in their long hats and sable eopos, who gather in gloomy 
triangles about the hermitage of Saint Bias, talk over the perils of the 
church, and contrive schemes to prop the overgrown and unsteady 
edifice. Moping misanthropy seeks the solitude of Recdetos, conteni* 
plates wKh a morbid and envious eye the lively throng of the Saloon^ 
and riots in the luxury of unhappiness. The neighbourhood of the 
Botanic Garden is frequented by a far different class; ladies, who^ 
having abandoned their coaches at the gate of Atocha, come with their 
children to benefit by the air and exercise. Here a lad^ in a soldier's 
cap-, rides upon a stick and lashes it into a gallop with a wooden sword; 
another manmuvres a mimic tarianaf drawn by a panting pet dog» 
hung round with bells, and whose hair is as neatly washed and oomb^ 
as though he were one of the family ; whilst there, a little girl supports 
her doU against the railing of the garden, endeavours to draw it into 
discourse^ and seeks in vain a reciprocation of her tenderness. Here^ 
too, have I oflen witnessed a still more pleasing sight; a young couple 
followed by the pledge of a love which has not yet grown old, their first 
babe carried in the arms of its amohcMeehe. The bright green petti« 
coat bordered with red, and cloth jacket covered with sil? er buttons, 
her hair done up in a gaily colored handkerchief, or else flatted far 
down the back, and interwoven with ribbons, after the manner of 
Berne, but, especially, her rosy cheeks and azure eye, denote the 
mountaineer of Asturias. The happy couple occasionally pause, look 



NEW GAsnur. IM 



fcr the objMt upon which their affBctiooe ineet to be reflecled 
I eeeh other, and aeeni scarce U> remember that they then are not 
alooe in the woiid. 

Bill the Saloon is by far the moot remarkable portion of the Pradr ; 
it ie the great resort whither all the world throngs to see and to be seen. 
Here may be ibnnd every rariety of priest or friar, the long hat of the 
onrate, and the longer beard of the capuchin. Here rank displays its 
stars, its cross es , and its ribbons; the trooper rattles his sabre, corle 
Iris mastaches, and stares fearlessly around him; and here woman 
sUaes out, a glowing combination of jewels and of graces. Here, too^ 
the moltitode, decked out in their best, come with decent looks and 
hehnrioor, to be amused at a cheap rate, and to contribute to the 
general joy by the assurance of its unlimited division. The ladies 
usually come to the Paseo in small parties of two or more, under the 
escort of an old aunt or mother. They are not generally attended by 
gentlemen, but hare on either side a vacancy which their friends 
occupy whilst they inquire after their health, and make with them one 
or more turns of the Saloon. These then break off, and more away 
to BMke room lor others, whilst they pay elsewhere the same attention.. 
And here it may not be amiss to say something of the women of Madrid. 



The Mmiriltma is rather mder than abore the middle sixe, with a 
a faultless shape, which is seen to tenfold adrantage through the 
daetic folds of her hasamwia. Her foot is, howerer, her chief care; 
indeed, not content with its natural beauty, she Unds it with narrow 
bandages of linen, so as to force it into stiJI greater rclieC Though 
her complexion be pale, it is never defiled by rouge. Her teeth are 
pearly, lips red, eyes full, black, and glowing. Such is the Mtukriiinia 
at rest ; when she adrances, each motion becomes a study. Her step, 
though bold and quick, is yet harmonious, and the rapid action of her 
arms, as she adjusts her mamHUa or flutters her fan, is an index to the 
impatioit ardor of her temperament As she mores forward, she looks 
with an undisturbed, yet pensive eye, upon the men that surround her; 
but if you have the good fortune to be an acquaintance, her fiice kin- 
dles into smiles ; she beams benignantly upon you, and returns your 
salute with an inviting shake of her fan in token of recognition. 
Then if you have a soul, you lay it at once at her feet, are ready to 
beoome her slave forever, and by the humility of your bow, offer an 
earnest of eternal obedience. 

Nor are the men who have been formed and fashioned in such a 
sehool, at all wanting in the airs and graces. No one, indeed, can be 
more happy in female intercourse than the Spaniard ; for to the polite 
assiduities of the Frenchman, he adds a submissiveness, a self-devotion^ 
that goes straight to the heart of a lady. It is this show of good under* 
standing and of harmony, these lively sallies and these bows, but, 
above all, these soul-subduing looks and winning salutations, which 
lend its chief ch: - lO the ccmcourse of the Prado. 



IM NEW CASTILE. 

On these occasions the women are inTariably clothed in the national 
eosttinie ; indeed, though at balls and theatres the Partoian modes are 
adopted by the highest class ; yet at the Paseo there is neither hat, 
shawl, nor reticule ; nothing in short, but the fan, mantiUa, and tof- 
quima. The men too, ail wear ample capos, or doaks of black, brown, 
or blue, which they handle with great dexterity and throw into a thou* 
•and graceful folds. Indeed in Spain the handling of the fan, and the 
wearing of the maniiUay with the women, and the graceful exercise of 
the capa, among the men, are a kind of second nature which has 
^rown up with them ; nay, it is even said that a French woman with 
all her elegance cannot arrive at the graceful carriage of the maiUi tta^ 
and that a stranger who should cover himself with a cloak in order to 
pass for a native, would thus be most easily recognised. The cufMi is 
worn in winter to keep out the cold, and not unfrequently in sum* 
mer as a shelter from the sun ; indeed, it may rather be looked on as 
a part than as an appendage of a true Spaniard. To appear well and 
be convenient, the capa should form a complete circle. In cold weather 
it is worn with the right skirt thrown over the left shoulder. An ira* 
Dortant action in Spain, which is specially expressed by the word em^ 
bozarse — ^to cover the mouth. At the theatre, or in mild wealher, the 
cloak is more gracefully carried, by letting it hang entirely from tlie 
left shoulder, and passing the right skirt across the left one, and gath« 
ering both up under the left dtm, leaving the right free and nneml>ar* 
rassed. Such a dark combination of tMuMla^ ioi^iuWa, and tapa^ 
produces, however, a monotony of coloring very unfavorable to the 
distant effect of this spectacle. This was so striking to the French 
soldiers when they first came to Madrid, that they were ased to say^ 
that they had at length reached a truly Catholic city, peopled only by 
monks and nuns.* 

The Spaniard derives his cag^a from the romantic days of the na- 
tion, when the seclusion forced upon the fair by the jedousy of fap 
thers and of husbands, awakened ingenuity and gave a stimulaa lo 
intrigue. Hence the advantage of a garment whose folds could con- 
ceal not only the wearer, but even, upon emergency, a pair of wearers. 
The ctqM too, has often lent itself to the purposes of malevolence- 
has often covered the ready and ruthless knife of th$ mercenary as* 
sassin. To such an extent indeed, was this evil carried, that in the 
last century the use of the c<spa was forbidden, and patrols scoured 
the streets of the capital to make prisoners of such as wore it. But 
the Spaniard could not quit his cloak ; a mutiny was the consequence 
of the forced separation, and the authorities were compelled to yield. 
It is still universally worn in Spain, and* much might be said in 
&vor of its convenience. But why slK>uld I make the apology of the 
c4iqHi^ since it would be more reasonable to ask why it is not woM 
everywhere 1 



^ Rocca— Memoires lur la Guerre D* Efpagne. 



NEW CASTILE. 151 

Metntime, tiiose idio make the Paseo in carriages form a doable file 
between the streets of Alcala and San Geronimo, along the whole ex<* 
tent of the Saloon, and continue to ride up on one side and down on the 
other, until they choose to break off at either extremity. The inter** 
mediate space between the two files is reserved for horsemen, cavalry 
officers, and young nobility, who take advantage of the assemblage, 
and the watchfiil presence of beauty, to show off the good qualities of 
a horse or their own gracefiil equitation. A company of lancers with 
gay penmms, or cuirassiers with glittering cuirasses and Grecian 
helmets, are always in attendance to enforce the arrangements, with- 
out which there would be nothing but confusion. The vehicles, to the 
Munber of several hundred, are of every variety ; elegant coaches of 
tlie most modem construction, with a liveried driver and Swiss foot- 
man, flanked by a German jager^ with a pair of epaulettes, a heavy 
hunting knife, and a cocked hat, covered with green feathers ; gigs 
and biggies, landaus, berhnes, and barouches. Most of the carriages, 
however, are in the old Spanish style, not very different, indeed, fi^om 
the first one used in Spain by the good queen Joana, the Foolish ; the 
body is of a square, formal shape, oddly ornamented in a sort of Chi- 
nese taste, and is not unlike a tea chest. This body is sustained by 
leathern straps, whose only spring is derived from their great length ; 
for which purpose they are placed at such a distance from each other, 
that they scarce seem to be parts of the same vehicle. A stout iron 
step facilitates the entrance to the interior ; but as it does not open 
downwards, the remaining distance from the step to the ground is 
overcome by a small wooden bench which dangles by a string fi-om 
the rear axle, and which, when the coach stops, the footman hastens 
to place in readiness beside the door. Nor is the attelage of this sin- 
gular vehicle less worthy of notice. It usually consists of a pair of 
fet and long eared mules, their manes, hair, and tails, fiintastically 
cut and tatooed, driven by a superannuated postillion in formidable 
boots, and not less formidable cocked hat of oil cloth, reaching up- 
wards and downwards respectively, as if to shake hands and be on 
neighbourly terms with each other. Such an old carriage as this, is 
one of many things that I saw in Spain, which were at variance with 
the transitory tastes and ever changing customs of my own country. 
Indeed, when I looked at it, I could scarce persuade myself that the 
coach, the mules, and the postillion had not existed always, and would 
not continne forever to make each day the circuit of the Prado. 



Such is the Saloon and such the Prado. Nothing, indeed, can be 
finer than the range of the eye from the fountain of the Sybil, on the 
afternoon of a feast day. At your back is the gate of Recoletos, sund- 
ing at the extremity of a double avenue of trees ; on the right is a hill 
ascending by the street of Alcala towards the gale of the Sun. On 
the left the same street making a second ascent, and terminated 
by the noUe arch of triumph. The whole road is thronged with 



159 NEW CASTILR 

•oidiers ia every kind of vmiform, and people in every tort of ^oitmne, 
from the various provinces of Spain, who are either going to walk in 
the Saloon, or without the gates, or are returning from tl^ buU4ight. 
Some carriages quit the ever moving file of the Paseo to return homoi 
end the animals which follow attempt to pursue those which have 
hitherto piloted them, the more willingly that they are beginning to 
tire of the diversion, which, indeed, is less a diversion for them l£an 
for the riders ^ but they are lashed into obedience and compelled to 
renew the circuit, whilst other carriages arrive to take the place of the 
absentees. Nor is the central area without its concourse of equestrians 
«nd its ptcquet of cavalry. The Sakx>n too, is thronged to overflowing, 
whilst in the distance are partially discovered the museum and botanic 
garden thtough the vistas of the trees; and in the interval, Neptnnei 
half conceal^ by the spiay which he throws up before him in his 
course, is seen urging impatiently the efforts of his steeds. 

At such a moment the arrival of the king, surrounded by a pageantry 
which is scarce equalled by any court in Europe, serves to crown the 
splendor of the spectacle. His coming is first annonnced by drum and 
trumpet, as he passes the various guard rooms which lie in the way, 
and presently by tlie arrival of an avant-courier, who rides disdainfiilly 
forward in the road which his master is to folfow. Next comes a 
squadron of young nobles of the body guard, mounted on beautiful 
horses from the royal stables, which are chiefly of tfao cast of Aranjuez, 
and immediately after, a gilded coach drawn by six milk white studs, 
covered with plumes, and with manes and tails that are full and flow- 
ing. They are mounted and controlled by postillions, richly dressed 
in jockey suits of blue and gold buckskin. Within, the Catholic king 
is discovered seated on the right, conspicuous by his stars, his blue 
floar^ and the golden fleece which dangles from his neck. He glances 
round on the multitude with a look between apathy and good humor, 
and salutes them mechanically by putting his hand up towards his nose 
and taking it down again, as though he were brushing the flies away. 
At his left is the queen, looking too good for this dirty world. Next 
comes Don Carlos, the heir apparent, drawn by six cream-colored 
horses, more beautiful than those of his brother. He grins horribly 
through his red mustaches, and frightens those whom he intended to 
flatter. Beside him is his wife, a big coarse woman, with heavy eye* 
brows which cross the forehead. In the third coach is Don Francisco 
and his wife, drawn by six noble blacks. In the forth the Portuguexa 
with her young son Don Sebastien ; after which come some four or 
five coaches, each drawn by six mules, and which contain the lords 
and ladies attendant upon their majesties. The whole is numerously 
escorted by cavaliers of the body-ffuard, and grooms from the royal 
service. The arrival of the royaJ family, like the passing of the host 
or the tolling of the angdus, usually arrests every one in the ntuation 
in which it may find him. The line between the carriages is at once 
cleared through the exertions of the cavalry, and the vehicles on either 
aide pause until their majesties have passed* Those who are walkings 
turn their faces towards the road ; the gentlemen unroll the cMiese of 



NEW CASTILE. ^ KZ 

iWir cbaks, and take tbdr hats off, whilst the women shake th^ faiw 
in paaptitg salutalioo, 

la winier the Pa^o takes place at noon, aad contiaues uatil dinner. 
In spring and summer it commences at sunset, and is not entirely over 
until after midnight ; for the Spaniards usually pass the siesta of the 
hot seasp^ in slaep^ and then having dressed, tliemselves, they sally out 
in the i^eqing fresh and buoyant. 1 was so unfortunate as to leave 
Mi^drid just when winter was lifting his frosty &nger« from the face of 
mature, and when returning vegetation denoted the approach of happiei 
tioifs. Thus I missed the pleasure of passing a summer's evening on 
the Prad<». But I beard much upon the subject ; for Florencia, whea 
she urged my k>nger stay, drew a vivid picture of its attractions. It 
^^ppears^ thai in that season the walks are carefully sprinkled in antici^ 
uition, and if it be a feast day the fountain^ throw their watera higher. 
In the evening thousands of chairs are placed in readine^, in which 
the ladies uke their seats in circles, and hold their UrhiUas under the 
trees. Bare-beaded boys circulate with lighted matehes for the ae« 
«oi|iiaodation oCthe smokers. Aguadorts are at hand with water that 
if fre^b and qiarkling. Half-naked ValeiicifLns ofler orac^s and 
pmegraaates. Old women praiee their dukes^ or ftweetmeat^ fon 
wl^ph the Medriknios have quite a passion, whilst the waiters of^ 
«^iBi§hb(Miriiig bottilkria bring iees ai^ sherbets to gratify the palataa 
of^b^tbii^tj* i^ildren are heard i^n eyery side, ooUecied in Boiaj 
g|F^lup«y at their peasant games and pastimes, whilst the humble^ crovi^ 
9$if^ themselves in circles under tlye ti^ees, and scratch their gnitarsy 
4u>d raisii their voices^ to make music for aJight^beeled couple, wka trip 
ij^ gaily in the midst. Meantime, the falling waters of the neighbo^rinf . 
finw^m impact a coolness to the a^, v h^cb cofpes perfumed from the 
Bcj^btiofituig gai den with the tixoims pf eveij clime, aad bm;d«imd 
with the song of the mt^ciitV. 

; Who can say enough in praise of th(B Pw0 f It fiinnsbes an amqpe- 
m^pt U once delightful and inaocfnty ^d from which opt even the 

rrest are exdud^ — • school where the public manners and the pub*- 
morab ase beautified aad refined by social intercourse, and by 
mutual obsevvaiLioa ; whece families meet families, and friends meet 
friendsi as upon a qeiptcai ground-^inform themselves of each other's 
aSaife, unr#strtjned'|^y ffsreaiopiiaJ, and keep alive an intimacy, with- 
out Mie fiynual.iti^ «f .#. Wsit. In theae de%htfiil associations, persons 
of every (fnk «nd of every calling forget their exclusive pretenaions,. 
whilst tbe ;Soft9r 4fix> to whom bfkuig the attributes Qf modesty md. 
9i^ Wmte inj^eewim^ and shed a oberm oirer the whole assemblage. 



(In iUddUidn to the stilted daily Pastp upon the Piado, tbisre are in 
t^iOf#r9f^i^f i;^ year at Msdrid, several periodical ones ; such as wbefi 
the devout go on the day of San Bias, to make their prayers at the her- 
miiaM ^of tlMt iliustxiona saaat and bishop. Aaatfaer takes ^ace on 
Saint Anthony's day, wkea all the world promenadae aa fireai<rflh»' 
30 



154 I9EW CASriLfi. 

eonretit of San Anton lo-Escolapios, in the caile Hortaleza. I had th« 
rare fortune to witness this spectacle, and, much as I had seen of Spain, 
it appeared to me roost sinjTwfar. It may, perhaps, appear stilt more 
so to the reader. The fact is, that Saint Anthony, though a very good 
man, was both poor and a laborer. Hence, when beatified by the 
fiithcr of the church, and pronounced to be actually in the firoition of 
heaven, and in a situation to intercede for sinners, the stigma of his 
Worldly humility still clung to him, so that he never became any more 
than a vulgar saint, the patron of the common people in Spain, to 
#hom he is familiarly known by the nickname of San Anton. More 
especially is he the protector of farmers, horse^jockeys, muleteers, 
mules, and asses, cows, hogs, and horses. Nay, he is even the saint of 
the sinfbl sailor, who, when he has more wind than he wants, and a 
rough sea, begs Saint Anthony to take some of it back again ; and if 
he has none at all, being a Spaniard and aware of the efficacy of a 
btibc', he says, * 8opla ! sapia ! San Anton y le daH an ptzj * Blow ! 
blow, Saint Anthony, and you shall have a fish !' 
: Saint Anthony's day; if I remember rightly, falls somewhere in the 
Month of Jahiiary. In Madrid it was a complete feast day, though T 
believe a voluntary one r for in addition to the many prescribed feasts 
in Spain, upon which it is unlawful to do any lafior, there are likewise 
flevenal When the people might work if they would ; but it is so mocb 
harder to work than to let it alone, that many follow the latter course 
Ky preference, or else fall into it whilst they are thinking aibout the 
Ritttter. On the present oocasiou the streets of Hortaleza were earif 
paraded by squadrons of filthy celctd&res,^ who maintained order amongst 
th^ throng of the populace, moving in the direction of the content It 
Was tiot, however, until noon that the promenade of the wealthy com-' 
Menced, and then carriages and horsemen were intermingled with Uie 
pedestrians, as we have seen upon the Prado. 

Many of those who took part in this^/tmcton came to procure a oharm 
or receive a benediction, more to be amused by the spectacle. Having- 
been drawn in by a current of devotees, I was foiced to enter the 
church door, stumbling over two or three beggars that strewed the 
way, and found myself in a crowd consisting chiefly of females; who 
Were kneeHrtg before a table, at which presided a jelly fKar^ muttering^ 
a spell and crossing each with a bone of Saint Antbonj. As each WMe 
f^om her knees, she threw a piece of money into a bot, which Mood 
convenient to receive it, and then passed to where a yonng Levite Bold 
consecrated rosaries and charmed scapuhiries, to hang about th^ decke 
of children ; also, a lame ballad in praise of San Anton. Having gone 
through all the motions like the rest, I turned to look upon the massive 
walls around me, which, in addition to many gloomy paintings and 
statues, were everywhere hong with pieces of beeswax, moalded into 
the shape of arms, legs, i«^t, or babies ; a pions offering: of the affliet* 
eH to procure alleviation of suffering in a correspondent part (^ the 

'^Ododorci— 0en«d*arm». WelMwetogoto4ieFf0iichlorthe wwd; noruM* 
wa envy ten the thing. 



NEW CASTILE. ' - 186 

body-^be cure of a sick baby, or a happy deliviBry. Tbeae waie* 
offeriogs form oo inconsiderable item of revenue to such ooovents aa 
are reputed for miraclea ; for when a good quantity is accumulated^ 
they are melted down indiscriminately, feet^ heada, and babies, aad 
are made into candles, which are paid for at a good price on the oecar* 
sion of a funeral mass ; when the corpse is surrounded by wa& tapera, 
in numbers proportionate to the rank and standing of the dead ntait 
It was here, too, if I mistake not, that I saw in a chapel the pictsre of 
a naval officer in sword, chapeau, and small clothes, xepresented as 
kneeling on the steps of the same altar, near which the picture was 
hanging. Getting behind a column, I copied the following iascriptioo, 
which, for aught ( know, may have been traced by one of the heroes 
of Trafalgar. ' El Cajntemnk-^navio de la real armada Den BemU 
Vivero, halkmdose afligido de una enflfnuecffui nervosa, acudiS id Senior ^ 
y luego d alivole, Enero^ 1818.' — 'Captain Vivero, commander of a 
ship of the line in the royal navy, being affiicted with a nervous discM^ 
der, sought succor of the lord, and immediately found alleviation/ i 
This is in the interior of the convent ; without, the benefioent io^ 
fluence of the saint was not confined to man ; but extended lo Urn 
whole brute family, of which he was the patron. The convent of Saa 
^ntonip stands at a corner, and has windpws on a second street, which 
makes a right ang^e. with the caUt Hortaleza. In the cloisters, imnli^ 
iliately behind one of these windows, stands a chapel which may be 
discovered from without. Here a friar of the order, more lemarkabb 
for being well fed than cleanly, and who had altogether the gross and 
jsensual look of a ipan of this world, qualified with a good share of 
plebeian vulgarity, stood with a small mop or ^rinkler in his haadi, 
with which he shook holy water upon such as passed under the wui^ 
dow. A continuous string of horses, mules, and asses, kept coDstantijr 
filing through the street, and pausing a moment in turn to receive the 
genial shower. Each rid^r brought a sack of barley which the firiar 
Bad his men lided into the whidow, where it was moistened with the 
holy water, and well stirred up with a piece of Saint Anthony. It was 
then returned ; the friar received a peseta, which he put carefully into 
the sleeve of his frock, whilst the other party to the bargain trotted off, 
holding the barley tightly before him, and happy in the assuraaee that 
his cattle might now be cured of any malady, even though bewitched, 
by administering a handful of this consecrated fodder. It was qvite 
^musing to see the different moods in which the various animals X9» 
ceivea the wholesome application. A horse, as he was -forced mp le 
the window, would rear and plunge for fear of the friar ; a mule woaM 
either kick, or go side wise, or rub the legs of his rider against the waU^ 
lather from perverseness than timidity ; but Jack would busy himself 
jn picking up the fallen grains of his predecessor, or hold his I 
down and take it patiently. Indeed, you may do anything with i 
provided you don't touch his ears ; but this is a discrovery which 1 1 
afterwards in Andalusia. 

,. Most of the people who stood nigh weie amused with this display #f 
monkish jugglery ;. none, however, seemed rnoreiseosiMe 4otbe.fi4it 



156 NEW CASTILE. 

cole of tho tcene, than a uoisy erew of boys, who bad collected under 
the window. Grasping the iron rejas, they clambered np in order to 
see better, until the ill natiired friar lost at once his patience and self- 
poflsesaton, and fell to driving thera down by dashing holy water into 
tlieir eyes. Thus, the boys got for nothing, and a few hearty corses 
into the b«irgaiu, what the muleteers were buying with their ptseta$. 
Nor were there wanting others who seemed scandalised and iiidignani 
that Mrangers should witnese this degradation. 1 noticed particularly 
one haggard and proscribed looking fellow, with a long beard and m 
tattered cloak, who shrugged his shouldt^rs and said to me with energy^ 
*Estas mm toHterias Espaniolas.* ' These are Spanish fooleries ! ' 

But the moat singular appendage of this funcian of Saint A nthony, 
was the group of beggars collected about the front of the convent. On 
this occasion I recc^ntsed many wretches, wnom I had boen in the 
habit of aeeing at particular stands as 1 made my rambles over the city* 
Ivdeed, it seemed as though a deputation of the vilest had been got 
together on this occasion. There were decrepit old men and helpless 
women, each hovering over an earthern dish of embers. These ob> 
scrueted tho way so that yon could scarce eater the portal without tread* 
mg upon them ; an accident which they seemed to esteem fortunate^ 
since it was soro to be followed by remuneration. They had forgotten 
all their everyday supplications in the name of Maria Santisima dei 
dtrmm f-^La Virgen M Pilar ! or Santiago Aposiol .'—for now 
adaptiAfr their soikg with admirable tact to the occasion, they b^ged 
«»ly for the love of Saint Anthony. The generous received the thanks 
ctC the mendicant, who prayed ' that all might go well whh him, that he 
Blight have health in body and lA soul, which are the true riches, and 
iWially that he might be delivered from morul sin.' The unchariuble 
w^e snarled at by some, and more skilfully reproached by others, who 
wishing to make an impression upon those who came after, restrained 
tlieir indigpation and prayed that God would bestow wealth and honors 
upon the church, that he might have wherewith to give to the miserable. 



There is, perhaps, nothing with which the stranger is more struck 
and mors ofihnded in Madrid, than with the extent of mendicity. 
There are, indeed, abundance of hospitals and infirmaries, where the 
poor of the city might all be received and cared for. But they are not 
subject to compulsion, and such is the charm of liberty that many pre* 
Ifinr to roam about, uncertain whether they are to eat their next fciod to* 
day or to-morrow, to comfortable quarters and regular meals coupled 
With the conditions of seclusion and discipline. Unfortunately the 
finnli^ of gaining a subsistence in Spain by begging is so great, €on-> 
tnfttad with the shackled condition of the laborer, that, notwithstand- 
ing the national pride, many able bodied men prefer the former witli 
all its degradation. This facility comes in part from the ruinous' prae^ 
Hoes of oettaitt eonsoientiotts Christians, who give each day a portion 
of tlieir abnndenee is the poor; sobm liom a mistaken sense of pie^. 



NEW CASTILE. I5T 

otiien infloenoed by f emor w lor eril aclionSy which, though they may 
be regretted, can neyer be recalled. The most prominent cmiue, how* 
ever, of this evil is found in'*the system pursued by the clergy, who 
distribute daily at the gates of their churches and conrents a certain 
paH of their substance, as though they were not satisfied with the iosa^ 
which society already sustains by their own idleness and dissipation. 
No sight, indeed, can be more degrading than one which I have ofteli 
witne«sed at the gate of San Isidro, the church and college of the now 
reestablished Jesuits. There, at the hour of noon, a familiar bHnffs oxit 
a copper caldron filled with soup, which he senres round in equu por- 
tions to each of the hungry crew brought together by the occasion. 
Should a scramble take j^ace for precedence, the familiar soon restores 
order by dashing the hot soup amongst them with his long iron ladle. 

From all these reasons Madrid abounds in beggars. There is not a 
frequented street or corner in the city, but is the l^bitual stand of somto 
particular occupant, and even the charms of the pasta are too ofUtti 
qualified by their unwetoome intrusion. They enter boldly into every 
honse where there is no porter to stop them at the vestibule, and pene* 
trate to the doors of the diUbrent habitations, where they make th^fr 
presence known by a modest ring. Though often greeted at first with 
a sound scolding, they seldom go away empty-hand^, especially if they 
happen to apped to a woman, for the female heart is easily opened by 
a story of misfortune. I had occasion to see this in the house where i 
resided; for the daughter of my host, when she found her door thtto 
besieged, would be exceedingly angry for a moment ; btft if a poor 
wretch stood his ground and grew eloquent, she would at length soften, 
the frown would vanish from her brow, and ejaculating *Pobreeitof' 
she would hurry away to bring some cold meat or . a roll of bread. 
The successftil beggar would then kiss the gift devotttly, and say with 
feeling, as he turned away, * Dios u to pagara!* — 'God Will re- 
ward you ! ' 

The churches, however, are the most frequented stands of the beg- 
gars. They alvrays collect in the morning about the doors and near 
the holy water, which they take from the basin and offer on the ends 
of their fingers, or with a brush made for the purpose, to such as come 
up to mass or to confession. Yhese poor wretches have doubtless found 
from experience that the most pious are likewise the most charitable. 

However one may be prejudiced against this system of mendicity, it 
is impossible for him, if he have any compassion, to move untouched 
through the streets of Madrid — misery assumes so many and such . 
painful aspects, and one is so often solicited by the old, the infirm, the 
macerated, nay, I had almost said, by the dying. In my winter 
morning walks down the street of Alcala, to make a turn through the 
solitary allies of the Prado, I used to see a poor emaciated wretch, 
who seemed to haunt the sunny side of the street and seat himself 
tipon the pavement, rsther to be warmed after a long and chilly night, 
spent, perhaps, upon the stones of some court-yard, than to beg from * 
"Am few who passed at that early hour. Though sinking rapidly into 
decay, he was yet a very young man, scarce turned of twenty, and» 



15P NEW CASTILB/ 

whilst his red hair and florid complexion bespoke the native of Biae&j 
or Asturias, the military trowaers which he wore, unless the gill of 
some charitable trooper, showed that he had been a soldier. When 
any one passed, he would stretch out his hand and move his lipfl^ as 
if asking charity ; but whether his voice were gone, or that he was 
not used to beg, he never uttered more than an inarticulate rattle. 
I had several times intended to ask a story, which mast, doubtless, 
have been a sad one; but ere I had done so, the poor fellow ceased to 
jeturu to his usual stand. The last time I saw him, he was crawling 
slowly down a cross street, bent nearly double, and supporting bis un* 
steady steps, as he went, with a staff in cither hand. 

At the coming out of the theatre of Principe, a little girl, bareheaded 
and with naked feet, though in the middle of winter, was in the habit 
of patrolling the street tiuough which the crowd passed. She usually 
finished her night's task by returning home through our street^ bagging 
as she went Frequently, when I had just got into bed, and was yet 
shivering with cold, would I hear her shrill and piercing voice, bf)rne 
Upon the keen wind and only alternated by an occasional footfall, or 
by the cry of the sereno as he told the hours; 'A esta pobrecita parft 
comprar zapatos; que no tiene padre ni madre!* — * For this poor little 
creature to buy shoes ; she has neither father nor mother 1 ' 

The road from the Gate of the Sun to the library^vas the habitual 
stand of a young man, a deaf mute, who sat cross-legged in a gray 
capote, with his hat before him and a bell in his hand. The sense of 
his misfortune, of his complete separation from the rest of the human 
family, seemed to have tinged his character with a degree of brutal 
ferocity, at least such was the expression of his countenance. He took 
no notice of those who gave to him, but sat all day in one of the coldest 
streets of the city, ringing his bell and uttering sounds, which, as be 
knew not how to modulate them so as to strike a tone of supplication 
came harshly upon the ear, like nothing so much as the moans sent 
forth by the wounded victims of the arena. 

A sturdy wretch, in the garb of Valencia, constantly infested the 
Calle Montera, placing himself along the narrow acua of flag stones 
reserved for foot pastscngers. Here he would stretch himself on hi^ 
side flat upon the cold pavement, with nothing between his head and 
the stones, but a matted mass of uncombed hair and the tatters of a 
handkerchief. His body was rolled in a blanket, and a young child 
of a year or two, either his own or hired for the occasion, raised it^ 
filthy head besiege him. But the most disgusthig part of the picture 
was a nearly naked leg, thrust out so as to cut off the passage of the 
walkers and drive them into the middle of the street. It was partially 
rolled in a dirty linen, so soiled and moistened as to bear testimony to 
the ulcers which it covered but did not conceal. The man was well 
made and able bodied, yet his sores were, doubtless, carefully kept 
from healing, for they constituted the stock in trade — the fortune af 
the mendicant. This, miscreant was my greatest eyesore in Madrid; 
stretched out as I have desciibed, the child was always kept crying 
either from the intense cold or because its legs were getting pinched 



NEW CASTILE. \St 

l^neath th^ blanket ; whilst the wretch himself shouted in an impera- 
tive tone, and without the inter?eiftion of any saint ; *Me da ^ated MUtf 
kmoina! ' — which, talcing the manner into consideration, amounted to^ 
*Give me alms and be damned to you ! ' 

But the most singfolar instance of mendicity I have erer seen, wttf 
IbnuBlied by a couple whom I one day met in .the Red San Luis. 
Tbe principal personst^e was a big blind nftin, whose eyelids werer 
tnrsed ap ajid fiery, aira who oanried upon his shoulders a most singu- 
hnr being with an immeriito head and a pair of thin elastic legs, whicly 
were' caiied' and twisted ronn^ the neck of hrs companion.' The 
IbllDW overhead carried a bundle of ballads, which both were sitigitrg 
at the top of 'their longs.' Behind tbem came a patient ass, tied to the 
nriddle of tbe blind man, and loaded with their effects, as though ttiey 
were passiog through on their way to some other place, or were coming 
Id make some stay in the capital. They seemed to get along very w^ 
by tlma joining their fortunes; for whilstthe blind man efl^tedth^t^ 
k>cbliiatfon, tbe cripplo shaped their course, 90 as ta avoid the obstedMfSf 
which lay in the way, jested with the other beggars and blind meuf 
whom they met, or held out his hat to receive the oflR^ring of the 
dhaifiable. This may appear comic enough, but it wa9 not ad to me; 
as I came suddenly' upon' the couple after turning a corner. Tlif^ 
bodies were, indeed, so twisted and entangled as> te gi^e at 'firat the 
idea of a' single behig, fbrming a real combination, more moiMilroua 
tlHMilhefebled one of the Centaur. ■ . • ./ 



' TkenMMt numeroiM class of mendicanfa in Madrid arethe bllnti** 
and they are also the moat worthy of pity, since their misfortone ie 
always involuntary. For, though we know on better authority thanthan 
of fiwQuBAan de Alfarache, that beggars will sometimes deform their 
bodies and ' cultivate sores, yet is there no record of a single oAe who 
ever parted with his eyes. They endeavour, too, to render themself e» 
tMffl^ by hawking ballads about the streets, and crying the numbet tr 
of a«^h lottery tickets as may yet be purchased. Nor are they so dkhf- 
aa n\ui rest of the beggarly brotherhood ; since their misfortune, being 
mih as to apeak for itself, needs not the appendage of rags to excite 
pfty» • It was not the least amusing sight commanded from my balcony, 
to look down upon the Puerta del Soi, and watch the blind men as they 
moved' about with the most perfect confidence. When <me of them 
wanted* to pass from a particular spot to one of tbe eight streets which 
discharge themselves there, he would take his station at the corner, 
aiMf having felt the angle of the building, and noticed, as it seemed to 
me, the bearing of the sun and the direction of the wind, he would set 
oet and move onward with the utrriost precision, his staff extending 
before him, and the fingers of his left hand bent wistfully, as if the 
sensibility of the whole body were concentrated in their extremities. 
0*ce I saw two of them, who were going in opposite directions, knock 
•lavee tsgether, and meet in the middle. They knew eaoh other- 



IW NEW CASTILE. 

«t mce, shook htnda cordialjj, nni bad a lo^g oonven^HioB, dovbdeM 
coacerniDg 4be gaio« and adveniuref of U^ morning, for jlbe^ ax? ihe 
most gairrolous beings in ail Spaiq. This ov^, they compared tlieif 
reckonings, like two ships exchan^ring their ]oQgitud<» at seik, %»id then' 
coatinued on, each arri?ing exactly at (ui respo^ve destinatioo. 

Blindness is not peculiar to (hi^ lower daises in the central vegioil. 
of Spain ; many people in the ipiddle and higher walks of life^efo tbMf 
efflicted, and the pasta is daily freque^ited by tb^io^ leaniiig oo^lie iww« 
of a servunt or a friend. I was so much struck with the numbei of thi» 
blind in Madrid, as to seek a cause fof it in the ardent energy of th# 
«on in this cloudless region, combined with the naked and nnehekmie4 
condition of the counuy. Ind^e4» though I was not in Madcid in Ihe 
hot season, I frequently found iiicpovenienco to my eyes, from walking^ 
along the sandy roads which surround the capital. Peyron^ however, 
Ml his sprightly essays, attributes the evil \o ih^ intempisfate nasi el 
bleeding' among the Spaniards ; a practice, which is scarcely less pnava^ 
lent a9W than in the days of Pr Sangrado, at least if ^m may jndgei 
ftom the number of persons whose busineea it is to draw blood, for 
ef ^y street in Spain has its barber, and every barber bleeds. Peyson 
tells OS that it is quite common to hear a Spaniard say* when qnestmied. 
a<>neerning the health of a friend, ' Pedro was a tittle unwell yesterday ; 
bMjt hfi hA8 been bled four times and is now better-' 

If rank and wealth cannot ar^rt tb^s aAlioAion^ mUhor can theyairaU 
when associated with youth and b^^y. 1 cbanped to aM0t 0B0 
evening at a ball in Madrid, a lovely girl, scarce ripened into woman- 
hood, who was quite blind. She was somewhat under the middle size, 
with the form of a sylph, and features that the uncontrolled pencil of 
tte::Paintnr ^iildsoaroe have fo|wsed fairer. Her eyes, too» did sol 
b|ar t(^f$imsmy to their own imperfection; but had only a pensive 
qj^Blanoboly air, which they seemed to borrow from their half ckwed Mb 
apd ailli^^ ksbas. I bad from the first been struck with tbs appasnaon 
<^ this young unfortunate; but when I knew her affliction^ my inlemst 
was at once angmented. There was, indeed, something inexpffessibly 
touching in her condition, as she wandered from room to room, leaning 
^ith confidence upon the arm of her mother. How truly hard to fai 
thus cut off from so many sources of innocent enjoyments !*-lo bo 
insensible to the brilliancy of the illumination, to the richness of tkn 
ornaments, to the various dresses and decorations suggested by fsney 
or authorized by rank, to the rivalling charms and jewels of tlie beaiitir 
ful, lo the looks of mingled solicitude and admiration directed towards 
her by the other sex, nay, perhaps, to be even unconscious of her 
own loveliness? 

She could, however, at least hear the kind words addr es s ed lo her 
by her acquaintance, she could appreciate belter than any other the 
excellence of the music. Nan did her affliction ezdude her fimn thn 
dance; for whenever the formal movements of the qoadrille were 
alternated by the more graceful waltz, she allowed herself to be < 



dncted into the circle formed by those who had gathered round to 
admire the harmony of her exoenlkm* Nono^indMd, sMvod in tkm 



NEW CASTILE. 161 

circling eddies with so rare a grace ; and when, tcrwarda the eondtision, 
•the time became more rapid, and the feet of the dancers moved quicker, 
• none spumed the carpet with so trne a 6tep. There was a confiding 



lietptessness about this lovely creature more truly feminine than any- 
tiling I had yet seen in woman. The waltz, too, which she so beaotlfiilly 
^neented, seemed to gain a new fascination, and now, if ever called 
epon to make its eulogy or to plead its defence, I have a triumphant 
-^rgVHiient by saying, that it may be danced by a blind giri. 



In speaking of the amosements of Madrid, gaming should not be 
forgotten, since it is there, as throughout the Peninsula, an all pervad- 
aog passion, which extends to every age, sex, and condition. Ittdeed, 
so gefteral is it, that it may be said to extend even to the most destitute ; 
for I scarcely ever went into the streets of Madrid, without seeing 
'fmups of boys, beggars, and ragamuffins, collected in some sunny 
eorner, each risking the few cuartos he possessed in ^e attempt to 
irin those of his companions. The most common way of playing, 
however, is by means of the lottery, which here, as in many other 
Bftfopean oountries, is an appendage of the state. The principal 
k>tter7, called the Loteria Modema, is divided into twentyfive thousand 
4iekets, which are sold at' two dollars each. One fourth of the net 
amount of fifty thousand dollars, produced by the sale of the tickets, 
-is taken off by government to pay the expenses of the central admin- 
istration, and of the numerous offices established, like the estaneos, fyt 
the sale of tobacco, in every street of the capital, and in every town of 
4lie kingdom. The balance remaining after these disbursements, forms 
an inporlaBt item of the public revenue. There are eight hundred 
«nd tbiftyseven prizes, the highest being of twelve thousand dollars. 
^Tlie haUna ModehM draws at the end of each month, a circumstance 
whioh yon never foil to be apprised of, by the blind beggars, who get 
•about the doors of the lottery offices, or at the principal comers, and 
M the whole city with uproar. The cause of this commotion is, that 
•tlMy learn from the keepers of the lottery what tickets are still for sale, 
•had, selecting two or th^ee at hazard, get them set down upon a scrap 
'Hf paper, «id having learned them by rote, go forA to cry them in the 
streets. Nor do they h,i\ to mix in arguments of persuasion, when 
'Speaking of the numbers of their choice. * Twelve thousand dollars 
for two,' say they; Mt draws tonmonrow, and the day after you may 
eome witii your stocking and carry away the money, taking care that it 
be net a Valencian stocking — euidado gut no sea media tie Vakntiaf*^ 

The eloqttenoe and the wit of these blind men, though it may some- 
•4hiies foil, is often efi^tual. I have fi^quently seen a man, after passing 
Hm lottery office resohitely, pause to listen to the cry of the blind man, 
I to reason with himself; if he has gained before and stopped 



"IhssMderwiU mmsnAsr tfasfc the stiMttig sf a ValMMiMi 
Sfpof. 

21 



W* NEW CASTItS. 

fhfiBg on tbati vei:j aocouui, be asks himself, why he may no! be 
saecMsfiil again; if, on the contrary, he has heen uniformly unfos- 
tunate, h^ m^iW/w a moment--4akes the paper with the numbers, 
and gives the heggar a real; for this handling th^ paper and crying 
the numbers hy tb^ poor is thought to gi?e luck« Then sweariag 
that it is the l«s^ time, he unfolds his cloak, takes out his purse, and 
fuiterp the> office. In this way the winners and losers from the most 
opposite moiives fall npon; the same course. Now the whole population 
of Madrid may be divided into winners and losers. I saw something 
of the operation of this system in my own house; for Don Valentin, 
though strictly economical, nay, more than half a miser, was in the 
constant practice of setting aside a portion of the little gains of each 
mont)i fpr the purchase of lottery tickets. His manner of betting, too, 
was most ea^traordinary; for he always bought quarters, and would thus 
spend four dollars over eight tickets. It was impossible to convince 
him of the lolly of this course, much less could he be persuaded to 
have nothing to do with the matter. He used always to answer, that 
he bad no longer any hopes but in the lottery ; and if Florencia asked 
him good humpredily for hex dowry, he would pat her on the cheek'— 
fcfTk though ugly and one-eyed, he was yet affectionate— and say, 
' ^a ia hieria esta kija mia I* Nor was the girl herself free from the 

fenerai infection ; for if she ever got any money, the first thing was to 
uy a pair of silk stockings or spangled shoes, and then the rest took 
the road to th6 lottery. 

As for the drawipg, it takes placa in >he large hall of the 4jrtnito* 
jfdento^ dedicated on other occasions to the purposes of justice. At 
ipqe end is a statue covered with a dais, and flanked by a painting of 
.^h9 Crucifixion. Here presides a counsellor of state, decorated wiUi a 
yajriety of stars and crosses, and supported by other functionaries of 
inferior rank. The counsellor sits at the centre of a large table, and 
the officers of the lottery are placed round on either hand, with pecs 
.and paper. In front of this table, and in a conspicuous station near 
t^e edge of the platform, are two large gh>bes, which contain, ooe, 
tiM9 wh9ie number of tickets, the other, the different prizes* Thene 
globes, hang upon pivots, and are easily made to vibrate, so as to miic 
!the balls between each drawing. Near each globe, a boy is stationed, 
dressed in uniform, and with long sleeves tied tightly about the wrist, 
,10 as to remove the possibility of any fraudulent substitution. Whtft 
drawing, the boy who has the numbers, takes out one at each lotatioa, 
and reads it off distinctly three times ; the boy who has the other g^obe, 
dees the same, and the balls are then passed to the officers who stand 
behiiMit by whom they are again called off, and then strung i^)^ iron 
xods. If the prizes be high, both balls are handed to the counsellor, 
who reads them off three times in a distinct voice. These ppeeautioitf 
me rauderod necessary by the suspicion of the people, vf ho have little 
ooofidenpe in the honest intentions of government. It has been s(Md 
that the unsold tickets too frequently draw prizes ; and I even heard 
that OII09 aucb a nmiiber of prizes were drawn, that the avails.of the 
tickets sold would not pay them, especially as the fourth part had 



NBW CASTILE. !«* 

Wea q>proprmted in anticipation by the government, whk^* 49 often in 
diatreas for the snmHest sums. In thia critical state of aiaira, it w«8 
•omebow contrived to overtorn the globe and a^ll the reoMCBuing 
tickets ; when the functionaries insisted that the whole lottery ahoald 
be drawn over again. The high rank of the presiding dignitary ren- 
ders this story improbable, so far, at least, aa it charges him with 
Aishonest intentions, but it is at all events an indication of the current 
ef public opinion. 

The portion of the room not occupied by the fottery, was open for 
the admission of spectators, among whom f took a place on one occasion. 
Immediately in front of the dais was a small enclosure, separated ftom 
the rest by a light railing and prorided with benches, where the women 
were accomm^ated as in a public pound. They came in large nnnn 
bars, composed for the most part of the loose, the old, and the ugly. 
In the rear was a ptomiscuous collection of men, some well dresMd^ 
more ragged, but nearly all with the wan and bloodless look of the 
gambler, if, indeed, you except the priests in their long hats and 
gloomy garments, who, secure against the griping hand of poverty, 
seemed rather to play for amusement, than as if^ engaged in a stroggM 
for exielence. Most of the spectators were furnished with paper and 
pencil, or an inkhorn hanging at the button, to take note of the 
numbers which were drawn. Nor should the provisiems for maintakl* 
ing opder be forgotten. They consisted of a file of grenadiers of the 
Chitrdias Espaniolas, who stood like statues round the cirouit «f the 
hiJl, with shouldered arms and fixed bayonets. • *• 

When the drawing had commenced, it was a singular scette to waceli 
the ever varying countenances of the gamesters. On hearing the §M 
three or four numbers of his ticket, the face of one of them would 
snddenly brighten ; he would stretch his neck forward anxiously and 
prick his ears with expectation. Bot if the result did not meet Me 
iMipes, if the last number were the wrong one, the expression ohinged 
and he slunk back to hide his disappointment. If, however, the nnm^ 
ber were indeed perfect, fortune was now within his* reach, add his 
hopes knew no bounde ; did the prize, afler all, prove an inferior one, 
he btt his lips, and seemed vexed at the boy for having made so poor 
a selection. 

As I turned to quit this authorized den of vice and wickedness, t 
paused a moment at the door to carry away a distinct impressHMi of the 
spectacle. What a singular combination ! thooght I, as my eye waft- 
&red over the group, pausing now on the priests, the soldiers, tbe^ 
women, the well dressed, the ragged, the officers of the lottery, the 
riehly clad representative of royalty, until at last it fixed itself upon the 
lamge ol him, who was made from his cross to look down upon and 
anction the scewe — the martyred founder of Christianity! 

It were a grutuitous task to say anything of the vice of this system ; 
of the loss of money and of time which it occasbns, principally to those 
who can least afford to lose either ; of an almost equal loss which 
society sustains in the unproductive employment of those who live bf 
•he lottery ; in Spain, as everywhere, a vile and worthless cmw of 



164 NEW CASTILE. 

Mood sacken^ who prey upon the vitals of the comrnQDity^ or, wor«t «f 
ally of the baneful effects it must necessarily produce upon the piihiio 
morals* These are truths which are present to every mind. 



Bui befiNre quitting this subject^ it msy be well to give some aocouaft 
of a minor lottery which exists in Madrid, and which may be considered 
a miniature of the LaUria Modema^ inasmuch as the tickets, instead 
of selling for two dollars^ cost but as many euartos. This is the Hog 
Lottery. It is held at one corner of the Puerta del Sol, opposite the 
church of Buen Suceso. There, a memoriaUsta has his little pent* 
house, placed against the wall of the corner store, and carries on the 
. business of selling the tickets. As the memoriaUsta is a very importaul 
personage in Spain, it may not be amiss to say that his employment iS|^ 
to copy documents, and write letters or draw up petitions, with a doe 
observance of the forms and compliments in use among his countrymen.. 
As he is far too poorly paid to be at the expense of a regular office, he 
is content with a small wooden box, to which he bears the same rela- 
tion that a tortoise does to its shell, which may be moved about with him 
at pleasure^ and which he is allowed for a trifle to set down against a 
wall or in a court-yard. But the memorialistas are by no means suoh 
transitory beings as this facility of locomotion might imply ; indeed^ 
to look on one of them, seated in his little tenement, half hidden under 
an old cocked hat and black cloak as thin as a cobweb, and busily 
empk>yed in forming antique characters upon Moorish paper, with a 
pea old enough to have served Cide Hamete Beoengeli in writing the 
mp and actions of Don Cluixote, and ever and anon, pausing and 
placing hi» pen over the right ear, whilst he warms his fingers or lights 
his dgarilh over the chalng-dish of charcoal beside him — when one 
seesi this, I say» he can scarce believe that the memoriaUsta has noi 
been thus occupied for at least a century. 

The most frei^uented stand of these bumble scribes is in the rear of 
the Casa de Correos, where their boxes are placed so dose to eaob 
other, as to form narrow apertures between, which are used by night 
for a variety of purposes. Here they are ready throughout the day to 
4o whatever may be required of them, more especially to expound let«- 
ters just received by the post, and to indite answers for such unl ea rne d 
persons as can neither read nor write, a class sufficiently numeroue 
in Spain. They also muster in force about the purlieus of the palace, 
to draw up petitions lor those who have busineas with the king, hie 
ministers, or with the servants of his household. In uuth the meate* 
riaUsta is indispensable in Spain, for no business of any kind cim theie 
be done, without the intervention of a memorial, or, as it is more fse* 
quemly called in the diminutive, with a .view, perhaps, to show the 
modesty of the supplicant, a memoriaUto. 

To return to the Gate of the Sun, whence we have so unwittin^y 
wandered; the memoriaUsta in question, was, like the rest of hie 
fraternity,, a threadbare, half starved man^ who sat all day in his humUft 



NBV7.CASTI1E. 16ft 

^f&aiAummt milinf the tickets of the hog lottery. He alwajs looked 
ooM Mid torpid in the BNirtuniry thawing gradually towards Aoon, when 
the sun got from hehind ihejofade of Buen Soceao. It was then, too» 
that the idle frequenters of the Gate of the Swa, began to gather round 
him^ either to take up tickets or to praise the good qualities of the hog» 
who reposed upon straw ia a second shed, beside that of his roaster^ and 
who was made very uncoDsciously, the subject of so much discussion. 
This they might well do, for the animal was always a choice one; in 
fad, the breed of hogs in Spain is the finest in the world, unless^ 
perhaps, their equals may be found in Africa, whence they came, for 
auf ht I know, though Mahomet was no pork-eater, at the time of the 
oofiquest. The hog chosen as a subject for the lottery was always 
Uack, without any hair, and enormously fat, having dimples in every 
diredion, such as are to be found about the neck and chin of many a 
stout gentleman. His legs were short, thin, and sinewy, with a well 
made head and curly tail. 

The price of tickets in the hog lottery is such as to exclude no one^ 
however poor, so that even the mendicants can take a chance. This 
is especially the case with the blind men, who, as we have already seen, 
are better to pass in Spain than the rest of the beggarly fraternity* 
When <me of these happened to pass through the Gate of the Sun, he 
almost always went towards the lottery, winding his way dexterously 
through the crowd until ^e reached the hog pen. He would then feel 
round with his staff for the occupant, and when he had reconnoitred 
him sufficiently, straightway give him a poke under the fore shoulder, 
to try if he squealled well, for these poor fellows have a thousand wtys 
of finding out things that we know nothing about. If the result 
answered his expectations, he came up behind and scratched hia^ 
tickled his ribs, and then twisted his tail, until he squealed louder 
than ever. This done, to pacify the irritated and now olamoroun 
memorudisia^ he would go at once and select a number of tieketH. 
When all are thus sold, the lottery draws with proper solemnity, and 
the successful player, well consoled for the jokes and gibes of the 
disappointed multitude, moves off in triumph with his prize. 

I have been thus particular in describing these things, because any 
new information on the subject cannot be otherwise than well received 
in a land where lotteries come in for so large a share of the public 
approbntion. We have already daily invitations, in lame prose and 
lamer poetry, to come at ooce and be wealthy ; nay, fortune, in her 
gayest garb, is seen in every street, making public proffers of her favors* 
The system should be carried to perfection ; there should be a hog lottery 
established at every corner, in order that the matter may be brought 
mose oompletely home to the means and understanding of the vulgar. 



There was yet another spectacle which I witnessed in Madrid. It 
was one of deep and painful interest — ^the capital punishment of two 
noted robbeie* The Duurio of the morning ou which it was to Uke 



186 NEW CASTILE. 

place contained a short notice that the proper anthoritidB would proceed 
CO put to death two evil doers, each of whom was called by two or 
three different names, at ten o'clock, in the Place-o^Barley— Plasoelt- 
de-la-€ebada. I had already been once a spectator of a similar scene, 
and the feeling of oppression and abasemeni— nyf utter disgust, with 
which I came from it, was such as to make me form a tacit resoltttioii 
never to be present at another. As I glanced over the Diatio on the 
morning of the execution, the recollection of what I had seen and fell 
a few months before in Montpellier, was still fresh in my memory ; bat 
when I turned to reflect that I was in a strange land— ^a land which I 
might never revisit, that a scene of such powerful excitement coald not 
ikil to elicit the unrestrained feelings of the multitude, and to bring the 
national character into strong relief, I made up my mind to be present 
on the occasion, and to overcome, or at least to stifle, my repugnance. 

With this intention I went just before ten to the prison of the Court, 
in the Plazuela-de Santa Cruz, whence the criminals were to be march- 
ed to the place of execution. There was a company of infantry of the 
Guard, drawn up on the square before the prison, ready to act as an 
escort, and a crowd of people were waiting without ; but as there were 
no hnmediate indications of a movement, I struck at once into the 
street of Toledo, and directed my steps towards the Plazuelanle-la^ 
Cebada. 



The Plazuela-de-la-Cebada is, on ordinary occasions, one of the 
principal markets of Madrid. In the centre is a fountain, in represent 
tation of abundance, and round it are a variety of wooden tenements, 
which are occupied as butchers' stalls, and garnished with a lean and 
ill-dressed assortment of beef and mutton. The rest of the area is 
filled by market men and women ; each surrounded by baskets of eggs 
or verduras, festooned with unsavory chains of garlic ; or else en- 
trenched behind conical heaps of potatoes, onions, pomegranatefl| 
tomatoes, or oranges. Here, too, one might usually see herds of hoffSi 
all dead, yet standing stiff upon their legs, with each a com cob in its 
mouth, or else hung straddling upon a barrel and striving to toueh the 
pavement with its feet. 

The company usually assembled in this square is the very hombleet 
to be found in Madrid ; for it is the old and ruinous quarter of the ci^, 
to which it serves as a market and place of congregation. Further- 
more, it is in this neighbourhood that one may find the greasy dwell- 
ings and slaughter houses of the camieeros. Here, too, pass innumerable 
carriages, carts, and wagons, going to or arriving fitmi Toledo,Talaven, 
Aranjuez, Cordova, and Seville ; not to mention strings of mules and 
asses, which are so continually filing through as to appear to be moving 
in procession. The greater part of the market people are inhabitants 
of the neighbouring country. As they do not pass the night away 
from home, they have no occasion to put up at a posada ; but bring 
their own barley, which they put in bags and tie about the heads of 



NEW CASTILE. M7 

thair mntfls. As for thttniaelTes, they either aappljr their wants firom 
Muidle be^y in which they carry bread and cheese or sausages, with a 
leathern bottle of wine ; or else go aside to the nearest corner, where 
there is always an old woman with a portable farnace of eartheriHware 
or iioDy ofer which she prepares sundry greasy stews in little earthem 

Most of these things, which rendered the Plazuela on ordinary oc- 
•aaioQs so animated, were now no where to be seen. The meat stalls 
were racant and deserted ; the baskets of Tegetables and the piles of 
frmt had been removed, whilst the hogs had either disappeared entire- 
ly, or were thrown into promiscuous heaps at one side of the Plaaa, 
wkhoat mecli attention to the symmetrical arrangement of heads and 
feet If, however, many objects were missing that are usually to be 
met with in the Plaza, there was, in return, one which I had never 
seen there befeie. This was the instrument of execution. 



There are in Spain several modes of execution. The least dishon* 
curable is to be shot ; a death more particularly reserved for the milita- 
ry» Another is the garroie, which is inflicted by placing the criminal 
in an iron chair, provided with a collar which fits closely about the 
neck. The collar is then suddenly tightened by means of a powerful 
screw or lever, and death is instantaneous. The garrote is also inflict 
ed in some parts of South America, by placing the culprit in the iron 
ohair, as before, and then introducing a wedge between the collar and 
his neck, which is broken by a single blow struck upon the wedge 
with a sledge hammer. The last and most ignominious mode is hang- 
ing by the neck ; a death more especially belonging to robbery, mur- 
der» and other ignoble crimes ; but which of late years has likewise 
been extended, with even more than the usual brutal indignities, to 
the crime of patriotism. The men, however, who were this day to 
suffer, were of no equivocal character, and no one could either dispute 
or gainsay the justice of that sentence, which had doomed them to die 
upon the gallows. 

The gallows erected on this occasion was somewhat different from 
the idea 1 had formed of its construction. It consisted of a heavy 
oaken beam, sustained in a horizontal position, upon vertical posts of 
still greater solidity. The ascent to the gallows was effected by a stout 
ladder, or rather close stair, which leaned upon the horizontal beam, 
the middle of which, immediately beside the ladder, was wound round 
with sheepskin so as to cover the edges of the wood and prevent them 
from cutting the ropes by a sudden friction. This last precaution ; 
the solidity of the structure ; everything, in short, announced a deter- 
wnation that justice should not be cheated of its victims, nor they be 
subjected to unnecessary torture. 



lOB NXW CASTOJL 

The approach to the gaUows was guarded bj eeladthres, a»d no one 
was allowed to come near it, but the verdugo or hangnan, who, aa I 
jurived in the square, asoended the ladder with lour ropes in his baad^ 
which he adjoated with muoh care — ^the whole ionr close beside each 
4»tfaer, round the middle of the beam, where it was covered with the 
fleece. The office of verdugo is in Spain utterly disreputable and a^ 
ject. Formerly it was fiiled only by Moors, Jews, and miscreants ; 
indeed, it is sti Unnecessary to adduce evidence thai one's ancestora 
were public executioners before being admitted to the degradatioB. 
Yet this office is not only accepted, but even sought after. There was 
in fact quite a concourse of oompetitors on a late oceasioii in Granadfiy 
each proving that he was descended on the side of fiither or Biolher, 
from a public hangman. The cause of this singular fact ia Ibund in 
another equally singular. In Qranada the verdugB has a certain tax 
upon all verduras or greens, whether for soup or salad, which are daity 
sold in the public market. Hence, being secure of profit, he can af- 
ford to put up with obloquy. As for the verdugo, who officiated on 
this occasion, he was a stout and rather fat man, who seemed to thrive 
well, what with good cheer and idleness. His dress was a plain round 
jacket and trowsers of brown. A broad sash of red worsted, wound 
found the middle, served as suspenders, and at the same time sustained 
a stomach which seemed greatly in need of such assistance, whilst an 
^il ck>th hat, with a narrow rim and still narrower crown, but imper- 
fectly covered his full and bloated features* Such was the figure of 
the verdugo. 

. The Plazuela-de-la-Cebada, though on this occasion its ordinary 
bustle and animation were wanting, was however by no means desert- 
ed. The balconies of the surrounding houses were crowded with 
groups of either sex, formed iuto a panoramic view, probably not un- 
like what the Plaza Mayor may present on the occasion of a bull-least. 
The a^ea below was thronged by the lower classes, blended in one 
vast and motly collection. There were abundance of sallow mechan- 
ics, tinkers, and cobblers, with leathern aprons and dirty ftces; or 
ihin legged tailors, intermingled with gaily dressed Andalusians, or 
with sturdy, athletic peasants and muleteers from the neighbouring 
plains of Castile and La Mancha. Other men there were, standing 
apart and singly, whose appearance did not indicate a particular pro- 
fession, and who, though poor and ragged, seemed too proud to be of 
any. These were covered to the nose in tattered cloaks, almost met 
by low skHiched hats, between which their eyes wandered round with 
a glance which was meant to inspire fear, but which betrayed anxiety. 
Perhaps they were robbers, companions of the condemned men who 
were soon to suffer, with whom they might have taken part in many a 
ecene .of danger and of guilt ; but who, not having as yet filled up the 
measure of their crimes, had come to witness a fate which might soon 
be their own. 

The conduct of this ill assorted crowd was not however unworthy of 
the occasion. Those who composed it seemed either fearful or unwill- 
ing to talk of the many crimes of the malefactors^ whether firom a linger- 



NEW CASTILE. IM 

tog dread of them, or lest they might be OTerheard by a coiDjiabioiu 
Some stood alone shut up within their cloaks, grave, thoaghtful, aud 
solemn ; others in silent groups, whilst here and there a countryman 
leaned over his motionless horrico^ directing his eyes in expectation 
^long the street of Toledo. No clamor was anywhere to be heard ex- 
"cept from the boys, who were dispersed about the square, clambering 
along the rgcts, so as to overlook the heads of the taller multitude, now 
quarrelling for precedence, now forced, from inability to cling longer, 
to let themselves down and abandon stations which had cost them so 
much contention. There were also a few blind men singing a ballad, 
which they had for sale, and which consisted of prayers for the mea 
who were about to die ; and now and then a person passed through the 
crowd, who, as a self-prescribed penance, for which perhaps he took 
care to be well paid, went about ringing a bell and begging cuartos to 
buy masses for the souls of the male^ctors. 

The few moments employed in reaching the Plaza and walking 
round it, sufficed to make these observations ; but the arrival of the 
prisoners was much more tardy. Indeed, ten o'clock went by, and 
eleven was likewise tolled from the towers of many surrounding con- 
vents, without any indication of their approach. The day a« it chanc- 
ed was cold and sunless, such as in winter may be found even in 
Madrid, and the air of that chilly, heartless kind, which sets at defiance 
our endeavours to keep it out by additional clothing, and which will 
even find its way to the fireside, coming over us with a feeling of miaa* 
ry. In addition to all these incitements to melancholy, which were 
common to me and the crowd about me, I had a peculiar cause to be reat* 
less, from feeling myself alone as Idid in the midst of so many beings, 
between whose sympathies and my own, there could be ne congeniality. 
All these things bore so hard upon me, that I began at last to look with 
anxiety for the coining of the criminals. But when 1 came to compare 
their condition with my own, I could not but reproach myself for my 
impatience. * The remainder of their lives/ said I, ' is aU condensed 
into the present hour, and it — already on the wane. This remnant of 
existence may be infinitely valuable to them in making their peaee 
with men and in seeking reconciliation with Heaven. And yet yott, 
who, perhaps, have years in store for you, would rob them even of thii 
to escape from a short hoar of weariness and inactivity.' 

I had before only been disgusted with the soene around me ; b«t 
now becoming disgusted with myself, I turned away to beguile mf 
impatience by wandering through the nei^bouring churches, I a^ 
mired anew the vast dome of San Domingo, and made once more the 
circuit of the convent The cloisters were even colder than the street 
They were, besides, painted on every side with the actions of the pait- 
ron saint-^he who went hand in hand with the bloody Montfort in 
the perseciition of the Albigenses, because they denied some two cen- 
turies sooner than Luther did, that the true body of Jeeus Christ is sot 
present in the sacrament ; who founded the fanatic order which hu 
fiiniished the Inquisition with many of its most relentless ;heroei. 
fisme of these paintings mere xidiculoiw, some bloody, <and aome ikt 
22 



170 NEW CASTILE, 

guBtiog. I returned once more to the Plaza, and had gained little in 
the way of equanimity. 



When T had reached the opening of the street of Toledo, and glanc- 
ed my eye over the crowd which filled it, the multitude seemed moved 
by some new impulse. The women in the balconies were no longer 
saluting each other across the street, or shaking their fans in recogni- 
tion to those who passed below. All eyes were turned in one common 
direction. The object of this general attention from the balconies, 
was not so soon visible from the street below ; indeed it was some 
minutes after before we discovered, first the eeladorts with their white 
belts and sabres moving upward and downward — next their restive 
horses, spurred and reined into impatience, in order to intimidate the 
crowd and clear away for the coming of the procession. Behind the 
edadores^ were soon after seen the glittering points of many bayonets, 
vibrating with a measured motion from right to left, and only seem* 
rng to advance as they grew brighter above the sea of heads which 
intervened, growing upward and .upward, until the weapons of which 
they formed the least destructive portion were likewise visible. Pres- 
ently the large bear-skin caps of the grenadiers emerged, until at last 
the whole was apparent, to the very feet of the soldiery. It was now, 
too, that might be heard the death dirge, chanted by the humble monks 
who attended the criminals, swelling gradually above the hum of the 
multitude. 

The soldiers were so arranged as to give the crowd on either side a 
viewof the criminals. They were three in number, instead of two ; 
but the first, though an accomplice of the others, had either been found 
less guilty at the trial, or else had made his peace with justice by be- 
coming a witness against his companions. At all events, he was not 
to suffer death, but only to be conducted under the gallows and remain 
there during the execution. He was seated upon an ass, with his 
arms pinioned beside him. His head was bent forward, so as nearly 
to touch the neck of the animal, and his long hair, whose growth had, 
doubtless, been cherished for the purpose during a long confinement^ 
hung down on every side so as to form a complete veil about his fea- 
tures ; for the criminal felt the degradation, and dreaded lest he should 
be recognised at some future day. This was an honorable motive ; it 
seemed, at least, to be so considered by the crowd ; for none sought to 
invade the secrecy but one old woman, who stooped down to the gronnd 
as the culprit pa^^, and then hurried off to watch over the operation 
of her furnace and puchero. 

The second criminal was dressed in a shroud ; a living man in the 

erment of the dead. He sat bolt upright on an ass, and his feet were 
and tightly together under the belly of the anincal, to prevent any 
attempt to escape to the churches which lay in the way, and reach the 
sanctuary of some privileged altar. As for his hands, they were tied 
with a cord and made to dasp a copper crncifix, which stood erect b^ 



NEW CASTILE. 171 

fore him. Bnt when it was pressed to his lips, by the anxious and 
tremulous hands of the poor monk who walked beside him, he refused 
to kiss the image of the Saviour; nay, be even spit upon it. There 
was, in fact, more of the hardened villain about this malefactor, than I 
had ever before seen. He was a small, spare man, of a thin, sinewy, 
and cat like conformation, and such a cast of countenance, that had i 
not seen htm, I could scarce have believed it possible for human feat- 
ares to wear such an expression of fiendish malignity. Wishing to 
learn his story, I asked his crimes of an old man, who stood beside mo. 
He answered the question first with a shrug and a shudder; then, 
using an idiomatic phrase, which has found its origin in the frequency 
of murder in Spain, he said, ' He has made many deaths ; very many 1 ' 
*Ha htcho muckos muertos; muchisimos ! ' 

The third criminal was dressed like the Isst ; but his looks and 
bearing were as different as possible. He was far larger and stouter 
than his companion — stouter at least in body, though not in heart ; 
for whilst the latter only seemed pale and wasted from ill usage and 
confinement, this one had beside that bloodless, livid look, which can 
only be produced by intense fear. His hands were not bound to a 
crucifix like the other, but lefl at liberty to grasp a hymn, which he 
was singing with the friar. He had, perhaps, pretended repentance 
and conversion, with a view to interest the clergy in his favor ; for in 
Spain, criminals are oflen rescued by their intervention, even under 
the gallows. This uncertainty evidently added to his fear ; it was, 
indeed, a disgusting and yet piteous sight to see the lips of the miser a-* 
ble man turned blue with terror, yet earnestly chanting as though his 
life depended on the performance, his hands as they held the paper, 
and every muscle trembling in accompaniment to his broken and dis- 
cordant voice. 

The procession had now filed into the square, and took possession of 
the area reserved immediately about the gallows. The first culprit 
was posted beneath, and the other two were dismounted from the 
backs of the asses, and made to sit upon the last step of the ladder. 
The verdugo now came to take possession of his victims. Getting 
upon the stair, next above them, he grasped the smaller and more 
guilty miscreant under the arms and retreated upward, dragging hira 
9iUdTy step by step, and pausing an instant between each, which was 
marked by a vibration of the ladder. At length the verdugo stood on 
the highest stair — his victim was a little lower. They had been fol- 
lowed the whole way by a humble monk in a loose garment of sack- 
cloth and girded with a scourge. A long gray beard rested upon his 
breast, whilst his falling cowl discovered a half naked head, shaven 
in imitation of the crown of thorns, worn by our Saviour in his Pafr 
sion. He seemed deeply anxious that the sinful man should not go 
thus into the presence of his Maker. Lost to every other feeling than 
the awful responsibilities of the moment, the tremulous earnestness of 
his manner testified to the arguments and entreaties with which he 
nrged the sinner to repentance. But the heart of the murderer was 
obdurate to the last, and the crucifix was in vain pressed tohisliji&tp 
receive a parting salutation. 



179 NEW CASTILE. 

Th« Ifttest minute of his life had now arrived* The tnrdugo took 
two of the cords, which dangled from the beam, and, having once 
more convinced himself that they were of equal length, he opened 
the nooses and placed them about the neck of the malefactor. This 
done, he let himself down a single step, and, seating himself firmlj 
npon the shoulders of his victim, he grasped him tightly about the 
head with his legs. He then drew powerfully upon the cords — the 
strangling malefactor made a convulsive, but ineffectual attempt to 
reach upward with his pinioned arms, and then writhed his body U> 
escape from the torture. This moment was seized upon by the ver^ 
dugo, who threw himself over the edge of the ladder, when both fell 
downward together. They had nearly turned over, when the ropea 
arrested their fall, and as they tightened, they struck across the face 
of the verdugo and threw his hat aside among the crowd. But he 
clung to his prey with a resolute grasp, recovered his seat, and moved 
upward and downward upon the shoulders of the malefkctor. Nor 
was he lef\ to his own efforts — his assistants below reached the legs 
of the victim and drew them downward, with all their might. 

When this had continued a few minutes, the verdugo stood erect 
upon the shoulders of his victim, and attempted to climb up by the 
cords as he probably had been want to do ; but whether he had been 
stunned by the stroke of the ropes, or had grown heavier and less 
active since the last execution, his attempt proved abortive, and the 
loud cries of the multitude, outraged at the brutality, restrained him 
from a second effort. He then slid down by the body and legs of the 
criminal, until his feet rested upon the ground, and having tied a 
rope about the ankles of the dead man, he was drawn aside, so as to- 
make room for his companion. 

Meantime, the remaining malefactor had continued at the loot of 
the ladder, singing with his confessor a chant, which made a singular 
and fearful accompaniment to the scene which was going on behind 
them. But his respite was a short one. The impatient hands of the 
verdugo were soon upon him, lifting him step by step, as had been 
done with his companion. The dreadful uncertainty whether he 
were indeed to die, seemed still to cling to him, and he strained hie 
voice and chanted louder than ever. As he was let down after eaob 
step, the jar lent a new tremor to his already heart-grating accents. 
Before the ropes were put round him, he kissed the cross with a 
greedy eagerness, and then sang on, until a jerk of the executioner 
broke at once upon his chant and upon the delusive hope of pardon. 
Verdugo and malefactor went off as before, and the latter was straight* 
ened and stretched, like the blackened corse which hung stiff and 
motionless at his side. 



The conduct of the crowd was singularly solemn. As each victim 
plunged downward from the gallows, there was a tremulous murmor 
Upon every lip, ejaculating a short prayer for t^e peace of the guilty 



NEW CASTILE. ITS 

■ool, which was theB entering upon eternity. The cloaks of all were 
unfolded, and as their lips moved in supplication, each crossed him- 
self devoutly — ^iirst on the forehead, then over the face, and lastly 
upon the breast. These feelings, however, were not shared by the 
verdugo. They might, perhaps, have been banished by the active 
part he had taken in the execution ; or else they were ever strangers 
to his breast. No sooner, indeed, had he descended the last time, 
than he turned leisurely to readjust his disordered dress. He also 
recovered his hat, pushed out a dint which the rope had made in it ; 
then, taking a half smoked cigariJlo from under the band, he struck 
a light and commenced smoking. I even fancied, as he looked round 
upon his victims, that the expression of his face was not unallied to 
satisfaction. Dreadful propensity of our nature, which often leads 
us to exult in the vilest deed, provided it be well executed I 

The crowd now began to disperse. Such as had asses mounted 
them And rode away; others rolled themselves in their cloaks and 
departed. Nor did I linger, but moved off in a state of miod whiob 
none need envy. I experienced a return of the same sickly feeling of 
disgust with mankind and of myself, as forming part of it, with whicAi 
I had once come from the reading of Rousseau's Confessions. Surely 
there can be nothing in such a spectacle to promote morality, nothing 
to make us either better or happier — a spectacle which serves but to 
stir up to despondency, and to array man in enmity with his condition I 

I hurried at once from the spot, determined to seek some sociocy 
which might rid me of my thoughts, and reconcile me to my spectesy 
On turning to leave the square at the Calie Toledo^ I paused to take a 
last look at the now lifeless malefactors. The first executed had been 
loosened from the post to which his feet were bound, and his body 
still continued to knock against and revolve round that of his coa>« 
panion. However closely associated they might once have be«n in 
ertme, they were now more closely associated in retribution. It wai 
BOW, too, that I remembered that the same Plaza and the same g.illows 
had known other and very different victims, that along this very street 
the purest and bravest of Spanish patriots was drawn to execution on 
a hurdle; nay, it was more than likely that I had seen the very verduga 
who rode upon the shoulders of Riego ! 



CHAPTER IX. 

NEW AND OLD CASTILE. 

Journey to Segovia. — Choice of Conveyance and Preparations for Departure. — 
Galera. — Manzanares and the Florida. — Galera Scenes.— The Venta of Guadar- 
raroa.— -PaMage of the Mountains.— Segovia.^The Aqueduct.— The Cathedral 
and Alcazar. 

i Let us now torn to a more pleasing theme, the bustle and incident 
of an excursion to the country. I had been promising myse!f during 
the whole winter to quit the city so soon as there were any symptoms 
of spring, and to go on a visit to Segovia, returning by San Ildefonso 
and the Escurtal. Towards the middle of March, the trees of the 
Prado began to put forth shoots abundantly, which, when the sun shone 
brightly upon them at midday, were seen to distil a glutinous substance. 
One or two apricot trees, sheltered by the palace of a grandee near the 
Reeoletos, showed here and there a scattering blossom, sent as a spy 
to peep out and sec if winter had taken his departure ; and one who 
kept his ears open as I did, might occasionally hear a solitary bird 
trying a note, as if to clear his throat for the overture in the' garden of 
Retiro. Believing that I discovered the symptoms I so anxiously 
wished for, I determined to start immediately. 

Nor was I doomed on this occasion to travel without a companion. 
Fortune, in a happy moment, provided one in the person of a young 
oountryman, who had come to Spain in search of instruction. He was 
just from college, full of all the ardent feeling excited by classical pur- 
suits, with health unbroken, hope that was a stranger to disappointment; 
curiosity which had never yet been fed to satiety. Then he had sunny 
locks, a fresh complexion, and a clear blue eye, all indications of a 
joyous temperament. We had been thrown almost alone together in a 
strange and unknown land, our ages were not dissimilar, and, though 
our previous occupations had been more so, we were, nevertheless, 
soon acquainted, first with each other, then with each other's views, 
and presently after we had agreed to be companions on the journey. 



The next thing was to find a conveyance. This was not so easy ; 
for in Spain diligences are only to be found on the three principal 
roads leading from Madrid to Bayonne, Seville, and Barcelona. This 
inconvenience is partly owing to the little travelling throughout the 
country, but principally to the great exposure of the diligences to being 



NEW AND OLD CASTILE. 175 

robbed on the highway. Indeed, these vehicles, starting at fixed 
hours, and arriving at particular stands at known periods, are thence 
so easily and frequently waylaid, that all quiet people who are not in 
a hurry — and there are many sut^h in Spain — prefer a slower and less 
ostentatious conveyance. Hence, the diligences are poorly filled, 
and, in fact, are scarcely patronized by any but foreigners and men 
of business, neither of whom constitute a numerous class. To avoid 
this double inconvenience to nerves and pocket, the travelling among 
the natives is chiefly performed in antique coaches, such as Gil Bias 
and Serafina rode in, when they went to Salamanca, in large covered 
wagons, called galeras, or on mules that are constantly patroling the 
country under the charge of an arriero. These all carry passengers, 
and the two last also take produce and merchandise, performing, in- 
deed, all the interior transportation of the country. They travel at 
the rate of seven leagues or twentyeight miles a day. Having, per 
force, decided for the galera, and found one that was to start on the 
thirteenth of March, we agreed with the master of it to carry us to 
Segovia, which is fiftysix miles from Madrid, and to provide for all 
our wants while on the voyage, for which services he was to receive 
seven pesos duros, hard dollars, agreeably to previous stipulatimi. 

Our other arrangements were few and soon completed. One of 
them was, to buy each an old watch, whether of tin or silver, not for 
the usual purpose of learning the time, but to give away, in case we 
might meet with any fellow travellers on the highway, who should 
intimate that such a present would be acceptable. We did not so 
much make this provision from pure generosity of heart, as because 
we wanted, in the first place, to save our gold ones, and in the next 
to keep our ribs whole; for people who make these modest appeals to 
your charity, when they meet a person of a certain figure, take it 
for granted that he has a watch, and if it be not at once forthcoming, 
think that he has either concealed it or else left it at home, both of 
which are misdemeanors for which travellers get severely beaten. 

On the night previous to our departure, we returned home at a late 
hour, and before going to bed, packed a little knapsack with sundry 
shirts, stockings, and collars, not to forget a little Don Ctuixote, to 
whom we looked as a talisman to take us safely through every adven- 
ture. The next morning we rose at an early hour, and put on our 
very worst clothes, so as not to make too splendid a figure in the 
mountains. Then, having taken chocolate, we shouldered our cloaks 
and knapsack, and took leave kindly of our hosts. They continued 
to pursue us with good wishes the whole way down stairs, commend- 
ing us in rapid succession to all the saints. At the street door we 
turned to beckon a last farewell ; Florencia was completely out of 
breath, and had got to the end of the calendar. 



The clocks were just tolling seven as we reached the meson of our 
§idmm, and found a crowd of idlers assembled about the door to wit* 



176 NEW AND OLD CASTILE. 

tern its pHQCtual departure. It was such a group as may foe seen any 
night in a scdnete at the Teatro del Principe. There were iat men 
and thin men, with sugarloaf caps and slouched hats, with shoes and 
with sandals, with gaiters aud without them. There were none, 
however, without the cnqm parda — none uncovered in its mock- 
colored folds. While these worthies were yet indulging in their 
solemn wit, the group was joined by a young girl of beautiful features, 
but wasted and squalid appearance. Her mantilla was tattered, and 
hung in graceless folds about her head and shoulders, her gown faded 
and stained, and her dirty stockings contrasted strongly with the care 
which Spanish women usually bestow upon their feet Enough, 
however, remained to show that when the glow of health was yet 
fresh upon her cheek, when the artless smile of innocence and the 
blush of conscious beauty still beamed expression upon that faded 
face — she must have been more than lovely. In a moment the girl 
was completely at home among these kindred spirits, and the jokes 
and conversation were hearty and unrestrained. Having handed her 
anuif round to the bystanders, even to us who stood apart in the door- 
way, she presently went off opening and shutting her fan with the 
swimming grace of an Andalusian. She did not, however, go off 
alone, but was followed at a distance by a qiiick-stepping little man,« 
with whom certain significant glances had been exchanged. She had 
eome like a privateer among this convoy of hard characters, and had 
tut out and sailed away with a prize. 

The galera, or galley, as it was not improperly called, had now 
been backed out into the street, when the master and his man began 
to bring out mules, two at a time, and to string them in a row until 
there were eight of them. They were fat, saucy looking beasts, with 
the hair shaved away everywhere, except on the legs and the tip 
of the tail. As for the gaiera, it was neither more nor less than a 
huge wagon, or rather small house placed upon four wheels, of such 
solid construction as to seem built in defiance of time. The frame 
ealy was of wood, the sides being hung with mats of esparto or straw, 
and the bottom, instead of being boarded, had an open net-work of 
ropes, upon which was stowed the cafgo. The passengers, and we 
happened to be the only ones, were to accommodate themselves on 
the load, in such postures as they might find convenient The whole 
was completely sheltered and rendered habitable by a canvass pent> 
house, kept in place by several wooden hoops, traversed by reeds, the 
openings at the front and back being closed at pleasure by curtains of 
esparto. The wood and iron work of the gaiera were of their natairal 
color, but the canvass roof was painted so as to turn the rain, whilst, 
on either side, were large red letters, saying, ' I belong to Mannel 
Garcia, regular trader to Segovia' — * Soy de Manuel Garcia^ ord^ 
nario de Segovia.' 

So soon as the mules were geared, Don Manuel loosened a big dog 
who had been on guard within, and who, whenever we had come to 
get a peep at our accoounodations, had always jumped to the end of 
his chain, and looked most fiercely. As aooa as the ehain cod i 



NEW AND OLD CASTILE. 177 

fell to the bottom of the galera^ he licked the hand of his master, 
then sprang at once to the ground, pawing and snuffing, and fell to 
racing about the mules as though he had been mad. We were now 
invited to crawl in. Don Manuel followed, taking a conspicuous 
station at the front, whilst the mate put himself between the foremost 
pair of mules with a hand at the head-stall of either. 'Arre!* said 
Bon Manuel, and we set forward accordingly, the big dog prancing 
proudly beside us, now barking !oudly at other dogs, and when met 
by a bigger than himself, placing himself upon the defensive, under 
cover of the gakra. Though the vibratory motion of the ropes at 
the bottom, in a measure overcame the jar, we found our vehicle 
rather uneasy upon the pavement; but on passing the Puerta de 
Segovia, its motion became easier, and we rolled onward quietly. 



Our road lay for some distance along the bank of the little stream of 
Manzanares, here furnished with an occasional fountain and planted 
with abundance of trees, under whose shade is found one of the most 
agreeable promenades of the capital. It is known by the pleasing 
name of Florida. As from thence Madrid is seen with better effect 
than from any other point, we abandoned the galera^ and took to our 
feet, the better to enjoy the q>ectacle. Nor could we fail to admire the 
commanding situation of the overhanging city, its noble palace placed 
conspicuously towards the Florida, and the numerous spires emerging 
in every direction from out the mass, tinged as they then were with 
the lustre of an early sun. The interminable wheat fields spread out 
OB every side, were now, too, beginning to assume a verdant appear- 
ance; and the woody groves of the Casa del Campo, the chequered 
kitchen gardens which occupy the low banks of the Manzanares and 
follow the meanderings of the stream, and the many bridges which 
connected its opposite shores, each broke agreeably upon the delighted 
eye, and combined to make up a most attractive picture. 

But the scene now borrowed its chief charm from the pleasures of 
the season. Winter, as I said before, was just resigning the dominion 
of nature to a happier guidance. The trees were resuming their 
verdure, and the birds, flying from the ardor of a hotter clime, were 
just returning to woo and to carol in the place of their nativity. The 
inhabitants seemed already sensible of the change. A few persons 
were strolling leisurely along at their early promenade on the Florida, 
which was further animated by people sallying out on mules or horses 
to begin a journey ; with others more humbly seated upon panniered 
asses, and hastening to market, or with women descending to the river 
with each a bundle of clothes upon her head. Others, who had risen 
earlier, were already busy upon the bank, each upon her knees, with 
her clothes tucked tightly about her, and keeping time with her rapid 
hands to a wild and half sung voluntary. 

This valley of the Manzanares furnishes the only rural attractions 
to be found anywhere near Madrid. Hence it is in summer the 



178 NEW AND OLD CASTILE. 

chosen resort of the whole 'population. Here, on the afternoon of • 
feast day, entire families come out to taste the joys of the country^ 
Seating themselves in circles under the trees, they spread such pro- 
visions as they may have brought with them in the midst, and then 
make a joyous repast, with the earth for a table and the sky for a 
canopy. This over, they dance to the music of the voice, the guitar, 
and the castanet, mingled with the murmurs of the rushing river; 
and at a late hour each seeks with a lighter heart the shelter of his 
habitation. Whilst this is passing upon the brink of the stream, the 
neighbouring road is thronged with horsemen and with the equipages 
of the wealthy.* 

At the extremity of the Florida we were met by a trooper coming 
at the top of his speed ; his polished casque and cuirass glittering 
brilliantly in the sun, and his sabre, the hair of his helmet, and the 
mane and tail of his horse all streaming backward. This unusual 
speed announced the coming of some distinguished personage, which 
the soldier had posted in advance to make known to a picqnet of 
cuirassiers, stationed at the barrier, that they might form in readiness 
to pay the customary honors. Presently after we discovered the cause 
of this commotion in the approach of a gentleman, who, though plainly 
dressed in a green surtout and cocked hat, with but two attendants, 
was mounted on a superb sorrel barb most richly caparisoned. It was 
Don Carlos, heir to the throne. We took off our hats in passing him, 
as is the custom, and he returned the compliment with a similar 
salutation, accompanied by one of his most ghastly grins. 

On reaching a bridge over the Manzanares, the road turned away 
to the left in the direction of Segovia. We now took leave of the 
Florida, and the country opened before us, stretching upward in 
successive ranges of irregular hills, which, though partiaUy cultivated, 
were destitute of a single tree. Before us were the mountains of 
Guadarrama, stretching their bold proportions across our path, and 
almost everywhere covered with snow. Whatever might be the sea- 
son at the Prado, and upon the banks of the Manzanares, it was 
erident that winter had still a strong hold upon the mountains, and 
that however warmly the sun might now play upon our backs, as 
we moved onwards before him, we should have cold fingers ere we 
reached Segovia. 



* Cftlderon, in one of bis comedies, has given jan animated defcriptkm of such 
Siceno. 

* Aqui cantan, alli baylan, 
Aqui parlan, alli gritan, 
Aqui rinien, alli juegan, 
Meriendan aqui, alli brindan ; 
Pais tan hormoso y tan vario. 
Que para su la florida 
Estacion de todo el orbe 
La mas beUa, faormosa y rica. 
Solo aim falu el rio 
Mas ya es oljecdon anligua.* 



NEW AND OLD CASTILE. IW 

HaviBg reached the open country, our host of the goUra in? ited as 
to enter. He then drew from a canFass bag which hung beside him, 
certain loaves of fine white bread and links of Yique sausages, being 
the stores which he had laid in for the vojage. The first thing 
Bon Manuel had done, on passing the barrier of the customs, was to 
fill with wine his boia, or skin bottle, at one of those shops which are 
found just without all the barriers of Madrid, and where the wine, 
not haying paid a duty of near one hundred per cent, is sold for about 
half what it costs within. He now took down the hota from where 
it hung, swinging to and fro, on one of the reeds at the top of the 
galera ; then, leaving the mules to their own discretion, we aU drew 
round and commenced a hearty attack upon our stores, sitting in a 
circle and cross-legged, like so many Turks or tailors. There was a 
* novelty, a charm in this primitive repast, which pleased us greatly, 
and of the hota #e became completely enamoured. 

The wine in Spain is everywhere transported — ^and so also is oil — ^in 
skins that are covered on the hairy side with a coat of pitch. If the 
skin belonged originally to a goat, the hair, being of no value, is not 
removed. Wine is said to keep better in skins than in casks; but 
the more probable reason why this kind of vessel has so completely 
superseded the use of barrels and bottles in Spain, may be found in 
the scarcity of wood in Spain, and the great number of sheep and 
goats that everywhere cover the country. A skin requires very little 
preparation to fit it for use. It i^first tanned a little, then coated 
with pitch and turned inside out. jThe hole by which the original 
owner was let out, is now sewed up ; so are the legs, which serve as 
handles to carry the hota to and firo, with the exception of one, which 
is tied round with a string, and serves as a spout to draw of the 
liqutn-. Another advantage of the hota^ in a primitive country like 
this, is, that it keeps its pkce upon the back of a mule and takes care 
of itself much better than a barrel. The universal use of the hota is 
one of the first things in Spain to excite the attention of a stranger ; 
and Cervantes, who introduces the most familiar scenes and objects 
into the life of his Hidalgo, has made one of his most diverting 
adventures to turn upon this peculiarity. The reader will readily 
remember the adventure of the giants. 

But to return to our little hota or horracho, ' drunkard,' as it is other- 
wise called ; though a mere chicken to those we have just been talking 
about, one can scarce conceive a more agreeable little travelling com- 
panion. It was somewhat in the shape of a shot bag, and held the 
convenient quantity of a gallon. At the mouth was a small wooden 
bowl which served as a tunnel to pour the wine in, and as a cup to 
drink it out again. Thus, when Don Manuel handed me the horrarho^ 
I did but hold the cup to my )ips with my right hand, and lift the 
skin upward gradually with the other, when the wine began to make 
its appearance, and though I swigged long and lustily,' it kept always 
at the same level ; a mystery which greatly perplexed me, until I came 
to remember that in my earnestness I had been squeezing the skill 
with my fingers. 



ISO NEW AND OLD CASTILE. 

After passing through a country poorly cultivated and almost 
without population, we arrived, towards dark, at the small town of 
Guadarrama, situated in a mountaih valley at the foot of the highest 
range of the chain. The galera was driven into the long court-yard 
of the principal vmta. We got our cloaks and knapsack together; 
then jumping to the ground, we stretched our legs, and were ushered 
into the kitchen, which, in a Spanish country-inn, is the common 
place of congregation. We were at once welcomed to the stone seats 
covered with mats, which projected from the wall beside, or rather 
within, the immense fire-place. In the chimney was a stone shelf^ 
removed a few feet from the fire, which contained large splinters 
of pine wood. These blazed upward cheerily, sending forth a glare 
of light which illuminated the chimney and the nearer portions of the 
kitchen, and shone fiiU upon the faces of the whole party. 

The principal figure in the group was the venUro, who occupied the 
place of honor in the chimney corner. He was a most hearty looking 
little man, and his figure, with the cleanly, well ordered disposition of 
the kitchen, gave favorable anticipations of our fare. He was short 
and very bulky, yet extremely well made ; indeed his neatly turned ^ 
little legs, seen to advantage in velvet breeches, and descending from 
his rotund body, would have done no dishonor to a more distinguished 
personage. He wore, over sundry inner garments, an outer jacket of 
black sheepskin, which did not quite meet in front, but was fastened by 
chain clasps of silver ; whilst his full and jocund face was surmounted 
by a narrow rimmed, sugar loaf hat of oil cloth, upon which was 
planted a flaming royalist cockade — the badge of his political belief. 
The vtnttra was a busy, stirring woman, content in all things to execute 
the orders of her lord. As for their daughter, who waited upon us, 
she was well made and quick moving-— a Moorish beauty, in short, 
whose black eyes could not be gazed upon with indifference. The 
most singular of the group, however, was a sort of esquire to the ventero^ 
who did not seem to have any precise office in the house ; but to whose 
share fell sundry little indefinite cares, such as carrying the psMports 
of travellers to be signed by the police, and holding the candle. He 
was a thin, meagre little old man, who, nevertheless, seemed quite as 
happy in his leanness as the ventero in his rotundity. It was, indeed, 
a singular and amusing sight to see the little man seated beside his 
master, with one arm over his thigh and lookin^r up to him from his 
lower seat, as to a superior being, evidently seeking to catch the first 
expression of his will, by watching the movement of his lazy eye. 

The society of the kitchen was soon afler augmented by other 
arrivals. The new comers, after allowing a sufficient time to elapse, 
to show they were not so undignified as to be in a hurry, called for 
their suppers of soup and bacon. When asked by the ventera if they 
brought their own bread, each answered, Yes, and went to his cart or 
galera for a loaf, which he commenced cutting into a large basin, 
ready for the soup to be turned in upon it. Then when all was ready 
and each was about to sit down to his portion, he would call out so as 
to be heard by every one, ' Gentlemen 1 who wishes to sup with me t'<— « 



NEW AMD OLD CASTILE. 181 

I'll 

*8au9resf quiere qmert cenar com migof Being answered bj the 
general thanks for his invitation, usually expressed in the words, 

* Que h haga 6 usted buen provechof * — ' May it do you good service ! ' 
he would then fall to manfully, as if determined to realize the good 
wishes of the company. 

With all the remnants of ancient observances and abuses which 
remain in Spain, there has al^ been preserved a fund of that old 
fashioned punctilio, which, having been banished from the higher 
classes, who have adopted the French manners, is still observed by the 
mass of the nation. The first time you enter a house, you are told by 
the master that it is yours, to do with it whatever you may please, nor 
will a Spaniard ever so much as take a glass of water in your presence 
without first having oflfered it to you. Though there may be something 
irksome in this overstrained politeness, yet it gives, upon the whole, a 
courteous turn to the manners of a people.* 

As for the master of our galley, he had been accosted almost imme- 
diately on entering the vaUa, by its well fed host, to know what the 
gentleman would sup upon. ' Lo que haya * — ^'Whatever there may be,' 
was the answer. 'Piles senior^* said the veniero, * hay de toda;' and 
then he began enumerating a long list of Uebres, perdizes, gaUinas, 
jamon, y tocino. Poor Don Manuel was embarrassed by the superfluity, 
and seemed to hesitate between the fear of not equalling our expecta- 
tions, and the opposite dread of paying away too much money. The 
moment was a critical one, and we watched the countenance of our 
master with interest; for we had been a good deal shaken during the 
day's journey, and had taken nothing but bread and sausage. Finally 
he put his foot down with an air of resolution, and ordered bacon and 
^fSS^9 to ^ followed by a stewed hare and a desert of olives. Upon this 
the vaUero^ who was still seated in the corner, put his hands upon his 
thighs, and then threw his body forward so as to rise with ease and 
dignity. When fairly up, he went to a corner where there were some 
hares hanging by their hind feet, with ears and tail cocked as if they 
were still bounding it over the lea. Little John — for such was the 
name of the ventero's uncle and esquire — ^attended punctually with a 
splinter of burning pine, which he had taken from the chimney, and 
after a short consultation, a fine hare was selected. ' Que gordo ! * 

* How fat ! ' said the ventero. ' Que gordo ! ' echoed little John. They 
then brought it over to me ; I felt its ribs and exclaimed, ' Que gordo!* 

We spent another half hour most agreeably in listening to the con- 
versation of the varied assembly. Nor were we slightly interested in 
watching the process of depriving the hare of his skin, which Don 
Manuel at once took possession of, and stowed away in the galera. 
The hare was then torn piecemeal and pot into a puchero, with plenty 
of pepper, salt, and saffiron, and sundry morsels of garlic and tomata. 
All this was interesting to us, and when the dark-eyed daughter of the 
ventero lifted the lid and put a wooden spoon in to taste tiie viand, it 
became still more so. But this was nothing to the moment when the 

* Tbesa remarks apply to every psrt of Spain which the author vinted, except 
Calalooia. 



182 NEW AND OLD CASTILE. 

contents were emptied » great and smally into a large earthen diahi 
sending up a smoke that filled the whole kitchen with the most grate- 
ful fragrance. Those who were husy with their humble soup, were too 
proud to look aRer the heavy laden dish as it sailed away into another 
apartment, leaving a track like a steamer, only far more savoury. 
When, however, the daughter came to announce supper^ we gave all 
who pleased a chance to partake ; for Don Manuel issued a load and 
general invitation, by saying, ' Seniores! vengan itstedes d cenar can 
nosotros ! ' 

We followed our supper into the room where my friend and I were 
to sleep, and there found it crowded upon a small square table. 
Don Manuel and his man remained upon their feet until we were 
seated, nor would they put their spoons into the dish to help themselves 
until we had first done so. It was rather to our situation of guests 
and strangers that we owed this courtesy, than to any feeling of infe- 
riority on the part of our hosts. A Spaniard, though only an arriero, 
owns himself inferior to no man. Don Manuel, when he went to the 
gaiera to leave the skin of the hare, returned with a loaf of bread and 
our little bota ; he had likewise loosened the dog from his post that he 
might partake of our supper. We had scarce taken our stations round 
the table, before the animal posted himself beneath, where he was well 
cared for by the whole party. He seemed to understand perfectly the 
relation between us and his master, for he took our bones and received 
our caresses, and was altogether on tolerable terms with us throughout 
the journey ; but when we met him afterwards in the street at Segovia, 
be took no notice of our whistle. Having ate of the eggs, the stew^ 
and the bacon, and found all excellent, we amused ourselves awhile with 
the olives and in circulating the barracho. Presently after our com- 
panions asked if we took chocolate ; we answered, ' Con mucho gusto J 
They then retired, saying, * Que ustedes descansen!* — * May you rest 
well I ' The wreck of the supper likewise disappeared, and we were 
left in quiet possession. 



The next morning before the dawn of day, we were suddenly waked 
by the glare of a lamp streaming full in our faces. We should, perhaps, 
have b^en vexed at the unseasonable interruption, had we not dis- 
covered, on bringing our eyes to a focus, that the bearer of the lamp 
was no other than our little Morisca who was bringing us the chocolate. 
Having swallowed it down and put on our clothes, we said * Adios !* 
to such of our hosts as were stirring, then nestled ourselves close to- 
gether upon a bunch of mats at the bottom of the gaiera, which 
presently after rolled out of the court-yard, and commenced slowly its 
winding course up the side of the mountain. 

The morning was a cool one, such as we might have expected to 
find in this elevated region and in the neighbourhood of snow. Hence 
we were happy when the sun rose to abandon the gaiera, and stretch 
our limbs to the top of the pass. There was something inspiring in this 



NEW AND OLD CASTILE. 183 

generous exercise and in inhaling the unbreathed air of the mountain ; 
so that when we had reached the top of the pass, where New and Old 
Castile are divided^ we were both in full glow and in a high state of 
excitation. Then^ had there been any fine scenery within our reach, 
we were prepared to have relished it ; I to gaze with the vague and 
general admiration of an ordinary man, my companion to point to the 
tree, the rock, the glen, and the river, in short, to see and to analyze 
with the eye of a poet. But neither of us was called upon to be senti* 
mental either in feeling or expression. There were, indeed, a few 
yoong pines shooting up about our road, which was seen winding its 
way up the mountain, with many a turn, from the little village of 
Guadarrama. Here and there, along the declivity, were occasional 
ponds of stagnant water, now sources of disease, though only asking 
the aid of man to furnish the means of fertility. Over the extensive 
plains of New Castile, toward the southeast, might be seen some fields 
cultivated, though unenclosed; but there were more that had been 
abandoned, and the face of the country was uncheered by the presence 
of either tree or stream. The view on the side of Old Castile was still 
more desolate and dreary ; for whilst the sun shone full and brightly 
upon the rival province, the mountains of Guadarrama still intercepted 
the genial influence, and covered all that lay westward with a cloak 
ofolMcurity. 

During our winding descent along the side of the mountain, we met 
several groups of countrymen coming with loaded mules and asses from . 
various parts of Old Castile, and toiling more slowly up the acclivity. 
Their costume, though very singular, was not inelegant. They wore 
breeches, leggings, and a peaked nwntero cap of brown cloth ; but in- 
stead of a cloak, they had an outside jacket or rather cuirass of tanned 
sheepskin, which is put on over the head, and is then strapped closely 
around the body with a wide girdle of leather, having in front a large 
iron buckle. '^Phis girdle served likewise as a belt to sustain a long 
flexible cartouch box, which neaily surrounded the back ; for each had 
a loaded musket, or fowling piece, hanging ready at the side of his 
mule. Some of these people had a dress very like the old Dutch cos- 
tume. It consisted of a broad hat with a low crown, a jacket and 
waistcoat without collars, leaving the neck perfectly bare, and immense 
trunk hose, of the same dark colored cloth with the rest, which hung 
like a sack about the thighs. The lower part of this singular garment 
formed a legging, which was wrapped tightly about the calf, and con- ' 
fined with many turns of a green garter ; at the bottom it terminated 
in a gaiter, which fell loosely over the shoe. Some of these men wore 
ample great coats, likewise without collars, and not unlike what are 
, ascribed in paintings, and upon the stage, to the inhabitants of Hun- 
gary ; but a jerkin or cuirass of leather strapped tightly about the loins 
was more common. Don Manuel told us that these people come from 
the neighbourhood of Astorga, in the kingdom of Leon. In dress and 
in physiognomy, they had less the appearance of Spaniards than of 
Germans or Dutchmen. 



184 NEW AND OLD CASTILE. 

Towards three in the afternoon, we entered that ^moos old city of 
Segovia, of which the curious may find mentioni under the very same 
name, in the Natural History of Pliny. Nor has SegoFia failed to 
make a distinguished figure in modern times ; for it was a long while 
the principal manufacturing city of the whole Peninsula. At the be- 
ginning of the seventeenth century, we learn from Townshend, that 
there were in Segovia thirty four thousand peivons employed exclusively 
in the manufacture of cloth ; but now the whole population of the city 
does not exceed ten thousand. As a compensation for this decline, 
the number of convents has risen to twentyone, and there are now 
twenlysix churches. Industry has fled — the clergy remain and multi- 
ply. In the open country between Madrid and Segovia, for one in- 
habited house that we came to, there were certainly two in ruins ; 
indeed, it seemed as though we were passing through a depopulated 
territory. Many of these houses, we were told, had been destroyed in 
the war of independence ; but it is likely, that in more instances, the 
insecurity of living isolated has led to their abandonment. As the 
villages in this part of Spain are separated by very long intervals, it 
generally follows that he who abandons his house, to seek security in 
the society of his fellow men, must likewise give up the cultivation of 
his field. Hence result a diminished production and declining popu- 
lation ; and hence, too, the painful sight of wasted lands and ruined 
habitations. 



Our first care on arriving in Segovia was to take leave of the gakra, 
the mules, the dog, and Don Manuel, who promised to visit us at our 
posada. We were then conducted to the Plaza Mayor, by a lad who 
carried our knapsack, and were soon after installed in a narrow room, 
whose balcony overlooked the great Square of Segovia, now no longer 
the scene of stir and turmoil. Having taken a greasy dinner, we wander- 
ed forth to look at the famous aqueduct of Segovia. ' So marvellous a 
work,' says Father Mariana, ' that the vulgar still believe it to have 
been wrought by the devil.' 

This aqueduct is supposed to have been built by the Romans in the 
reign of the Emperor Vespasian. Its object was to convey the water, 
brought from a great distance, over a steep ravine seven hundred feet 
wide, and more than ninety deep, which divided one portion of the 
city from the other. To effect this, two ranges of arches were thrown 
across, one above another. The upper one is on a level with the high 
land on either side, and has one hundred and fiftynine arches. Though 
the middle part of the aqueduct is ninetjfonr feet firom the ground, yet 
the bases of the abutments are not more than eight feet wide — a fact 
which is the best comment upon the beauty, lightness, and perfection 
of the structure. Indeed, it is even admitted that, though inferior in 
extent and magnificence to the Pont-du-Oard^ the aqueduct of Segovia 
is yet the greater wonder. The stones used m the constnictioo of this 
aqueduct are all of equal size, about two feet iqaiie, and are put to- 



NEW AND OLD CASTILE. 185 

gether without any cement, depending solely upon each other to be 
maintained in their places. A very few have fallen, but the action of 
the weather has worn away the edges of all of them, until they now 
appear nearly round. The slow but treacherous attacks of time will 
necessarily continue to work in secret upon this monument at once of 
human skill and human ignorance ;* but when we look back through 
the seemingly interminable vista of two thousand years, during which it 
has continued to mock that principle of nature, which tends to the de- 
struction of everything, it is impossible to fix the period when it shall 
no longer continue to call forth the admiration of the world. 



Leaving the aqueduct, we went next to the cathedral — an immense 
pile in a finished and complete state, and perfectly symmetrical. It is 
a fine, though not a first rate specimen of Gothic architecture. From 
the cathedral we passed on to the Alcazar, or old fortified palace of 
the Moorish governors of Segovia. When the Moors conquered Spain^ 
they erected strong holds which they called Alcazars in every favora- 
ble situation, with a view to guard their newly acquired possessionsi to 
protect their territory from the predatory incursions of the Christians, 
and to lengthen out their lease of the Peninsula. This was the origin 
of the Alcazar of Segovia, It stands west of the city, on the extremity of 
a rocky peninsula, which is separated from the surrounding country by 
the deep bed of the river Eresema on one side, and on the other by that 
abrupt ravine which intersects the city, and to which we are indebted 
for the wonderful aqueduct. Thus the Alcazar is surrounded on these 
sides by perpendicular precipices. A deep trench, cut across the rocky 
platform, separates it from the city on the third, and renders it com- 
pletely insular. The fortification consists of a huge square tower, sur- 
rounded by high walls, which stand upon the edges of the precipice, 
and are flanked with circular buttresses, having conical roofs in the 
Gothic style. The arches of the interior are circular, and very massive. 

The Alcazar of Segovia, once the abode and strong hold of kings, 
has served in later times as a prison for Barbary corsairs, taken along 
the coast of Spain. Thus it may well have chanced that a descen- 
dant of the very prince who reared this goodly Alcazar to be the pride 
of his house, has returned in the condition of a slave, to dwell in the 
palace of his ancestors. The old tower, too, which rises in the midst, 
was long the mysterious abode of state prisoners, whether convicted 
or only accused of high treason. The reader will readily remember 
that Gil Bias, by an irksome residence in this very Tower of Segovia, 
was made to pay the penalty of having basked awhile in ministerial 
sunshine. 

In the present day, the Alcazar is devoted to a nobler use. A 
number of noble youths are here educated, with a view to becoming 

* The Romans were unacquahited with that simple law of physics, by which fluids, 
when confined, tend to regain their leveL 

24 



186 NEW AND OLD CASTILIT. 

officers of engineers and artillery. Among the branches taaglfit arc? 
mathematics, drawing, the French and English languages, and arms^ 
Having a line to a young Swiss, who was one of the cadets, we were 
readily admitted at the outer gate, and conducted across the draw^ 
bridge, through several winding approaches, into the court yard be- 
hind the tower. We were much pleased with the cleanly and well 
ordered arrangement of the sleeping rooms, refectory, and hospitals; 
but what most delighted us was the appearance of the lads, all of 
(hem young, ruddy, and healthful. We thought we had never seen 
such a collection of good looks. Nor was it a little curious to see 
these generous youths, whose dress, manners, and pursuits, belonged 
entirely to the nineteenth century, moving about among the walls and 
arches of other times, learning the art of taking citadels, within the 
battlements of one, which, though once impregnable, would now 
scarce offer a day's resistance, or drawing men and horses in the very 
mosque of the Alcazar, whose hollow ceiling is still loaded with a 
profusion of minute and richly gilded ornaments^ interlarded with 
maxims from the Koran, all the work of a people, who were taught to 
abhor every imitation of animate things as idolatrous and abominable^ 
We have thus in Segovia, monuments reared by three widely dif- 
ferent people, who have ruled in turn over the Spanish Peninsula ; by 
Romans from Italy ; by Goths from the frosty coasts of Scandinavia ; 
or by followers of Mahomet from the patriarchal regions of Arabia.* 
The Moorish part of the Alcazar may be esteemed rather a favorable 
specimen of the Arabesque, since it has its arches circular instead of 
elliptical, and is built with more than usual solidity. It is between 
the Gothic and the Grecian, destitute of the grandeur of the one, and 
the beauty of the other. As for the Gothic style, as we see it exhib- 
ited in the cathedral, no one can deny the grandeur of its conception, 
nor the hardihood of its execution. Gothic architecture seems ad- 
mirably adapted to the uses of religion. Its severe grandeur inspires 
the mind with a feeling of awe and solemnity. When a man places 
himself at the extremity of such a pile as the Munster, and takes in, 
at a single glance, the whole combination of walls and arches, swell* 
ing upwards, to produce one single grand effect, and striving to take 
in as much as may be of that great spirit, which floats upon the breeze 
and exists in all nature, he forgets for a moment that he sees the 
work of beings like himself. But we turn with pleasure from the 
gloom of the Gothic to the simple elegance of the Grecian, from the 
Cathedral of Segovia to the Aqueduct. Here we see strength, dura- 
bility, and convenience, combined with symmetry and beauty — ^here, 
the more we scrutinize, the more we admire. 

*The writer does not remember whether the cathedral was erected before or af- 
ter the recovery of Segovia by the Christians. It is not material, since the Gkithie 
ardiitecture was still used in Spain down to the time of Ferdinand and Isabella^ 



CHAPTER X. 

OLD AND NEW CASTILE. 

Ma Granja. — We (ire of Old Castile. — Pedro. — Perplexities in the Mountains. — ^Thc 
Summit of the Pass. — Pedro's Anxiety. — Guadarraroa. — Escorial. — Return to 
Madiid. 

At an eady hour the morning afler our arrival at Segovia, we lefl 
that city in a calesin, to go to La Granja, which is also known by the 
name of its patron saint, San lldefonso. Our vehicle was cond-iicted 
by a half witted fellow, who had just sense enough to hold his horse by 
the head, and run beside hhn, like one possessed, the whole seven 
miles of out journeys Towards eight o'clock we came in sight of the 
royal palace, and found its first appearance very imposing. When we 
approached nearer, however, it did not justify the opinion we had form* 
ed at a distance; tor the front is irregular and destitute of all beauty. 
The same may not be said of ihefafode towards the garden, which is 
symmetrical and elegant. The fountains of La Granja form, however, 
its chief attraction, and render it one of the most interesting places in 
the world. They are very numerous, and are concentrated into a 
much smaller compass than at Versailles, so that wlven playing one 
may catch sight of nearly all of them at the same time. One of the 
principal represents Diana followed by her nymphs, who hide her from 
the eyes of A<^tson. In another Apollo is seen with Latona and Diana, 
whilst at the extremities of the circular basin are seventy huge frogs, 
sending op as many jets, which form a canopy over the heads of the 
divinities. But the most wonderful of all is Fame, mounted upon 
Pegasus, and having in his mouth a trumpet, from which he sends a 
Jet of water to the elevation of one hundred and thirty feet. The 
finest view in. the garden, is at the angle, called Plaza-de-las-Ocho- 
calles, where commence eight avenues of trees, each of which has at 
its extremity a fine fountain surrounded by statues. Even as we saw 
it, the sight was, indeed, beautiful, and we regretted greatly that we 
could not witness the playing of the waters. There are a large num- 
ber of finely executed statues in marble, placed in groups or singly 
along the public walks ; but the figures connected with the fountains 
are chiefly of lead, bronzed over. It would seem, indeed, that this 
metal, by its susceptibility of improvement after baring been cast, is 
admirably adapted to lend grace to sculpture. 

The palace and garden of La Granja were erected by Philip V., who 
wished to have with him in Spain something which might remind him 
of his birth jilace Versailles, and at the same time furnish a shelter 



I 



188 OLD AND NEW CASTILE. 

against the burniog heats of a Castilian summer. To accomplish this 
purpose^ he fixed upon La Granja, which being situated on the north- 
western declivity of the mountains of Guadarrama, is only shone upon 
by the sun during a part of the day, and then with rays that are in a 
measure powerless. Hence the seasons are here so far retarded, that 
the spring fruits do not ripen until midsummer. The site of La Gran* 
'a was at first no more than a bed of rocks, thrown together in irregu* 
ar masses, with scarce soil enough in the intervals to support a scat- 
tered growth of pines. It was first necessary to soften the asperities 
of the ground and to bring soil from the plain below. A lake was then 
formed on a platform at the top of the garden, and here all the torrents 
produced by the melting of the snow and by rains, were collected with 
much art and labor, to feed the fountains. This done, forest trees 
were planted in every direction, with canals of water running to the 
roots of each. But the result is said to shew the Tanity of art, when it 
attempts to render itself independent of nature ; for the trees, seeking 
to push their roots into the earth, and meeting obstacles, are not found 
to flourish. Such as we see it, however. La Granja is a country resi- 
dence worthy in all things of a great king. This the reader will more 
easily conceive, when he learns that the improvements cost forty five 
millions of dollars, according to Bourgoamme, the exact sum which 
Philip y. left Spain indebted, at the time of his death. The court 
passes the hot season in La Granja ; during the rest of the year it is a 
complete desert. 



Having seen everything of note connected with the palace and gar- 
den, we returned to the posada, in which we had previously deposited 
our knapsack. We now sat down to a rude and simple meal, which 
the keen air and exercise of the morning rendered most acceptable^ 
Nor were we less pleased with the young girl who served us. She 
might already have seen fourteen summers, and was, perhaps, now 
entering upon her fifteenth, with new and unknown sensibilities. She 
bad been, as she told us, a week in La Granja — caught and brought 
in wild from some village in the mountains. She was hearty, well 
made, and active, and unbroken by sickness, indulgence, or disease; 
indeed, as .her eyes glanced rapidly from one object to another, I 
thought I had never seen so much animation and vivacity. There was 
a simplicity about her, too, that was more than amusing. Our dress, 
language, and appearance, were each different from what she had been 
accustomed to among the rude boors of the mountains, so that we came 
upon her like beings of a better order. She asked us whence we had 
come, and where our house was. ' In America,' was the answer. * Is 
it towards Madrid.' — ' Esta par d lado de Madrid ? ' said she, naming 
the most wonderful place she had ever heard of Willing to avoid a 
lecture on geography, I answered, ' Cerquita,^ She then scrutinized 
our persons thoroughly, turned our hats round in her hands, and strok- 
ed my companion on the back, saying — ' Que panio tanfino ! ' 



OLA AND NEW OaSTILE. 189 

When oar meal was ovet, we endeavoiired to find a guide to conduct 
Ofl to the Cartdsian Convent of Paular, situated among the crests of 
the neighbouring mountains ; bat the direct passes had seven or eight 
feet of snow, and had not been traversed for several weeks, so that the 
convent could be reached only by making a circuit of near thirty 
miles. We would willingly have staid awhile at La Granja to witness 
the playing of the waters, which was to take place in a few days in 
honor of some saint, and especially to study the character of our moun- 
tain beauty ; but We were already getting tired of Old Castile and its 
inhabitants, at least of its inn-keepers and horse drivers. The people 
of this province have a high character in Spain for honorable conduct, 
and for being above either tri6k or treachery. They have an expres- 
sion which shows what a good opinion they have of themselves ; for 
when speaking of an unworthy man or a dishonorable action, they say, 
* No somos todos Castellanos Vigos.' — ' We are not all Old Castilians/ 
a favorite exclamation of my host Don Valentin, who, as I said before, 
was a native of La Rioja. We found, however, that there is no feduc* 
ing a whole people down to any fixed standard. As exceptions to this 
general character for honesty, shrewdness, and sobriety, attributed to 
the people of Old Castile, we found in our host at Segovia a regular 
rogue ; the driver who brought us to La Granja was more than half a 
fool ; and as for our posadero at the latter place, he was so thorough 
going a sot, that we found him as drunk as a loon at nine in the 
morning. 



We now agreed with an arriero, who had come with t#0 miseftible 
little mules loaded with barley, to take us to the Escorial. H^'Was 
not like either of the three characters just described ; but just such a 
well meaning, dull-witted boor, as may be found in any countfy. 
Though Pedro would be esteemed a very singular looking mortal in 
America, yet if one were to draw his portrait, it would serve for nine 
in ten of his Castilian countrymen. Pedro's face was long, with lohg 
legs and body. His frame was sinewy, gaunt, and bony ; so hollow, in- 
deed, was he^ both on the back and belly, that he had scarce more 
waist than a spider. Over his hatchet face he wore a pointed moftitro 
cap ; next came a waistcoat and jacket without collars, and then a pair 
of primitive breeches, which were secufed in front by a single iron 
button, and hung dangling from the hips. His leggings, which served 
likewise as stockings, were neither more nor less than tatters of old 
cloth, wound round the leg and foot ; and instead of shoes, he wore a 
sandal of raw cow hide, drawn up roand the foot and bound to it with 
a thong. As for Pedro's old cloak, of the same dingy brown with the 
rest of his apparel, it was now thrown over the back of one of his 
little machos, which were already drawn out in front of the posada. 
Having stowed our knapsack in one side of his alforjas or cloth saddle 
bags, we placed a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine to make weight in 
the other — then, taking leave of the crowd, which had gathered round 
to witness our departure, we set, out on foot from La Granja. 



190 OLD AND NEW CASTILE. 

Before commencing our journey some roguish fellow, or it may be only 
busy body, had persuaded our simple arriero^ that the direct road to the 
Escorial, which had been shut up ail winter by the snow, was now open. 
As a league or two were to be cut off by taking this route, Pedro 
guided his mules at once into it, when we led La Granja. Our road 
soon began to ascend the mountain, which was everywhere covered 
with pine trees and watered by many rivulets. We occasionally met 
with a woodman, returning, like the old man in the Forty Thieves^ 
with a loaded ass, and an axe on bis shoulder. None of them knew 
whether the pass were yet open. ' If it were not already,' they said, 
' it soon would be,' so we continued upwatd. When within a league 
of the top, we saw an ill looking fellow, with huge black mustaches 
and a musket on his shoulder, who came out of the woods to meet us. 
He had red cuffs to his jacket and a red cockade, which showed that 
he was one of the king's foresters and a royalist volunteer. The man 
looked at us with astonishment, and asked where we were going by 
that road. We told him to the Escorial. He then gave us to under- 
stand that the people were yet busy in opening the pass, and that none 
but foot passengers had yet crossed the mountain. Pedro would now 
have retraced his steps to La Granja, in order to gain the road which 
crosses the mountain further south, and which we had followed the 
day before in the galtra. But as there is nothing so irksome as to 
turn one's back upon any undertaking, we determined to keep on and 
brave every inconvenience. If the mules were unable to cross, we 
could leave them and Pedro in the snow together, then make the best 
of our way on foot, trusting to our own sagacity. 

In addition to the probability of being arrested by the snow, we had 
b^re us the possibility of meeting with another obstacle ; for there is 
no part of Spain more infested by highwaymen than this chain of 
Guadarrama. The numerous roads by which it is crossed, and the 
numbers of travellers who are constantly circulating between Madrid 
and France, Portugal and the intervening countries, hold out a power- 
ful attraction to the freebooters, whilst the ravines and gorges of the 
mountains furnish the means of concealment. This last, however, is 
a matter of little importance, since Madrid is the head quarters, not 
only of the government and the police, but likewise of the robbers, 
who hold their rendezvous in the Gate of the Sun. A single story 
may be sufficient to give an idea of their numbers and hardihood. 

Whilst I was in Madrid, the Swiss brigade of three thousand men, 
in the pay of the king of France, left that capital to return home. 
They did not all march away at once, but in small parties, so as not to 
make a famine on the road, or put the little villages to^^any incon- 
venience. It was amusing to see them file away for two or three 
successive mornings. They were followed by droves of ajsses, loaded 
with a variety of effects, which they had picked up in Spain. Now 
and then came a weeping woman with an infant in her arms, equally 
miserable whether she abandoned her house or her lover. It seemed 
indeed that many of these sturdy Switzers had gained favor with the 
Spanish girls, who are fond of strangers generally — las carnes estrath 



OLD AND NEW CASTILE. I9l 

geras, as the phrase goes — and who especially cannot resist a red head 
and a light complexion. Of the men who were gathered round, all 
seemed glad that they were going ; the liberals, because their arrival 
had been the signal of returning despotism ; the apostolics, because 
they had kept them from going to extremes with their enemies. 
The former said Adios! with a significant air, the latter muttered 
Hereges, or heretics. The military chest brought up the rear, so as to 
pay the expenses of all who had ^one before. It was of course well 
escorted ; yet the day after its departure from Madrid, when the sol- 
diers of the escort had stacked their arms and were engaged with their 
meal, they were suddenly pounced upon by twenty or thirty long 
legged Spaniards, who seized their arms, turned them upon the Swiss, 
whom they tied like culprits, then very leisurely carried away the 
the money, to the amount of four or five thousand dollars. 

Thus much for the boldness of the Castitian bandits. Though in this 
respect they yield to none in Spain, yet they are much less cruel than 
those of Andalusia and Valencia. They content themselves usually 
with banging the ribs of those whom they suspect of concealing their 
money, and only kill them if they find it thus concealed, or in the 
event of resistance. During our ascent up the mountain, the snow so 
covered the sides of the road, that we could not see if it were skirted 
as usual by stone crosses ; a single wooden one, nailed against a 
neighbouring tree, marked the site of a tragedy. But we found onr 
chief security in the fact, that the road being now closed, there was no 
travelling, and consequently nothing to attract robbers ; and we trusted 
that, unless accident should throw us into contact with some of these 
worthies, we would reach the Escorial with skins as whole as when 
we began our journey. 

On approaching the top of the pass, we found the quantity of snow 
increasing. There was a narrow path, which had been cleared in the 
middle of the road, and along it our mules made a little progress, 
falling down occasionally either from fatigue er else unwillingness to 
go on. Pedro dragged them each time on their feet again, and a few 
steps on they would take another tumble. My companion and I, 
being in advance of the mules, soon after heard shrill and prolonged 
whistling and cries, resounding through the thick pines of the forest. 
Presently after, a sudden angle of the road brought us in sight of about 
twenty wild looking fellows, who were descending the mountain. 
They were variously dressed in cloth or sheepskin, and each had on 
his shoulder some ominous object that looked very like a musket. 
When they saw us, the shouts increased and the foremost ran rapidly r 

to meet us. We were very anxious, and, pausing until Pedro came 
nigh, we asked the meaning of the mystery. He told us that the 
people, who had been cutting a road through the snow, had finished 
their day's task, and were retiring to their place of rest, adding, by way ^ ,. 

of consolation, as he glanced to the yet distant summit of the mountain, 
whose snows were just then enkindled by the last rays of the sun, 
* God only knows when we shall get to ours !' As he uttered this in a 
despairing tone, down into the snow went both of the machos ; and 



192 OLD AND NEW CASTILE. 

though Pedro pulled at their halters, aixd kicked, and cursed, and 
basted, they seemed determined to pass the night there. By this time 
the men had got near and gathered round us. The supposed banditti 
were only half wild peasants of the mountains, and the imaginary 
muskets had turned into shovels and pick-axes. What were we doing 
there, and where were we going ? asked they, with a thousand other 
questions, excited by the singularity of the rencontre. When we in 
'return inquired if we could cross the mountain, they gave us to under- 
stand that there yet remained an itncleared space, where the vnulea 
could not proceed, unless indeed they were dragged head and heels 
over it, which they were ready to pverform for us, if we paid them well. 
This would be no easy task, one that would require muc^ time and 
bear hardly upon the poor mules; so we told Pedro that he might 
either return with his mules and we would employ one of the moun- 
taineers to guide us, or else get them to take care of his beasts and go 
himself with us to the Elscorial. He determined, of the two evils, to 
choose the latter, made an agreement with one of the fellows to give 
his mules in charge to the landlord of the nearest inn, then, giving us 
our cloaks and shouldering his own, together with the atfotjas, we 
recommended our comrades to God, and took our departure. Long 
after, as we wound slowly up the mountain, we could hear them 
shouting and whistling, or cursing at the mules^ every time that they 
fi^l to the ground or showed an unwillingness to go onward. 



We now pushed on unembarrassed and with new energy. Soon 
after, we came to the uncleared part of the road, and mounted on the 
surface of the snow. The upper crust bore us almost everywhere ; 
but sometimes we went floundering in leg deep, and in extricating 
one leg would sink deeper with the other, until completely mired. 
At the top of the pass we once more caught sight of New Castile, and 
profited by a remnant of light to look around us. The mountains are 
here covered with a thick growth of pines, which are preserved from 
the common fate of trees in the Castiles, by belonging to the crown ; 
the ravines were torn by rapid torrents, produced by the melting of 
the snow. 

In ascending the mountain, the wind was so light from the north- 
west that it was scarce perceptible ; but when at the top of the pass, 
we found it drawing up the valley with so much violence, that we could 
not check ourselves with so poor a foothold as was furnished by the 
snow, but had to scud before it down the opposite hill, until sheltered 
from its fury. My long cloak gave me infinite trouble on this occasion, 
for it flew and fluttered about me until I was afraid it would fly away 
with me. It was not thus with Pedro. His cloak happened to have 
many holes in it, and, as he threw the embozo over his left shoulder, 
one of them caught round the neck of our wine bottle, which waa 
peering out of one corner of the aiforjas, a clear proof that aometiniet 
there may be advantage in a ragged doak. 



OLD AND NEW CASTILE. 193 

The winds throughout this whole chain of Guadarrama are extremely 
violent, for, placed as these mountains are, at an elevation of four or 
five thousand feet above the sea, with far extending plains on every 
side, the currents of air come to them without obstacle and with un- 
abated force. Hence, at the convent of the Escorial, the windows, 
though framed of iron, cannot resist the fury of the wind, but are fre- 
quently driven in, to the no small inconvenience of the occupants. 
For a similar reason, it has been found necessary to make a stone 
covered way, leading from the village to the convent, in order to pro- 
tect the faithful, or take away any excuse which might lead to a neglect 
of their devotions. I was told in Madrid by one of the king's body 
guard, that in crossing between La Granja and the Escorial, there have 
been instances of their being driven from their horses by the wind, or 
cast, horse' and rider, both together, against the rocks. These facts 
may serve to explain the double contest sustained by Napoleon in 
crossing the Somosierra. The crests of the mountain were alive with 
enemies, whilst his own followers were struck down about him by the 
fury of the storm ; yet he overcame every obstacle by the mere force 
of his will, and triumphed at once over man and over the elements. 



Having descended four or five miles we came to an inn, where Pedro 
proposed that we should pass the night ; indeed he refused positively to go 
any farther, for it was already dark. We, however, were anxious to get 
to Guadarrama, where we knew there was a good inn, for we were fearful 
of encountering filth and bugs, such as we had met with at Segovia ; 
so we told him that he might halt if he pleased, but that we meant to 
sleep in Guadarrama. Upon this Pedro yielded, stipulating that we 
should at least fill our bottle with wine, for by this time it was com- 
pletely empty. . We willingly assented to this, gave him the real that 
he asked for, and pushed on a little in advance, where we seated our- 
selves behind a rock at the road side to a^vait his coming. When he 
at length arrived, we took a cut at the bread and a draught at the 
bottle, then started with new life for Guadarrama. This vivacity, 
however, was a little damped by Pedro's giving us to understand, that 
from what he had heard at the inn, we had still eight miles before us. 
He now told us also the true cause of his wanting to stay, which was 
that the whole road we were now about to traverse, swarmed with 
robbers. Had he told us this before we reached the inn, we certainly 
should have stopped, but after going so boldly past, we could not return 
without mortification. 

The night had now set in with more than usual darkness ; for the 
stars were veiled by heavy, ominous clouds, which came tumbling over 
the crests of the mountain, driving rapidly before the now freshening 
breeze. * There will be snow on the mountain before morning,' said 
Pedro, in a disconsolate tone, * and I shall have the devil's own time 
}n getting to my mules again.' ' Valgame Dios!* he presently after 
^dedf with uplifted eyes and an air of greater resignation. Just after 
25 



194 OLD AND NEW CAStrLET. 

dark, we had discoved the lights of Guadarrama, seemingly at no great 
distance. As we descended, however, an intervening hill rose gradu^ 
ally between, to cut us off from the cheering prospect. Other lights 
there were still nearer, in a valley on our right, where there seemed to 
be several villages. It was there, Pedro said, that the robbers, who 
haunted the neighbouring roads, had their dwellings. The petty 
authorities of these places either share the spoil of the depredators^ or 
else they are restrained from interfering by the wholesome dread of 
having their throats cut or their houses burnt over their heads. 

There was something in all this of wild and high excitement. 
With eyes on the alert and pricked ears, we hurried forward in silence, 
or talking by monosyllables and in a low voice. Pedro now began to 
tell us how to behave in the case of an attack. We were to stand close 
together; not to speak a word, and to do whatever we were ordered. 
The road over which we hurried was skirted with rocks and under- 
wood, that furnished excellent lurking places at each step. These, as 
we walked rapidly past them, were registered with a rapid glance. The 
chief danger^ we were told, lay near Guadarraiim, where the meeting 
of a number of cross rpads furnishes much passing and an excellent 
station for robbers. As we came towards this spot, there were several* 
dark objects in the road before us ; we kept on and found that they 
were trees,, beyond the road side, where it made an angle. At the 
junction were several crosses piled round with stones. We bad scarce 
left these tragic devices at our backs,, when we were startled by a 
rustling in the bushes on our lefl. We paused simultaneously — a hare 
sprung at that moment into the path; terrified at our approach, it 
bounded away before us, and presently after disappeared behind a rock. 
By this time we had been a long while upon the road, and yet Guadar- 
rama did not make its appearance. We had no means of judging of 
the distance we had performed by the time ; for if the darkness had 
permitted us to see our watches, we should have been nothing the 
wiser, since, whilst one of them lost an hour, the other gained two, in 
twentyfour. There could be no doubt, however, that it was eight or 
nine o'clock ; we must have come more than twenty miles since we 
left La Granja, and yet there were no signs of our resting place. 
Perhaps we had passed it at the junction of the roads, and then we 
roust either retrace our steps, or else keep on, supperless and sleepless, 
to the Escorial. * Valgame Dios ! ' exclaimed Pedro. Just at that 
moment we emerged from behind a sand hill, and were suddenly 
accosted by a loud barking. We turned our eyes in the direction 
whence it came, and found ourselves close upon the little village of 
Guadarrama, with its lights, its hum of voices, and its watchful dogs — 
all breaking upon us with the most pleasing associations. 



In the next minute we entered the identical inn, where we had passed* 
our first night on the way to Segovia. Our fat host welcomed us most 
cordially ; nay, he even gave up to us his privileged seat in the corner. 



OLD AND NEW CASTILE. 195 

Little John, who always followed the motions of his master, was equally 
generous with his humbler station^ and thus we were soon accom- 
modated within the very funnel of the chimney, close to the crackling 
fire, and with the pine splinters on the shelf above blazing full in our 
faces. What a contrast, thought we, from our late condition — dashing 
through the wet and snow, or roaming in a dark cold night over a wild 
waste, hungry, with wet feet, the prospect of being benighted, and the 
fear of footpads. Here all things were in the very same state that we 
had found them two nights before. The ventero and his man, his 
bustling wife, and his not to be forgotten daughter, the brown beauty 
of whom we have already spoken. Even the group of strangers was 
so similar, that the individuals scarce seemed changed. There were, 
however, no cooking preparations as before, nor any eating and drink- 
ing; for all had long since despatched their evening meal, and were 
now dropping away to their respective sleeping places. We did not 
need, however, the smell of food, nor the clatter of pots and pans to 
remind us of our supper ; but straightway proceeded to discuss the 
matter, with the ventero. 

As we were now our own providers, we boldly ordered a stewed 
hare and a partridge. Pedrb, who stood in the opposite corner, with 
the steam rising from his well soaked sandals, and curling upward along 
his legs, to mingle with the smoke from his cigarillo, started with 
astonishment at our extravagance. The hare and the partridge were, 
nevertheless, ordered, and were soon after placed in our bed-room upon 
a little table, whilst below was a brasero with embers. The ventero 
came in and took his seat beside us; now listening to our adventures, 
now aiding us to empty the tumbler, which each offered to him from 
time to time. As for Pedro, who, perhaps, had not tasted partridge 
since he was a boy, and may be never, he struggled hard between his 
inward delight and the desire to preserve his gravity. He sat between 
us at table, and we plied him well with wine and viand. Now, it is 
matter of courtesy in Spain to eat and drink whatever is put upon 
your plate or poured into your tumbler, in order to show your esteem 
for the favor. Pedro was aware of this, and therefore acquiesced with 
becoming resignation. 

These matters being disposed of, each of us got into bed. We had 
offered Pedro to have one prepared for him ; but he said he had no use 
for such a commodity — milgracias ! que yo no gusto coma. Thereupon, 
having adjusted his ctlforgas in one corner, he rolled his old cloak 
around him and threw himself flat upon the pavement, without remov- 
ing either montero cap, legging, or sandal. He was, nevertherless, 
asleep and snoring, ere we had finished adjusting our pillows. 



The next morning we had our chocolate as before from the hands of 
our little Morisca ; Pedro shouldered his alforjas, and, having taken a 
last leave of the vent a and its inmates, we set out on foot for the 
£scorial. The whole road was dreary enough, skirted only by aban- 



196 OLD AND NEW CASTILE. 

dance of rocks, and hers and there a single encina or alcomoque. 
Afler a walk of eight miles we reached the Escorial, and found as 
comfortable lodgings as those we had left, in the posada of a motherly 
old widow woman. Pedro aided us in despatching a hearty breakfast. 
He was then paid for his own services, as well as for those of the routes 
which had given us so much trouble, and sent away with many good 
wishes. Nor did he neglect the parting salutations — ' Stay with God/ 
said he, ' and may all go well with you ' — ' Seniores ! qtieden ustedes 
con Dios y que no hay a novtdad! ' 

The convent of the Escorial is situated on the southeastern declivity 
of the Guadarrama chain, midway up the mountains. This magnifi- 
cent building owes its existence to the bigotry of Philip II., who, being 
in a panic at the battle of Saint Quintin, vowed, if he gained the day^ 
to build the most magnificent convent in the world, in honor of the 
saint whose name should be found that day upon the calendar. The 
battle being won. Saint Laurence was discovered to be the thrice happy 
individual, in whose favor the vow had been made. A place was chosen 
to erect the convent, which already bore the name of the saint, and was 
called San Lorenzo del £sc6rial.* Furthermore, since Saint Laurence 
was roasted to death upon a gridiron, the architect, Juan Baptista de 
Toledo took it into his head to build the convent in the figure of that 
culinary instrument. With this view he represented the several bars 
by files of building, the handle by a portion of the church, and even 
the feet of his singular model by four insignificant towers, which rise 
at the corners ; indeed, the only poetic license of which this new 
John the Baptist was guilty, was in supposing his original to be turned 
upside down. 

The exterior dimensions of the convent are seven hundred and forty 
feet, by five hundred and eighty. The principal dome over the centre 
of the church rises to an elevation of three hundred and thirty feet. 
It is built entirely of the granite found in the vicinity, and in the 
severest style, without any show of ornament ; — it may also be added, 
as far as the exterior is concerned, without beauty. Indeed, there is 
no grand eiSect produced by the proportions of the whole ; for the petty 
towers, rising at the corners, take much from the grandeur of the 
principal dome. There are also several ranges of irregular buildings, 
erected subsequently to the monastery, which lie adjacent and greatly 
injure the uniformity of its appearance. It is within, however, and 
especially in the chapel, that the Escorial is to be seen and admired. 
There we witness, in all the majesty of its proportions, one of the 
noblest monuments of modern times. 

The great chapel of the Escorial is in the form of a Grecian cross, 
and is surmounted by the huge dome of which we have already spoken. 
This dome is supported upon four square columns or masses of granite, 
which rise from the pavement to the roof, and which are of such vast 
dimensions, that they have small chapels in them, where mass is daily 
performed. The organs, four in number, are placed on either side, 

* Escorial derlvefi from the word eneoria, or dress; it is given to all places where 
there are old and exhausted mines. 



OLD AND NEW CASTILE. 197 

at the back is a gallery for the choir. Opposite the choir is the prin^ 
cipal altar and the tabernacle, for the reception of the sacred vessels, 
and for the exposure of the sacrament in seasons of high solemnity. 
The altar is in the same severe style with the rest of the building. 
It is very imposing, and excites in the beholder a religipus awe, which 
is further augmented by statues of two kings, Charles Y. and his son 
i^ilip, who are seen in open niches at either side, kneeling devoutly, 
with their faces turned in the direction of the tabernacle. The impos- 
ing solemnity of this chapel, is, perhaps, surpassed by that of no sacred 
edifice in the world. There is here no profusion of ornament to dazzle 
and divert the beholder, whilst the rough granite, seen everywhere in 
its naked strength, is in happy accordance with the hardy grandeur of 
the edifice. 

The Pantheon of the Escorial is the burying place of the Spanish 
kings. The body of Charles V. was first deposited there, and his suc- 
cessors have likewise been buried in the same place, with only two or 
three exceptions. The Pantheon is a subterranean chamber, situated 
immediately beneath the grand altar of the chapel. We were conduct- 
ed to it by one of the monks, who carried the keys of this chamber of 
death, whilst a familiar attended with a light. A long arched stairway 
lined on every side with polished marble, took us far beneath the sur- 
face of the earth, and brought us at length to the Pantheon. It is of 
circular form, terminated overhead by a vaulted dome, from the centre 
of which hangs a chandelier of rock crystal. This is never lit, sscve at 
the burial of a prince, and the feeble light of our guide, now furnished 
but a scanty and insufficient illumination. We were able, however, to 
discover with its assistance, a small altar standing in front of the stair- 
way, upon which was a crucifix of black marble, with a pedestal of 
porphyry. The whole interior is lined with dark marble, beautifully 
veined, and of great lustre. It is divided into three ranges of horizon- 
tal niches or compartments, separated from each other by fluted pilas- 
ters, and running entirely round the circle. Each of these niches 
contains a porphyry coffin, formed like a casket, and having a movea- 
ble cover. They are all in their places, but are not all tenanted. The 
empty ones have blank scrolls that are ready to receive the names of 
ftiture occupants. Others are already filled. We read on one ' Caro- 
lus V.' An epitaph which carries with it the loftiest associations. 
There is an irresistible feeling of solemnity, which every one experi- 
ences in visiting the meanest dwelling place of the dead. What then 
must be the sensation of him, who after grouping through subterranean 
passages, which have never been warmed nor illuminated by the rays 
of the sun, comes at length upon this mysterious dwelling place, which 
genius has sought to render worthy to be the last home of the mighty 
of the earth ; and where, as Bourgoanne well expresses it, * deceased 
grandeur still struggles against annihilation ! ' 

In examining the different portions of the convent, we passed through 
stairways and passages, arched into the wall, which is from fifteen to 
twenty feet in thickness, and entirely formed of, and filled in with 
hewn granite. We came also upon several little chapels in these se* 



198 OLD AND NEW CASTILE. 

questered situations. Josepbus speaks of similar stairways, in describ- 
ing the temple of Jerusalem. Had that famous building been construct-' 
ed with equal solidity, no human fury could have been persevering 
enough to liave completed its destruction. The apartments set apart 
for the royal family are very neat. They are everywhere hung with 
tapestry from the royal manufactory at Madrid. Some pieces are 
equal to the best productions of the Gobelins. One of the halls is 
painted with battles between Moors and Christians. The Moorish 
cross-bow-men are dressed in armour, like those of the christian army. 
The grand stairway is surmounted by a quadrangular dome. This is 
finely painted in fresco by Giordano. The first compartment repre- 
sents the battle of Saint Quintin — another tte accomplishment of the 
vow made on that occasion by Philip, and the last shows how the pious 
prince was at length admitted into the celestial regions, as a reward 
for so many good actions. 

The convent of the Escorial formerly possessed treasures in gold, 
silver, and precious stones, worthy of its magnificent endowment. It 
may be sufficient to name one item, which was a statue of Saint Lau- 
rence, weighing four hundred and fifty pounds of silver, and eighteen 
of gold. These, in the time of the revolution, were plundered in- 
discriminately by French and Spaniards ; nay, for aught I know, by the 
good monks themselves. The paintings, too, which had been collected 
at immense expense, were carried to France to perfect the gallery of 
the Louvre. Most of these have been returned, and the good Jeromites 
have in them ample consolation for the loss of their silver Saint Lau- 
rence. Among them is the Last Supper by Titian ; a Nativity by 
Espanioleto, and a Virgin and Child in the very best style of Murillo ; 
but the most esteemed paintings of the Escorial, and they are among 
the most esteemed in the world, are three from the pencil of Raphael! 
One is called Our Lady of the Fish, or simply the Fish, from a well 
drawn fish that figures in it — the other the Visitation, in which the 
Virgin^ appearing in the presence of Elizabeth, exhibits the utmost 
embarrassment at her pregnancy. The last is called the Pearl — a 
famous painting, formerly owned by the kings of England, but which 
was sold either by Cromwell or by Charles IL, for two thousan4 pounds 
sterling. It is now esteemed above all price. The subject is the Holy 
Family, and the whole piece is allowed by painters to possess in an 
unusual degree that perfection of design, beauty of expression, and 
that inimitable grace for which Raphael is said to be uilequalled. It 
is to be regretted that natural coloring cannot be numbered among the 
attributes of Raphael ; all his paintings which I have seen, have a 
bronzed tinge, which prevents the most momentary deception. It does 
not, however, require that a man should be a connoisseur, and ready 
to bow down to received and long established opinions, to admit the 
merits of the Pearl. Indeed I haVc never seen anything so beautiful 
as the face of the Virgin, whether on canvass or in nature. 

The Escorial likewise possesses a fine library of thirty thousand 
volumes; four thousand of which are manuscripts, and half of these 



OLD AND NEW CASTILE. . 199 

Arabian. A very valuable collection of Arabian manuscripts, arranged 
in a room of the convent, were destroyed by fire in J 671.* 

The convent of the Escorial was formerly tenanted by one hundred 
and sixty monks of the order of Saint Jerome, and then its revenue 
amounted to one hundred and thirty thousand dollars a year, proceed- 
ing from estates and from a flock of thirtysix thousand merino sheep, 
which lived upon the neighbouung mountains in summer^ and were 
driven in winter to the plains below in quest of a warmer clime.t 
They had beside a small flock of a thousand, which they kept in the 
neigrhbourhood to supply their table ; for the Jeromites are good livers^ 
andare not accused eithef of abstinence or maceration. The means of 
the convent, and in consequence the number of monks, have been 
somewhat reduced by 4he revolutions which have agitated Spain during 
the present century. Nevertheless, the Escorial still continues to be 
one of the most formidable of that vast system of religious strong- 
holds, which cover the whole Penihsula, and maintain it in spiritual 
subjection. 

The court comes to the Escorial every fall, and remains there during 
part of October and November. In addition to the royal apartments 
within the walls of the convent, there are two small palaces in the 
neighbourhood, erected for the recreation of the full grown Infantas. 
One of these is called the Casa-del-Campo. It is of plain exterior, but 
within of the most exquisite finish of any royal residence that I have 
seen ; even the fairy Trianon at Versailles sinks in the comparisour 
The stairway is formed of the choicest Spanish marbles, and is of 
nnequalled beauty. As for the rooms, whilst the ceilings are covered 
with a profusion of minute ornament, which resembles the richest 
mosaic, the sides are hung with a rare collection of paintings of 
unknown value, among which are some Arabesques and heads by 
Raphael. 

The Escorial must certainly prove a dreary abode to the king and 
court, calculated to freeze and wither every generous sentiment. Its 
bleak situation upon the mountain, exposes it completely to the cold 
and furious winds of which we have already spoken ; whilst the incli* 
nation tif the declivity upon which it stands towards the southwest, 
givef full energy to the efforts of the sun. Hence, the proverb applied 
to it by the Spaniards — ' You are frozen to death in winter, and burnt 
alive in summer.' — * En invicmo yiela, en verano qtiema.' Nor is there 
anything here to soothe the mind, or to check and temper the fury of the 
efements. There are no trees, no rivulets, no fountains, no cultivation, 
no industry, nothing to invite man in the choice of a habitation ; noth- 
ing in short but monks, masses, and granite. Nor is the result differ- 
ent from what might be expected. It is, during the residence of the 
court at the Becorial, more than ever, that the ghostly counsels of the 
clergy are visible in the affairs of pjate. It was within the dreary wall» 

*The library of the Escorial furnished Conde material? for Ms excellent history of 
Ihe Arab0 in Spain, 
t Bourgoanae. 



200 OLD AND NEW CASTILfi. 

of this very convent that the fatal edicts by which the Moriscos were 
driven from Spain, received the royal signature. 

After wandering a whole day through the convent, we had completed 
a hasty examination of its most important parts. But it is so compli- 
cated that we were only able to carry away with us a distinct impres- 
sion of the giant Chapel and of the Pantheon. These no one who has 
not seen them can appreciate; no one who has seen them can forget; 
nor, the effect produced upon the feelings by the massive construction 
of the whole pile. Indeed, there is no end to one's admiration in coi^ 
templating this stupendous edifice, of which it has been said, some* 
what, perhaps, in the spirit of exaggeration, / There is no structure in 
the world, save only those which triumph over ages upon the banks of 
the Nile, which give so high an idea of human power.' Some one 
else exclaims, ' Time, which destroyeth all things, doth but establbh 
its walls.' As for the Spaniards, they show their estimation of the 
Escorial, by calling it familiarly — * The eighth wonder.' — ' La Octava 
MaraviUa.* 

But let no one envy the Spaniards the possession of their Escorial. 
Independent of the annual sum, so unproductively expended for the 
maintenance of the idle monks by whom it is inhabited, it cost origin* 
«lly fifty millions of dollars ; a sum which, it is said, would have 
sufficed to cover the whole country with a beautiful system of internal 
communications by means of canals and highways— -one of many 
things for the want of which Spain is now sunk into such utter insig« 
nificance. 



On the fifth morning of our departure from Madrid, we set out after 
Weakfast with two mules and a guide to return to the city. We had 
heard so much lately of robbers, that we had much the same feeling 
towards them that a Frenchman has towards a Jesuit. We saw robber 
written upon every face. The night before, the little group about our 
kitchen fire had each some doleful story to communicate. One poor 
fellow had been stopped in the morning on a bridge about a league 
from the Escorial by a number of salteadores or jumpers, a name given 
to the robbers in Spain, from the sudden way in which they leap like 
tigers upon their prey. They had come suddenly upon him from oi^ 
tliG ruined post house that lies hard by, and not finding any money 
upon him, they had basted him to his heart's content, and left him 
molido y echo pedazos — a mere mummy. 

We started, therefore, with our minds made up to being robbed, and 
paid for the mules in advance, in order to save thus much from the 
wreck. When we came in sight of the fatal bridge, we made our 
guide get up behind one of us, so as to move on faster and linger the 
least possible time in the neighbourhood of the danger. Wa now de- 
>K:ended briskly into the glen, and urged our mules over the noiffy 
pavement of the bridge. The ruined post house stood at the right ; te 
^oof had fallen in, but the walls remained. When we got oppoflitB to 



OLD AND NEW CABTILE. 201 

h^ no roVben came out to meet us, and we passed without tuny rencontre 
und at a rapid rate. We went on thus four or five miles, when our 
'guide suddenly jumped to the ground, saying — ' Voy moUdoJ He had 
been sitting upon the buckle of the crupper, and though a Spaniard, 
«nd very tough, it had at last made an impression. He was an elegantly 
made, athletic young man, and kept up with us at the rate of near five 
miles an hour^ and with little seeming exertion, during the greater part 
of the twentyeight miles which lay between Madrid and the Escorial. 

Towards four o'clock we passed through the crowded promenade of 
the Florida — under the noble portal of San Vincente. and by the 
Palace, until we had reached the lofty level of the city — arriving at 
4ast at the Gate of the Sun, dirty, fatigued, and with the skin burnt 
and blistered on the right side of our faces, which had been turned 
towards the sun. This, however, did not hinder us from being well 
received by the old woman, whom we found as usual with her gacetas 
«t the bottom of the entry, as well as by Don Valentin^ and Donia 
Florencia, who testified a pleasure at our returi^ which was eztrema{f 
.graieftil in a foreign Jand 



i» 



•\ 



CHAPTER Xi. 

iClNGDOM OF NEW CASTILE. 

Sccbnd' Ezcuraioo.— Father Patrick. —The Cuto.— Arrival at Aran|ae2.-^oie.-^ 
The Palaces and Gardens.— Tedioas Ride to Toledo.— Pause at a venta.-— Renew 
onr Journey.— Wamba.—^AiTfvai at Toledo^ 

On my return iraiii Segovia, I received intelligenee' which made ma 
ttraioiM to depart with as little delay aA possible for the South of Spain^ 
Being, however, extremely unwilling to leave Castile without Tisiting 
Toledo, I determined to steal time enough to make a short journey to 
that famous old city, and to turn a litde aside in the way, in order to 
see something of the palaces and gardens of the much boasted AraiH 
juez. My late companion having plenty of time before him, intende<l 
to perform the same journey less in a hurry, and at a later day, when a 
knowledge of the language would enable him to travel with greater 
profit. I regretted this circumstance much ; for I had ever found the 
pleasures- of travelling greatly enhanced by participation, and was be- 
side, dearly of the opinion of the French moralist^ when he says that 
solitude is indeed a beautiful thing; but we should always have some 
friend beside us, to whom we may say, — ^ How beautiful is solitude ! ' 

On the first of April I was ready to depart, and as there was to be 
no diligence passing through A ran juez until Wednesday, I endeavour-^ 
ed to fmd some earlier conveyance. Of the many galeras which trade 
regularly to the four kingdoms of Andalusia, there were none just then 
ready ; but I was able at length, with the assistance of my good friend 
Don Diego, to find a carro in the eaUe Toledo, which was to start at 
an early hour on the following morning. Finding myself at the time 
in the neighbourhood of Father Patrick, and remembering that he had 
offered me a line, in case I should go to Toledo, to an old friend of 
his— a canon in the metropolitan cathedral — I entered his house, and 
going up a single pair of stairs, rang the bell at the door of his apartr 
ment. 



Father Patrick was an Irishman, who had come when a youth U> 
Spain, and had studied theology, as many of his countrymen had done 
before, in the Colegio-de-los Irlandeses at Salamanca. Since then he 
had paiised an eventflrt life, chequered with a more than usual share of 
that incident and adventure which has been the lot of the Spanisb 



NEW CASTILE. 

dergjy during the rarioils revolutions which have of late eoovulaed the 
Peninsula. He had, doubtless, taken an active part in politics ; for he 
was once a prisoner of the French, and with his liberty had like to 
have lost his life. But he had gone safely through all these troubles, 
and now that the church had again triumphed over the constitution, he 
was busily employed in securing the advantages of victory. For aught 
I know, he might have been connected with that vast system, by means 
of which the Spanish hierarchy not only influence, but control the 
leading measures of state ; that parallel government, which, though 
unseen, runs beside the ostensible one — is constantly informed of every- 
thing going on all over the world, of a favorable or unfavorable tenden- 
cy to the cause of the church — and is ever ready with heart and hand 
to forward the great interests of that alliance, by means of which the 
Altar and the Throne still struggle to maintain their tottering domin- 
ion, fie this as it may. Father Patrick was often in possession of news, 
foreign and domestic, before they had reached the diplomatic circles; 
and I even once heard him say, when bewailing a disaster which had 
befallen the crusaders in Portugal, that he had been in possession of 
the particulars, ere they were known at the Palace. 

Before I had time to give )t second pull atlhe bell of Father Patrick, 
his own voice was heard within calling ' Qmen ? ' I gave the usual 
answer and was at once admitted. He was no longer habited in the 
long hat, low robe, and flowing cloak of the Spanish prjk^ ; but had 
on a dark surtout, beneath which were seen .a pair of neairi^gs covered 
with breeches and black stockings. A email black neck stock, having . 
a narrow streak of violet, and a silk skull cap to cover the tonsure, 
alone indicated the man of God. As for his face, it was well fed and 
rosy, full of mirth, frankness, and good humor ; in short, it was all 
Iriiih. He had been sitting at a table covered with books, breviaries, 
and newspapers, and in front of his chair was a half written paper, 
which he presently covered, and which might very well have been a 
letter to the noisy Shiel or the noisier O'Connel. 

And here, too, I would willingly tell the reader of a pilgrim, who 
vras very often in the company of Father Patrick. The son of a Pro- 
testant clergyman in Ireland, he had gone back to the faith of Saint 
Peter, and, by way of penance, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 
fie was a tall man, with lank white hair hanging about his features. 
His head was covered with a broad brimmed hat — ^in his right hand 
«ras the long staff of the pilgrim, whilst, for garments, he wore a sur- 
tout and hreecJies which might have fitted lum when he lefk Ireland, 
but which had grown far too capacious in less wholesome climes. 
With the limbs and frame of a giant, our pilgrim had not only the 
eimplicity, but even the squeaking tones of a child ; for both voice 
And virility had gone together in a fit of dysentary in Palestine. It 
was indeed an odd scene to hear him and Father Patrick together. 
The pilgrim would recount some particular adventure at the request 
4>fttuM companion, who took him round to show him off to all his ae- 
^quaintance. His language was simple and unaffected, and from much 
reading of the Bible, he had caught the scripture phraseology, which 



9M NEW CASTILE. 

was rendered still more singular by his peculiar tone. But the best 
was when Father Patrick would break in with his full, fat TOtce, ut- 
tering some lewd joke, which his companion was too single minded 
to understand^ and laughing from the bottom of his bowels. There 
chanced once to be by, when this exhibition was going on, one, of whom 
a genius ibr mimicry was the smallest merit; so that we had occasioa 
many times after to laugh at the contrasting oddities of Father Patrick 
and his Pilgrim. To return to the matter in question, Father Thom- 
as, when he found I was going to Toledo, at once offered me a note 
to the Canonigo, which he wrote upon the spot, and I returned home 
with everything ready for the journey. 



Having risen the' next day at an early hour, I repaired in due tioie 
to the inn of my carro. And here, lest the reader should form too- 
magnificent an idea of our vehicle from the favorable sound of its- 
name, it may not be amiss to tell him that it was neither more nor 
less than a rough cart, made entirely with the broad axe. Instead of 
shafts, it had a single piece of timber projecting from the centre, by 
means of which and a transverse beam, the vehicle was sustained io 
a horizontal position, resting upon the backs of the two mules which 
drew it. Lake the gaiera, it was covered with a top, under whieh„ 
and upon a^lid load of various commodities, the passengers were lo 
be'scoommodated. All being ready, we got in and sallied through 
the Qale of Toledo. The carro, as I soon discovered, is a very infi^ 
rior conveyance to the gaUra, The gaiera, covering a very birge 
space, is not easily disturbed, and rolls over the ground with a -certain 
gravity of motion ; but the earro is a restive, vivacious vehicle, which 
goes hopping and jumping over every pebble. And, inasmuch as yo«l 
cannot seat yourself at any great distance from the wheels, its ca- 
prices are all brought home to you. 

Towards noon we had gone fourteen miles, which was half the 
journey, when we stopped to dipe in Valdemoro— Valley-oRhe-Moor^ 
Our meal wa^ rather a homely one, consisting of a soup seasoned 
with garlic, which was served up in a large earthen basin, from which 
each one helped himself with a wooden spoon. Next came the py^ 
chero, from which the soup had been made ; and then a salad. This 
being despatched, each one sought a bench or table^ upon which to 
make a hasty siesta. At two we again departed from Valdemoro. 
The sun was very powerful ; there was not a breath of air, and the 
heat became intense ; furthermore, it had not rained for sometiroey 
and the dust which covered the road was as fine as powder and rose 
BQto the air upon the slightest provocation. Wq had not got far, a» 
it chanced, from Valdemoro, when we were overtaken by two gakr&s 
of the king's stables, which were conveying furniture to Aranjues„ 
preparatory to the removal of the court. Each of them was drawn as 
usual by a whole battalion of mules, so that they did not lack the 
meafhs of kicking up a dust. The most natural course fpr i^ to have 



N£W CASTHJB. MM 

Mlowed wonld h^re been, to pause awhile and let the dost of the 
galtras enbeide before advancing any farther. Bat our driver being 
yooBg and ardent was anzions to recover the lead ; this the galera 
men would not consent to, so we gallopped on, always cutting boldly 
into the cloud of dust which followed them. Not content with out» 
stripping us and choaking us with dust, the galera men now rallied 
and ridiculed us. In this, however, they had no advantage of our 
man, who said some cutting things to them — among others, one, in 
which his majesty was treated with little ceremony. ' Los caleseras 
dei Reif, poca hinra! ' — * The king's wagooiers forsooth 1 small is the 
honor 1 ' The Spaniards, though on ordinary occasions grave and 
taciturn, when they become excited by a race, or other contest for 
superiority, are the wildest creatures in the world. 



In due time we reached the bold bank of the Jarama and caught a 
view of that stream, of the more distant Tagus, and of the verdant 
groves of Aranjues, all contrasting most grate AiUy with the dusty 
sterility of the country through which we had been passing. We 
descended by a winding road to the valley of the Jarama ; we crossed 
that noble bridge, of which I have elsewhere spoken, and before five 
o'clock our carro had traversed the Tagus and paused for us to de^ 
scend in the Plaza of Aranjuez. I had scarce reached the gHNUnd 
before several lads offered their services to carry my little bundle* 
All looked disappointed except the successful candidate, who took 
the prize under his arm and led the way to the posada. 

Having shaken off a portion of the dust, which had gathered round 
me during the journey, I walked forth to refresh myself in a ramble 
along the banks of the Tagus. In crossing the Plaza to join the 
river I was accosted by a lad, whom I presenSy recognised to be one 
of those who had offered to conduct me to the posada. He asked 
me if I had lost anything when I got down from the earro^ and at 
the same time took from his cap, a cut glass inkstand with a brafs 
cover, which fitted tightly with a screw. I was pleased with this lit^ 
tie act of honesty in a needy boy, and on turning to take more notice 
of him, was struck with his manly appearance, his sunburnt face, and 
keen black eye. Having asked him to show me to a pleasant walk, 
he took me at once across the bridge, and as we traced a foot path 
which lay along the margin of the river, I drew from him a storj 
which was more than melancholy. 



Jose — ^for such was the name of the kd — had never known his 
ihther ; as he had been born to sorrow, he might also have been be- 
gotten in guilt. All that he knew of himself was, that three years 
before, at the period when the entry of the French troops into ^pain 
had restored the priest party to preponderance and power — at that 



9W NEW CASTILE. 

period of universal license, when from a pulpit in Madrid, it WM 
publicly proclaimed to be no sin to kill the child of a Constitutional, 
though in its mother's womb — two royalists had entered their dwell* 
ing in the dead of night, and falling upon his mother, had murdered 
her with five knife stabs. Jose could not tell whether these blows 
had been aimed by religious or political fanaticism, or by the revenge- 
ful fury of a passion unknown in less ardent climes — it was enough 
for him that they had killed his mother. Since that £ital night, he 
had wresUed for his bread, as best he could. His character seem- 
ed to have formed itself prematurely, and though only twelve yean 
old, he showed already something of the bearing and dignity of man- 
hood. Yet his ragged clothing and uncombed hair showed that he 
would still have been the better for the care of a mother. 

I was greatly struck with the solitary and unfriended condition of 
this poor boy, and determined to employ him the next day in showing 
me the wonders of Aranjuez. In returning towards the posada ouw 
road lay through the market place. It was thronged with laborers, 
returning from their work in the palaces and gardens, and who had 
stopped, on their way homeward, to talk over the village gossip of the 
day. AH the men wore the undress of royalist volunteers ; I had no- 
where seen so many of these birds of evil omen. In one group near 
which we passed, I noticed a stout, powerful man with thick hair and 
long black mustaches; his jacket was hanging carelessly from the left 
shoulder, and a red cockade of most loyal dimensions was stuck under 
the ribbon of his hat. He followed us with his eyes as we went by, 
and when we had turned a corner, the boy drew towards mo and said, 
* It was he who killed my mother.' — * Es e/, quien tmUo a mi madrei * 



The next morning I was waked at sunrise, by my little companion 
of the day before ; and we went at once to the principal palace. This 
building was commenced by Charles V., who delighted in Aranjuez* 
Since then many ranges of buildings have been erected for the lod|^ 
ment of the host with which this court is always accompanied. They 
are all built with arcades and terraces. Had a uniform plan been 
observed throughout, they would form a noble assemblage. The 
arrangement and furniture of the interior have nothing striking, and 
there are few good paintings. But it is upon its gardens, rather than 
upon its palaces, that Aranjuez founds its reputation. They are indeed 
delightful. The Tagus flows immediately beside the grounds, and, 
being dammed up, it is rendered navigable above for the amusement of 
the court, and at the same time its waters are poured at pleasure over 
the fields and sent to the roots of every shrub. This may account for 
the unequalled size and luxuriance of the Uees. They are of every 
kind ; among the rest the lofty sycamore rose prominent, and came in 
a good hour to remind me of my distant home. A portion of the river 
being thus diverted to irrigate the garden, the remainder rushes over 
the dam, forming a perpetual cascade beneath the windows of tlie 



NfiW CASTlLBf. ' Wf 

^dtti^ The garden is laid out in atraight walks ; but the trees are 
not shorn into formal alleys, but left to their own luxuriance. Yine^ 
covered arbors, parterres^ groups of statues, and fountains, are scattered 
about in happy distribution. 

Leaving the pahce, we now struck into the CaUe-de-la^Reyna^ a fine 
wide road, which runs along the Tagus, and is shaded by noble treeft 
The river in its windings sometimes receded from the road, sometimes 
approached it closely. The space between them formed one conttnuous 
orchard, called the Garden of Spring, planted with peach, pear, plum, 
almond, and cherry trees, which were then covered with fiowers, 
exhaling the most grateful fragrance. Fruit trees certainly add if 
wonderful charm to a mere pleasure garden ; for they carry with them 
that idea of utility which raises everything in human estimation. 
Nor did Flora withhold her aid in decking forth this Garden of Prima- 
vera. On every side were seen bushes of roses and beds of the gayest 
flowers, enclosed in hedges of odoriferous shrubs^ whilst the vine, 
clambering along the trunks of the trees, was preparing with shoot and 
tendril, to send abroad its airy festoons. I was delighted with the 
Garden of Primavera, and my confidence in my own opinion was not 
n little increased by finding that it was shared by the whde feathered 
tribe; for the groves, the bushes— -nay, the very gronnd, teemed with 
their songs of exultation^ The nightingales are said, especially, to 
delight in this favored abode, where they arrive about the middle of 
April, to open the summer campaign of love and matrimony. If these 
aerial voyagers, who pass at pleasure over countries and continents, be 
allowed to have a good taste in matters of rural attraction, then there 
is no place like Aranjuez. 

Never have I made so pleasant a walk as this along the Calle-de-la- 
Reyna, and beside the Garden of Primavera. The time was that 
aaspicious hour, when the risen sun had just strength enough to dissi- 
pate the coolness of the morning without bringing in exchan^ the 
least feeling of languor, and ere he had yet drunk up the dewdrops, 
which still dung to the leaves, the blossoms, and the branches. The 
l^ace, too, was Aranjuez, the land of Galatea, the scene of many a 
pastoral ditty ; whilst the river which glided by with scarce a ripple, 
i»flecttng the flying clouds, the azure sky, the hovering birds, the 
stately trees which skirted its banks, or the humbler willows whidi 
plunged their branches into ils current, was the Tqjo dor^tdo of Cer-' 
vantesy Gongora, and Garcilaso. As for the season of the year, it was 
that very vernal time, sung by poets and eulogized by moralists, when 
nature, escaping from the dreary durance of her wintry sleep, arrays 
herself once more in the habiliments of joy ; that spring, which we 
love by comparison with the past and in anticipation of the future^ 
whose promises we value higher than the realities of summer, because 
not having yet reached maturity, it does not bring with it the idea of 
decay, just as we prefer virgin beauty to the perfection of womanhood, 
or the blowing to the full blown rose< 

Tracing the stream upward, we came at length to the Casa-de-los« 
Mavineios. This is a naval arsenal in miniature, with its buildings^ 



its doek^yardy its shipS) and even its aailorB, who eoine ft#m tke set 
toast and wear the naval uniforoa. Opposite is a little hattery mik 
erabrasures for caaooD^ and, in the time of Boiirgoaane, a number of 
frigates in miniature might be seen with spread canvass and flutteriiif 
pennons, coursing it over the Tagus, engaged in mock combat with 
each otber, or in bombarding the lottery. The only boat which I aaw 
was the king's barge. It was gorgeously decoraied, and seemed manned 
With statues, rising like mermaids above the water. 

Leaving behind the naval arsenal, we next casM to the Caaa?4eK 
^Labrador. This fairy palace was built by Charles IV., a prince who 
added a passion for rural enjoyments and a refined taste in the arts^ 
to a singular destitution of every honorable feeling. Its exterior 
forms three sides of a square, with busts and statues, standing in 
niches in its walls, or upon the balustrade which surrounds the cour^ 
yard. The decoration of the interior b rich, elegant, and tasty ; but 
by a singular disregard of all decency, the apartment usually doomed 
ito the most scrupulous concealment, is here the most conspicuous of 
^1. Its windows command the pleasantest tiew of the surrounding 
"country; whilst within, it is. decorated with the costliest tables, vasee^ 
«nd time-pieces, and even hung round with four superb pointings^ 
drawn by the magic pencil of Qirodet, and presented by Napoleon^ 

The court comes to Aranjuez in April, and remains until the dog^ 
days, when it removes to La Crranja; for when the violent heats of 
^summer set in, the air of this place is loaded with exhalations from 
the swampy valley, and becomes so noxious, that even the inhabitaiits 
are forced to wi^draw to the neighbouring highlands. Thus Ara» 
juez, which in May has a population of nearly ten thousand, has 
on other inhabitants in August than the few that are detained by 
povMiy.* From La Granja the court retires, as we have seen, to the 
EsooruJ, and thence, in November, to Madrid. From Madrid it goes 
to th0> Pardo, and thence, again, in the iq>ring, to Aranjuez. Bach 
■of these Sitios Reaks, not to mention several minor palaces, has its 
separate administration and train of attendants—^ monstrous state 
«of things, utterly inconsistent with the beggarly condition of the 
national resources. 

Of all the Sitios Reak^ however, none may compare with Aranjues^ 
Indeed, when the powerful sun of this elevated region strikes with 
tinmitigated fiirj upon the naked plains of Castile, here one may find 
lofty trees to intercept the burning rays, and shade that is ever imper- 
viovs. In Aranjuez everything soothes and gratifies the senses ; the 
^smell is greeted with the most gratefiil perfumes, and the singing of 
tnyriads of weAl toned hirds and the rushing of water in subterranean 
t^anals, or its splash as it faBs from ever gushing fountains, or the 
^oudor roar of the tumbling cataract, eome cheeringly upon the ear; 
Whilst the eye is {^ased with the harmony of surrounding nature, 
^ot less than with the companionship of so many beautifal and eeei 
lookihg men and women, created by the sculptor 

— y 

* Boargoanne^ 



mew CAfiTILE. MB 

After being detuned m dmy longer at Artnjaez than I had contem- 
plated, fer want of a conveyance, my little friend Jose at length pT<^ 
cored me the means of reaching Toledo. Indeed, I was just thinking 
4»f the expediency of departing afoot, on the foarth morning of my 
absence from Madrid, when Jose knocked at my door and uAd me 
that be had got a horse for me, and that he was to go along, to bring 
liim back, on a horrico, I liked this arrangement well ; so, paying 
my bill and packing up my bundle, I sallied out into the court-yard, to 
vommence my journey. I did not expect to be very splendidly mounted^ 
Imt my astonishment and confusion were indeed great, on finding that 
I had to ride npon a miserable rocin, that had Tost its hair by some 
disease, eq;>ecialjy upon the tail, which was as long and as naked as the 
Crank of an elephant. The only flesh the animid had left seemed to 
haTe descended into its legs, and as for his hips, his backbone, and 
ribs, they were everywhere eon^icuous, save where covered by a 
Imge pack saddle, stuffed with straw and covered with canvass. 
What made the matter still worse, the master of the beast, an old 
nan in a brown cloak, held his head before me, as I was approaching 
to take a nearer view, and told me that if it was igu^d to me, he 
would take the two dollars beforehand. I explained to the old man 
liow very possible it was, that his horse would not live to complete 
tibe journey; to which he replied, with some indignation, that he 
would carry me to tas Indias^ much more to Tdedo. As he continued 
to hold out his hand with a resolute air, I dr(^^ped the required sum 
into in, and grasping the pack saddle for want of a mane, I vaulted 
at once into the seat. The back of the poor animal cracked and 
twisted under the burthen, and as he gave some indications of a dia> 
position to lie down, I drew forcibly upon the halter. Thus roughly 
handled, his neck bent backward like a broken bow, and; making a 
few retrograde steps, he backed full upon Jose, who, well pleased 
with the idea of so long an excursion, was drawn up behind, upon a 
little mouse-colored ass, with the bird bag which contained all my 
travelling equipage, hung round his neck and hanging from his 
shoulder. Three or four sound blows from the ciuigel of Jose, 
accompanied by a kick under the belly from the master of the beast, 
eonreeted this retrograde motion, which, being changed for an ad- 
vance, we sallied out of the inn and took our way through the market 
place, to the admiration of all Aranjuez. 

Leaving the palace on the right, we entered a fine road whioh 
passed through the royal possessions, and was skirted on either aide 
widi noble trees, planted m a double row^ This iNurt of Aranjuex is 
similar to Flanders in its level surface and the mrtility of the soil ; 
li^ience its name of Campo Flamenco. Having passed the barrier, 
which marks the royal domain, the trees, which had originally been 
planted a mile or two &rther, became raro and scattering. The few 
that still remained wero either wounded in the trunk or had a ring of 
bark removed, with a^ew to destroj them; a singular evidence of 
diat inveterate antipathy to trees, which has already been noticed, as 
being prevalent throughout the central provinces of Spain. 
97 



210 NEW CASTIliS. 

During th9 remainder of the seven leagues, which Ue between 
Toledo and Arai^juez, we had to pass through a countrj, once, per*' 
haps, by the aid of irrigation, rendered as fertile as the neighbouiing 
fields of Aranjuez, but now a complete desert, without inhabitants and 
without cultivation. The valley of the Tagus continued level as we 
advanced ; but towards Toledo, the course of the river seemed to be 
arrested by a rocky barrier, upon one of the pinnacles of which the 
city was seen, conspicuous by its lofty Alcazar, We did not folbir 
the circuitous course of the stream, but left it far on the right. Some* 
times it approached the road and then receded from it again; but 
where the water itself could not be discovered, its meanderings might 
easily be traced by a winding track of verdure. But the disUnt 
vegetation, the cooling noise of the water, and the shade of the Ireee^ 
were all lost upon us, or, still worse, seemed placed so near only tie 
mock our suffering. The heat was indeed intense ; for, as is nsuai 
In this climate, a cloudless sky left a free action for the rays of tte 
sun. The dust, too, set in motion by my horse, had time to envelope 
me, ere he had got beyond it. Nor was there any comfort in mj 
seat; the pack saddle was hard and uneven, and, being without 
stirrups, my legs, abandoned to their own support, seemed at each 
instant to grow longer and heavier. I had tired them, too, in kicking 
the ribs of my beast, in order to make him keep up with Jose and 
his borrieo, which moved its feet so quickly .over the ground, thai 
it seemed even to be getting on much faster and leaving me behiiul» 
)9iough it preserved always the same interval. It was a long and a 
^eary ride this ; for the lofty Alcazar of Toledo, seemed ever tQ 
maintain the same distance as when we first discovered it, in emerging 
trom the groves of Aranjuez. 



' Towards noon, we reached a part of these desert and barren downvir 
where some laborers were constructing norias to raise water for thfi 
pnrposie of irrigation. Hard by stood a solitary vint^, which ive 
gladly entered, to procure some food and to escape awhile fi-om the 
fiiry of the sun. A muleteer with two women had pausied just be^e 
us, and was busy skinning a hare which he had just shot, and bom 
which they were about to make their dinner. As wp f^arried no giug 
and had not been so fortunate, we asked a coarse-haired, dark^jed 
old woman, what she had to eat; and, being ansirered ;th^t ther^ 
were eggs, we ordered a tortilla. Our hostess wen( i^jto the eexjl 
room, whence some hens had just come cackling I^th.t9 join ^ 
gronp that were picking the crumbs in the kitchen, and present 
returned Mrith half a dozen new laid eggs, breaking them at xmce jff^ 
k frying pan, the bottom of which she had previously covered wi)^ jqu. 
Whilst this operation was going on, Jose led his beast to the sh^ 
Aide of the house, and taking a few handfuls of barley from f^ .canvajfif 
bag which hung fi-om the back of the ftorrtcc, he threw it upon .{Sfi 
ground, atad left the two animips eat^n^; together i^ p^^* ^1^ 
Hosinante and the Rucio. 



i«rr CASTiLB. Mi 

The «ggto WW uoii «inf«ie4 into m «wtli««i di^, wImii tkej 
flotHMl At large in a sea of oil, Mid placed on a loW table, whiiih fef 
warn of a bench — die only one in the hovMe being' oecnpied by the 
party of the mtdeieer— -we drew close to the dedr, m tmfti take onr 
seats upon the sill. Now that we had our meal before us, however, 
it was not so easy to eat it. The bread and the wine, indeed, gave 
OS no trouble ; but the eggs were as much beyond our reach, as fishes 
that you see in the water, bat have no means of oatehing. In vain 
did we ask for a spoon or a fbrk. Onr hdstess oi^ regreMd that she' 
emdd do notfaixig for as. Until a week before she had two wooden 
spoons and one horn one, for the accommedatibn of cavaliers who did' 
not carry their own utensils ; bat some qtdniaSf or cMSCripIs, had passed 
by, on their way to the frontier of Portugal, and halted daring the 
beat of the day at her house. Since then ^e had seen nothing either 
of her horn spoon or of the two wooden ones, and she never meant to 
bay emother. As our invention was sharpened! by hanger, Jose and 
I bethooght ourselves to cut the bread into ^ces, and to use two 
pieces as ehop sticks, after the manner of the Chinese. In this way, 
and by lending each other occasional assisfancef in catching a reftuc^ 
tory egg, we were enabled to drive them, one by one, into a comer, 
and dniw them eat, until nothing remained bat the oil. 



Leaving the oMb, when o^ had finished our meal, we sef forward 
sew. £on after, we twmp on with a curate, who was defobttoes' 
going to pais the h^ly week inTblsdo, with his asia, or hoasekeeper;- 
and a good number of linle orphans and nieces. The ndiJ^ db^' 
was seated upoB a mule, with his robes drawn up aroand him so ae< 
tomoke room for the book of the animal, And displaying a pair of 
lege which seemed all nnnsed to the saddle. As for his long hat, it 
was tied onder* the chin bf a white handlEerchief whietf passed ovet> 
the ch>wm. " He had altog^er a very helpless roasted KK>k, yet' 
enemod to tdce enerytliiBg with lanoh christian resignation. 

At length, towaids three in the afternoon, we drew near the end of 
tbe* valleyr tmd began to approach the rocky pinnacle upon #htoh' 
alatids Ae.cityi of IVetMa Our jeamey beoane' more pieaeaat ttv' 
words dm' cine; for a ragged mountain, along wheee base the road^ 
wound its: way, prelected usll'om the scoreliihg' h#a»«C the son, whilst' 
bereaBd tbeie a soatteringi trie came in a welcome Jatmenl'tovelieM- 
iber Bonolany. Presently after, we drew near some gantry iimrf;' 
wbMreigMmps ai neople had hidted to reftBSh themseltds on their #ay 
tthiimikim tfasiiaitf;jaiMi«hard by wsfs^a fountain, at^whieh kerae^v 
gMi8(iMk>asMs'wefia slaking tfeetr thirst r whilst* a ywmg gkl eaftne,' 
UkeilMnnnRof oU, wUtt a siiM ^arnpotf her head^ in Mlateh ^ wiftw. 
Being unwilling to enter Toledo, where I was to remain a few days, 
in the same stat^ in which I had sallied frortt Aranjnez, whSthet I 
might never return again, I now slid down from my rocin, as he stood 
drinking firom the full curb of the fountain, and discharged Jose, with 



ilf msmcMmu. 

many fpo4 wiBhes en bolh Mts. Tbea, kmiriaf 
from the< diMl whiek had gathered about me* I took a long dfMgkt 
from tke cool jarof themaUan, andcroflsedtheroad, to takoai 
view of a coarse and defiM>ed statue of the good kiag Wamba. 



The history of Wamba is very singolar. Towards the dose of the 
seventh ceatary, the empire of the Visigoths, of which Toledo wa» 
the ci^tal» and which indaded^ not only all Spain, bat abo Narbouo 
in Gaul, was convulsed and torn by intestine conrnotiMis. Tkedeatk 
of the reigniii^ king had raised up several competilors» net one of 
whom was deemed worthy of the throne. At this season the eyes of 
the principal nobles and captains were turned towards Wamba^ s 
prince of the royal blood, who was no less fiimous fer valor than for 
his singular wisdom and moderation. But, being already advanced hs 
years, and unwilling to hasaid his peace by entering upon the eane 
of state, he declined the honor sought after by so many compelilon* 
This unexpected answeri whilst it greatly embarrassed the asseablsd 
chiels, was the best proof of the excellence of their choice. They^ 
therefore, sent one of their number back to Wamba, with orders to 
make him choose between death and royalty. The Goth presented 
himself accordingly before his prince, with a drawn sword in his right 
hand and the crown in his left. Then,- having offered Wamba the 
two alternatives, he concluded with the following wotds, which, i 



than the fear of death, compelled his aofuiescenoe. * la it jnstt 
oh I Wamba, that thou shouldst resist that which all have determined^ 
or that thou shouldst prefer thine own repose to the safety and hqipi- 
ness of a whole people?' Such is the origin of legitimacy!* 

Wamba, thus forced upon the throne, applied £mself diligently to 
the duties of his station. He subdued several rebellions, and con* 
qoered the Arabs, who had been invited by the oppressed Jews to 
oome into Spain, from their newly acquired possessions in Africa. 
But Wamba was thrown upon stormy ini barbarous times; for the 
erown which he had so little coveted, was held in for different estimar 
tion by the ambitious Ervigo. In order to accomplish his purpbee^ 
this man caused a poisonous beverage to be administered to Wamba, 
by means of which he was suddenly deprived of his senses and 
tatooght to the point of death. Seeing this, his followers shaved Ua 
hav and his beard, forming the crown upon his head after the manner 
of a pri est p reparations for death then used in the last mooMOts of 
a Christian. Att this Ervigo caused to be done, that, even in < 
Wamba should recover, he never more might be kii^; for, 
the Goths, the removal of the hair deprived a man of km 
ine^paeiuted him forever for the throne. The king 

* It baot A lltds dMsltr that s fins pstntteg of this tseas, wkleh gbes Ihi traa 
ilhistntloii of (be doctrins of leffOmuji ■bsoMbe hong op fai the Cmuio at MadridL 
ttie very dom of Ferdiiiaiid. 



Iwgdi inm him wm%tm; tot, teeing Ue oonAtiea, he deteraitted to 
tepiee what Errigo io gteady soa^t after, and, retiring to a oonTent, 
hededieatedtheremainderirfhialifetoUiesernoeorGod. Wamba 
ia, indeed^ a ine eharaetor, and fvmiahea almoat the oaly 6ir page 
in the dark history of the Gothic domination. 



Leaving behind the otatae of Wamba, the road now wound np a 
lecky eninencey and presently after eame to an abmpt piecipiee, oon* 
neetod with a similar one, which stood opposite, by a convenient bridge. 
These precipices were the banks of the Tagus. On reaching the 
middle of the bridge, I paused to look down vpon the stream, and 
eoald hardly persuade myself that the Tagus, which at Aranjues 
glides 80 peacelully through a level valley amid groves and gardens, 
was indeed the same with the iKHsy torrent, which now foamed and 
ftretted its way be tw ee n rocks and precipices, and at such a feafftd 
distonea beneath me, that I grew diiay as I sazed. From the bridge 
the road led, by winding i^pproaches, akmff Uie rocky cone, upon the 
pinnacle of which Toledo is situated, untirit brought me at length to 
one of the piwtals ot the city. Over the centra of the aroh was a 
two h e ad ed eagle, reminding me that I was about to enter an inmerial 
ehy, the rcs id ipn c e of two emperors, Ahmso el Sabio and Uarioe 
Quinto. Having traversed a huge squaro, enclosed by ranges of 
~ liUiiifB with areadee and balconies, I found confortabie fuailen 
ithe 






CHAPTER XII. 

*' " KINGDOM OF NEW CASTILE. 

^[istprx of Toledo.— Present Condition. — Father Thomas. — Cathedrsd. — private 
Hitbitations. — Alcazar and other BuildinKs. — Vega. — l^word Manufactory aiwf 
' Qiiemtfdero.— Evenhig Ramble. — Leave Toledo in a Coche de Coteras.-^Aimtf-'' 
. lD9Bkle>^Veiite4teeiiet.«*«Retimi to Madrid. 

I ' 

"ToLE^ ifl E Very' old eity, so old, indeed, tbftf there is anifgar 
tMnlitioa amtttig its inhaiMiants, that Adam was the first king of Spain, 
afiei^ tiM Toledo was* his capital; nay, more, at the moment when the* 
maohine of creation was set in motion, the sun started from the meridiaii 
oC Toleiio. Thottgb' these points be rather disputable, thete are others* 
OHMPe-geiidrally admitted, by those worthy anti^niaries, who, qaHiklg the 
Wd) kAoWB and the estahlitihed, ddight to wander baek into the distant 
ai^s- Of itncertarntyj to b(irrit>w amidst donhtti and dliBculries. It w 
raoord## iti early history, that about six hiiftdred years befbre Christ, 
Nebuchadnezzar, having taken Jerusalem, and destroyed the prou4 
temple which Solomon erected to the worship of the only true God, 
came into Spain to extend his conquests under the pretext of punishing 
the Phcenicians of Cadiz, for having succoured Tyre. Many of the 
Israelites, who had been led away into captivity, followed in his army, 
and when about to depart he allowed them to settle in Spain, where they 
founded two cities, the one Toledo, the other supposed to be Granada. 
Under the Roman domination, Toledo was the capital of the Carpi* 
tania, and had the privilege of coining money, though it never rose to 
the dignity of a colony. I have seen engravings of some of these coins, 
which bear upon the reverse a mounted horseman with a lance, attired 
in a doublet and slouched hat, not unlike those now worn in the country. 
The people of this province were among the bravest in Spain ; for it 
included within its limits that Numantia so famous for its bloody and 
terrible resistance against the Romans, and which was at length anni- 
hilated by Scipio Africanus. The long residence of the Goths in 
Toledo accounts sufficiently for the existence of so few remains of 
those noble monuments, with which the Romans were used to mark 
their dominion, and set an imperishable seal upon every conquered 
country ; for the Goths are said to have been so eager to destroy all 
record of the Roman power, that they would demolish the finest columns 
and even throw medals into the Tagus. Traces of an amphitheatre may, 
however, be seen near the city. A single arch is still standing, and 
the outline of the whole may yet be discovered. I walked several times 



NSW CASTI1J9. tMf 

ttOttiid it OM ^mmgf and oQuld not estipafttf M» oirpOllUiewQAf iilt.lfilll 
than half a vul^.* 

At length, iiavever, the time arrived when the Crotba were to.h^ 
driven from a C4^untry» which they had seized upon with little ceffemonyv 
and governed with less moderation. Taric, sent over hy Mu9a» tfoa 
Eimir of the Calif in Afrioa, had gained th(9 battle of Xerez^ and 
8{tfe«d his fbroea over a country, whose inbabitaoU could only ha 
gainers by innovation. Marching into the centre of the Peoinaula, he 
laid siege to Toledo. The city at on^ capitulated, on condition thaH 
the inhabkants who chose to remain should preserve their houses, their 
property, and their churches, that they should be allowed the exeroialk 
of their faith, and be governed by their own laws, and judges clH)aen 
from their number, Tario took possession of the royal pabce, where 
he found great riches, and, among other things, twenty five crownt of 
gold enriched with precious stones. It was tt^ custom of (he GiHhfM 
on the death of a king, to deposit his crown in the palace, with ail 
inscription of his name^ and there had been twentyfive kings from 
Alarii^ the founder, to Roderic, the last of the dynasty* It was in tho. 
neighbourhood- of Toledo, too, that Taric found that precious taUo 
adorned with hyacintha and emeralds, which Gelif Aledris, in km 
description of Spain, calls the table of Solomou-ben-David. * This table 
is supposed to have been saved by the captive Jewe^ with other preoiouff 
and sacred vessels, from the pillage of the temple by Webuoh adn i e r za % 
and brought with them into Spain. It is doubtless the same table of 
the shew bread,t spoken of in the book of Kings and by Josephus, and 
which, with the candlestick and the altar of incense, constituted the 
three wonders of the teniple.| 

Toledo continued to preserve its allegiance, first to the CaUf of 
Damascus, in whose name the conquest i^.boea nt^^de, and afier.thfi 
revolt, to the successors of Abderahman, until in the eleventh c^ntury« 
the empire of Cordova crumbled into pieces, and was divided inlQ'M 
infinity of petty kingdoms. Of these, Toledo begame Qpe of the me«| 
flourishing and powerful, and soon rose to a high degree of prosperity^ 
The conditions of the capitulation had been sacredly ohs^rvpd; iha 
Christians had been protected in the possession of their pfoperty ana 
in the exercise of their fai;h ; and as for the Jews, they found in thejn 
present piasters a people of more congenial origin. and of a spirit inn 

* The entraDce to the cave which Don Roderick, the last or the Gothic kiDgi» Jn 
AAid in the traditionary fable to have violently opened, and where he saw a predic- 
(hm of the comlDg and conquest of the Saracens, is placed by the Archbishopr 
Btdeiidfc amoof the mini of this Amphitheatre. Scott has not made the most (rf 
Ibis, rich and hisbly poetic tradlMon ia his Yisioa of Don Roderiek. 

* t There can De little doubt that this was the original table of ahew-brej^d laade 
by Solomon, and that it was secreted by the Jews, when the treasures of the 
• fempie weie cairied by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon; that table which TItutf 
brought with him od his triumphal return io Rome, wis not the same ; for wken the 
dty a#d tewple wexe rehuilt, after the first destnictiop, by the order eC Cyrve, the 
sacred vessels wer^ made anew, similar indeed to the old, but of inferior exceUeootttf 
wanting, as they did, the anointing oil, which Moses had compounded at tne Divine 
eMSmanA. -See Prideaux^eCooa^Kioiis; Home'to Introduction ; Boole of Exodus. 

. t ld l fil»ii > 4liti«Wti#s of .Ibe Jem Booh VUJL Ohap. U. 



M« NBW CASTILE. 

toitflljr BMM lolertnty asd ipere bow •Uowml to me Ml ieo|M to Amt 
diligeoce and iDdustry. The systam of affrieiutiiro whieli tlie Artbt 
ialrodiieed into Spain, wis likewise calcidated to inerenie the pro- 
dnetivenesf of m country, where cuitifilion is greatly retarded by the 
eKtreme dryness of the dimate. The soil was e?erywhere hrriffatad by 
eallinf in the aid of streams and rivers, where they were conTenieBty 
aad elsewhere by the digging of wells and the constmetion of n&rimi. 
Thns some tracts were rendered very fertile which had hitherto been 
little so, and ?erdure was introduced amidst rocks and rarines. 

Toledo continued prosperous and hm>y under the kings of the Arab 
domination, until the year 1066, when it mil into the handset AlonsoTI., 
sttrnamed the Bra?e, who came, as a conqueror, to take pos ses si on of 
the very city which had received and succoured him, whmi an outcast 
and buushed man, driven from his estates by the ambition of his own 
brother. But the Christians of those days considered that with Infidels 
there should be neither good faith nor sense of obligation. According 
to the terms of the capitulation, the Moors were to be altowed the free 
possession of their property and exercise of their faith ; but the stipu- 
lations were gradually forgotten by the conquerors. Their churches 
were taken from them, one by one, and purified, and their property 
plundered by force or fi«ud ; until, at length, they were glad to escape 
fipom a city, whichy though dear to them as the place of their nativity, 
was embittered by the recollection of ruined prinleges and lost liber^. 



Since that period, Toledo has again risen firom lu ruins and 1 
a most flourishing commercial and manufikcturing city. At the besin- 
ning of the seventeenth century it had a pc^Milation of not less than 
two hundred thousand souls ; anid there is even extant a petition of the 
inhabitants for a redress of some grievances, which states that mano- 
fiuBtures were in such a follen condition, that there no longer remained 
more than thirty thousand artisans. In the present century, the entire 
population of Toledo does not amount to twenty thousand. This un- 
exampled decay is partly owing to the removal of the court, partly to 
Mie bloody persecutions of the descendants of the Jews, who had be* 
come Christians, in order to save their property and remain in their 
native land, at the time of the general expulsion of that vagrant and 
unhappy people. They were aAiong the most industrious and richest 
of the inhabitants, and it is, perhaps, to this fitet that they were mainly 
indebted for the solicitude of the Holy Ofliee. The loss of its libertMS 
and privileges in the time of Charles Y., and the gradual endavement 
of the whole nation under his successors, are, however, the chief causes 
of the decline of industry and wealth in Toledo, where it is even mere 
remarkable than in any other part of Spain. 

Bat though the prosperity of Toledo has ^passed away, though the 



indttstrious classes have dwindled, and well niffh disappeared, the 
priests and friars still remain and maintain themsJves without " 
tioo. There are now in Toledo near one hundred leligioas 



N£ir CASTILE. Wi 

BMBts, whether perish churohee, conTents of monks and BOMy ehtpeb 
or hermiuges. Manj of these are endowed with rich estates in the 
city or surrounding country, and are supported in a style of great 
magnificence. The catfaedrsi alone, is said to have six hundred people 
oonnected with it, including priests, singers, and familiars. Previous 
fa the RevoluiioD, the archbishop's share of the dismti and other 
revenues belonging the cathedral, amounted to the enormons snm ef 
six hundred thousand dollars. Though doubtless much reduced by the 
flionation of their estates, by the imperfect payment of the disme^ and 
)^y the heavy subsidies annually granted to the king, in his present 
emergency, yet, according to the admission of the clergy themselves, 
it is still worth two hundred thousand dollars. The canons, inferior 
dignitaries, and servants, are all provided for on the same princely 
seale. Where does all this wealth come from, since they to whom it 
furnishes meat and drink and clothing and the means of luxnrioos 
indulgence, lead a life of unlasked idleness! The solution of this 
fNN>b|em would go far towards explaining the fallen condition of Spain 
and of Toledo. 

Toledo furnishes a striking epitome of the national decay. Here 
you may see the moottments of past magnificence crumbling tp pieces 
and ready to crush the squalid habitations of modem times. If you 
go forth into those streets, which were onoe throi^ged with busy artisans 
Und bustling soldiers, you are met by burly priests in unwieldv hale 
and sable garments, or filthy frisks, with shaven crowns aYid robes of 
4irty Qani^l, their well filled and sensual faces giving a Qfit denial to 
the hjHnility of their attire. These, with the reaKstas and hordes of 
ahlehodied beggars, who receive their rcf alar meals at the convent 
deors and bring vp familijef without labor, ispmpose no inconsiderably 
pi^ of the population of Toledo. Instead of the noise of the lo(^ 
a^d the shuttle, and the shoots of exultation, wlyicl^ announced the 
p^fsenee of ai^ iqdnstrious and happy people, you may now hear the 
tinkling Mk of the host, or the louder tolling of some cpnvent clock, 
callmg the lavy inmates to the daily duties of the re&etory. The 
ptirf ing sounds of quurtial music are exchanged for the nasa) raonptony 
of perpetuM fnasses. Bot though there is much religton in Toledo^ 
tk^re is very ^^ morality.. There is, .on the copfinxj, a vast deal of 
prostitution in this same sainted city. Indepd, how can it be other* 
wise, when so large a nomber of robust and high fed men are inter- 
dieted firem the open enjoyment of domestic and fiimily endearments, 
and, at the same time, provided with money to pnrohase the gratificap 
ti^ of ewT dfMvel Many of the clergy, donhtless, obsertre their sow 
pi qeKbfi^y, many have domestic establishments an4 fiimilies, many 
)mI a-re^g li|(s and prey upon the community. Uen^ce the p^iviVege of 
legiliBMiPf three hundred bestard (children, conceded in the thirteenth 
f^Mety 1^ the papal see, U> that peat prelfte, |)en iUideric, tho^gk 
l<#<toinslB to the sranto of Toledo, must, if.it fAill exist, be very nae- 
ht^^ "iEhe oflSbpring pf this c)eru^a| intsrepuise furnish monks Moi 

•Msiifi*. 



218f NEW CASTILE. 

Duns fbf the convents of Toledo ; just as the mendicants rear Chcfiif 
hopeful offspring, to nourish and keep alive the beggarly fraternity. 



On the afternoon of my arrival I went to see the Ckinorngo fo irhonr 
Father Patrick had addressed me. The people of the inn gave me the 
name of his street, and, after inquiring my way through many very 
short, narrow, and crooked lanes, and op and down several hills, I 
came at length to the one I was in search of. It was not more than 
five or six feet wide, and there are many such, not only in Toledo, hot 
In all the old Moorish cities of Spain. I had not penetrated far into 
this dark detile, before coming to the house of the Canoniga. The 
inner door, at which I knocked, was opened af^er the custonniry cha!« 
lenge and reply, by a cord from the upper corridor, connected with 
the latch. Having asked for the Canonigo, the housekeeper said she 
would see if Su Merced had finished his stSsta, and returning in the 
next moment, bade me pass on and ushered me into his study. • 

I founnd in Father Thomas a (all, thin man, about sixty years of age, 
with a dried up abstemious look, as of one who had ever been tnie to 
Yob vows. His outer doal^ was thrown aside, and, instead of the long 
hat, he wore a square cap of black velvet, surmounted by a tassel. As 
be sat at an antique table covered with books and papers, a pair of 
large silver buckles, contrasting strongly with his well polished shoev, 
emerged from beneath the long gown of bonrbazet, which covered his 
body. The serene and benevolent aspect of Father Thomas impresB- 
ed me favorably from the first ; and this feeling increased, when, afiter 
reading the note of his old firiend Father Patrick, he inquired with much 
interest after his health, and welcomed me to Toledo, making the offer 
of his dwellfng with great kindness. Having offered me chocolate, he 
proposed a walk, and taking his hat, cloak, and staff, he led me to the 
esplanade north of the city and showed roe the magnificent hospital of 
San Juan Bantista* Learning, in the course of our ramble, that my 
stay was to be very short. Father Thomas promised to set at once about 
letting me into all the secrets of Toledo, and accordingly made an en* 
gagement to meet me the next morning in the Cathedral, ere we sepa^ 
rated at the door of the Posada. 



The next mornhi^ found me in the Cathedral agreeably to appdhit" 
ment. The ten o'clock mass was not yet concluded ; but I didnbt 
Tegret the detention, for the music that accompanied it was indeed 
heavenly. In addition to one of the noble organs, placed besktothtt 
Antral nave, which are among the finest in Spain, there were a Vtt^iety 
of bassoons, viofs, and violins, and a powerful choir of voices, ani6ng 
Vhich three or four, from their silver and flute-like tones, had evidently 
been purchased at no trifling sacrifice. The association, though pain- 
filly had become fiimiliar, and I listened with admiration to a sttblime 



NEW CASTItfi. Mt 

9a4 exqaiaile barmooy, which borrowed a grave, forebodiaf, UMlnieW 
ADcholj cast, from the approachiog solemnities of the Passion. 

The mass o¥er« I found Father Thomas near the baptismal fount, 
where he soon deposited in a chest the sacred Testments, in which he 
had been officiating. Then, having resumed his ordinary garb, he 
began the circuit of the Cathedra]. It af^ara that, so early as the 
sixth century, there existed a church on the site of the present edifice. 
At the period of the conquest it became a mosque, and when Toledo 
was again restored to the Christians, it returned to its original destina* 
tion, although . guaranteed to the Moojrs by an express article of the 
capitulation. Scarce, indeed, bad king Alfonso departed from the 
captured city, which he left in possession of Constance his queen, than 
she, at the instigation of Bernard the archbishop, sent a party of soldiers 
who entered it in the night and drove out by force the Mussulmans, 
who were at their prayers. The whole was then carefully purified, 
altars were erected, and a bell being placed in the tower, the faithfiil 
were the next morning convened by its sound to their matin devotions. 
When Alfonso came to hear of these things, he was verj indignant at 
this open violation of his royal word. He returned towards Toledo, 
resolved to punish the turbulent priests ; nor would he be appeased, 
though they went forth to meet him dressed in mourning, until thts 
Moors themselves, dreading the further Fengeanoe of the dergy, sent 
an alfaqtd to still the anger of the king. Since then, the Cathedral 
has ever maintained its original destination; and in the thirteen^ 
century was greatly enlarged and rebuilt as we now see it It is fe^ 
hundred ieet long by two hundred broad, and has five distinct naves, 
austained by the walk and by eightyfour gothic columns, plaeed in four 
lows. This edifice is lower than gothio churches usually are ; but tb( 
central nave rises to an elevation of one hundred and sixty feet, and 
would ^>pear to great advantage, if the whole extent were seen. Being, 
however, cut up into a variety of divisions for the choir and for ditarsi 
the grand effect is entirely destroyed by the intetruptiom of the view. 
Upon the whole, this Cathedral metropolitan of all ^>ain, is a nobis 
and imposing edifice. 

The Catfaedral possesses few fine paintings on canvas ; those, which 
were good, having disappeared during the war of Independence, when 
the French and Spaniards plundered everything promiscuously. Dur- 
U|g that period of license the church treasure was carried to Cadiz, 
and thence brought back again, on the dqfvnfall of Napoleon. Its 
value is inestimable. Among the mass of gold, silver, and precious 
stones, with which my eyes were dazzled, I was particularly struck 
with a large custScUa for the exposition of the sacrament. It weighs 
seven thousand ounces of silver and gold, and is studded with precious 
gems. In the centre is a shrine of gold weighing fifty pounds. Its 
chief value consists, however, in its elaborate vvorkmanship, being con- 
structed in very small pieces, which, when screwed together, form a 
gothic tower, covered with the most beautifiil fret work. The most 
remarkable object among thox treasure is a garment for clothing the 
Virgin, when on certain occasions she is plac^ with an infant of solid 



1M HEW CASTILE. 

gold, 0fiKkM with eight hundred jewels, in her arms, npoit a iif^er 
throne, weighing more than half a ton, and borne through the streets 
by men, concealed beneath. This garment is in the form of a wrapper 
and very ample. A texture of satin connects the fabric ; but the gronnd 
Work may be said to consist of pearls, for these and other precious 
stones, emeralds, amethysts, rubies, topazes, and diamonds entirely 
conceal the silken surface. 

But if the treasure of the Cathedral be valuable, its reliquiary is, by 
the devout, esteemed still more so. Not to mention sundry pieces of 
the true crbss and other relics, which may be found anywhere. It ifiay 
be suffioient to name the veil of Santa Casilda. The story connected 
With this relic is very singular and carries one back into the presence 
of a distant iind peculiar age. San lldefonso, one of the most distm* 
guished worthies of the Spanish church, when archbishop of this sam^ 
Cathedral, wrote a bo6k in defence of the immaculacy of the Virgin^ 
which had been attacked With much force of reasoning by the cavillers 
of that day; The Virgin, well pleased with this zeal of lldeibnso, sent 
her confidant, Santa Casilda, to signify her high satisfaction. The 
sainted patroness of Toledo appeared accordingly before the archbishop, 
whilst |ieribrming mass in presence of the king and court, and paid 
Mm a \'ery handsome compliment in Latin. Ildefon^, far from betn^ 
terrified at this apparitioii, called to the king for the knife which he 
wor6 in his girdle, and whipped off a piece of the veil, lest the doubters 
should set his story down as an invention. lldefonso appeared triumph^- 
aht with the fragnient of the veil, which, with the king's knife, has 
ever since been preserved and worshipped among the most sacred 
HMcH. Not satisfied with this honor conferred upon the defender wf 
het* bhastlty, the Virgin appeared publicly to lldefonso in the church 
arid threw over him a heaven-wove garment. This precious gift ivas 
carried to Oviedo at the time of the invasion by the infidels, and there 
ft stiH remains ,* fat the people of that city would by no means consent 
to relinquish their prize, and were once ready to revolt at the mere 
mention of such a thing. The stone, upon which the Virgin landed, 
received the impression of her feet, ft is still preserved in a chapel 
of the Cathedral, and is much worn where the fiiithful have touched it 
With the ends of their fingers, when grieved by disease or afilictlon. 
It woukl seem, however, that, notwithstanding all these miracles, this 
question of immaculacy is still in dispute, and has given rise to t^ 
watchword, common in Spain, of *Ave Maria Purissima*-^' Hail Mary 
most pure I ' which must be replied to, with *8inptcad6 eoncebida '-^ 

* Conceived without sin ! ' In Toledo they have a very ingenious wa^ 
fj4 repeating these ejaculations frequently, during the course of the day, 
and of gaining the anneaed indulgeiices, conceded by the holy see. 
Every person, before entering the door of another, instead of kfioeking, 
utters the exclamation, * Ape Maria Purissimaf* The rejoinder of 

* Sink peeads c&ncebida ! * is considered a fair invitation to come in. In 
the /oMcIa, where I lodged, every chamber had this watchword painted 
OB the outside of the door, so as to remind the person about to entet 
of the sacred obligation. This singular salutation embarrassed me 



NJiW CASTILE. S*( 

^etily M first ; but having' ihibrmed myBelf of the matter, and not 
being troubled with doubts on the subject, I presently teamtsd to shout 
the required response as loud as any. 

This Cathedral 6ontaind the sepulchres and remains of several of the 
kings of Castfle. They are rudely represented by statues placed in a re- 
6ufhbent poMure^ each upon its tomb. The choir is surrounded within^ 
hy a singular assemblage of uncouth figures. One of them represents 
tne Mooriah shepherd, irho was compelled to guide Alfonso Vlll. and 
his urmy, through an hitherto unknown pass of the Sierra Mbrena, 
where he fell unex]toctedly upon the infidd host and gained the bloody 
battle, called Sas Navas de Tolosa. Here is also a statue of the Alfa- 
qui, who went forth to meet and pacify the irritated Alfonso, on his 
Way to Toledo to punish the archbishop for breaking the capitUlatioh. 

On one side of the Cathedral is a square court, enclosed by rahg^S 
of columns and a covered cloister. The walls are beautifully pointed 
in fresco by Bayeux, and it is greatly to be regretted, that stl(ih hobfe 
specimens of the arts should have been placed in the open air, where 
they must sufier premature decay. The lives of Saint Eugenia and 
Leocadia, two patronesses of Toledo, furnish the subject of most of 
these pieces: There is one, however, placed beside the princip^F d6or. 
with which I was not less struck for the singularity of the group, thdn 
ibr the excellence and vivacity of its execution. It represents a ithft- 
ber of men in the old Spanish costume, who ate busily employed in 
crucifying a lad, not more than ten years old. One man stands tf^n 
a ladder, irt the act of drawing the heart from an incisioi^ which ht 
hns made in the child's side. After some hesitation Fath«fr Thokii^ 
gave me the history of the painting. 

It appears that some two centuries before, ther^ wef-e Ifi Toledo 
many descendants of those Jews, who had become converts to Christi* 
anit^ at the time of the expulsion. These, though they conformed to 
the outward observance of the faith, were believed to lean secretly 
fo the religion of their fathers. They were seized upon from time 
to time by the Inquisition, plundered of their property, which was 
often great, subjected to many terrible tortures, and often roasted in 
the Quemadiro, Whilst these persecutions were raging, one of the 
most zealous inquisitors chanced to die suddenly. It was at once sitid 
and eiretklated, that he had been poisoned by the marrAnos or porkers. 
Many of the new Christians, as they were also called by way of dis- 
tinction, were at once seized upon and made to confess, in the secret 
dungeons of the Inquisition, that they had kidnapped a boy, who dis- 
appeared suddenly about that time from the village of Guardia ; that 
they had crucified him, as their ancestors had done with Christ, and 
taki^ig out his heart, had prepared a powder from it, which they caused 
tb be adminptered to the inquisitor. This extorted confession was 
«en«agh to cause the Sequestration of much property and the roasting 
of Inany niiafr6iM$, • I was astonished at this story — astonished that 
itearoe fthy years before it should have formed the subject of a piece, 
Minted hi the most public part of the Spanish metropolitan ; and not 
Msa 86, t week after, whdn on my way to Andalusia, I passed tiirough 



NEW CASTILE. 

the oatife yillaffe of the supposed yietimy to letrn that El Nioio de la 
Guardia — the Little-one of Guardia — ^was still an object of great adov 
ration. 

It was pleasing to turn from this disgusting painting, to the unoov- 
ered area in the hollow of the court, which is laid out in a delightful 
garden, planted with odoriferous shrubs and fruit trees, and having a 
fountain in the centre* It was the beginning of April— the shrube 
were strewed with flowers, and the trees with blossoms, whilst namber* 
less sweet>toned birds, pleased with the shade, the perfumes, and the 
undisturbed seclusion, responded to the peals of the choir, or poured 
forth their melody in unison with the ceaseless falling of the fountain* 
This custom of having a garden beside the church is, doubtless, bor- 
rowed from the Arabians, who usually had a court like this at the en- 
trance of their mosques. It is indeed more than likely that the one in 
question, like those of Cordo?a and Se?ille, was originally created by 
that primitive and peculiar people. 



Haring seen all the wonders of the Cathedral, Father Thomas took 
me home with him. As I had expressed much admiration of the ex- 
treme cleanliness observable in the houses of Toledo, and which was 
the more striking from the poor and decayed condition of the city, he 
took a pleasure in showing me the whole economy of his own dwelling. 
It was two stories high, built round a square, and having a doiiUe 
corridor within, sustained upon columns of marble. The roof was 
flat, or nearly so, and at one side was a small open summer house, 
overlooking the city and surrounding country, and ofiering a cool and 
pleasing retreat. The most remarkable portion of the house, howev- 
er, was under ground, consisting of several arched vaults, now used 
as cellars ; but which the Arabs, who constructed them, themselves 
inhabited during the noontide heats. The space immediately be- 
neath the court-yard was occupied by two brick atgibes^ or cisterns. 
One served as a reservoir for Uie drinking water, brought upon the 
backs of asses from the Tagus, and which, soon settliog, became cool 
and pleasant. The other received the rain collected by the roof; 
and, when full, the lifting of a plug, at one corner of the court, sent 
the residue into a conduit, and thence into one of the many subterrap 
nean canals leading to the river, which carry off the filth of the city ; 
and which, from its elevated situation and the consequent descent, 
have kept themselves clear since their first construction by the Arabs. 
The whole establishment of the Canonigo was, by the aid of an antique 
housekeeper and her daughter, kept in a state of neatness and polish, 
comparable to anything one might meet with in Holland. This was dbpe- 
cially the case in the study of the good man, wheie he sat Enclosed h^ a^ 
well ordered collection of parchment covered tomes in Latin and Span- 
ish, with a small French library and some odd volumes of English ; for he 
had partly mastered our obstinate language, during his intimacy with 
Fathei; Patrick. The small oaken table, upon wMch stood an eboajr 



NEW CASTILE, 428 

erOM, flanked by a painting of the Virgin, and the heavy arm chair 
beside it, were waxed and mbbied to an exquisite polish. 



In the afternoon we went to see the Alcazar, a stupendous pile, 
first erected by Alfonso X., to serve as a palace and stronghold. It 
had long been abandoned as the residence of the Spanish kings, when 
that learned and benerolent prelate Cardinal Lorcuzana, the last 
archbishop but one of Toledo, caused it to be refitted at an expense 
of two hundred thousand dollars, which he paid from his own income. 
He then established manufkctories of silk and woollen, where the poor 
Were Toluntarily received and entertained, or else taken by force from 
the doors of the churches and convents, and made to work according 
to their abilities. The excess of their labor over their maintenance, 
was paid to the workmen. This wise and beneficent institution soon 
became very flourishing. Upwards of six hundred persons were 
maintained in it by the produce of their own exertions, and many idle 
Vagrants were won over to the pursuits of industry. Several branches 
of mann&cture came, at length, to attain a high degree of perfection 
in the Alcazar. But this very circumstance proved its ruin ; for 
when the English came here, in the war of independence, they made 
k pretext for destroying the Alcazar, lest it should be of service to 
the French. The crowds of poor, who had here found a home and 
the means of support, were driven forth to roam about homeless and 
houseless ; fire was then applied to the fixtures and machines, and all 
was soon reduced to a heap of ruins, except the massive walls, which 
alone could ever have been useful to the common enemy. It was in a 
similar intention of destroying everything in the shape of a manu- 
factory, wherever they went, and under cover of the same pretext, 
that the English demolished the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in the 
Retiro of Madrid. It would be doing injustice to the fiiir character 
of an upright and generous people, to suppose that these were the 
gratuitous acts of individual malice. They doubtless emanated from 
a higher source, and, indeed, are by no means inconsistent with the 
general policy of a goremment, which, with an outward show of high- 
handed liberality, is yet the most selfish that exists, and which can 
only maintain its sickly prosperity, by a greedy, grasping system oi 
universal injustice. 

The next afternoon we went to see the noble building, erected by 
the Cardinal Lorcuzana, for the location of the university ; next to the 
hospital for the insane, a charitable institution, for which Toledo is 
indebted to the same benevolent prelate. On our way to the western 
gate, Fathei^ Thomas explained the object of a series of iron links, 
<» feirtooned round the cornices of the church of San Juan-de-los-Reyes, 
* which I had already noticed in my solitary rambles, and which had 
greatly puzzled me. The church was built by Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella, or as thev are commonly called in Sp&in, Los Reyes Catolicos, 
in flflfifanen^ 6f m row made by the sorertigns during the seige of 



3M WSiW CA^TCUB. 

Oranada. The iron links, incarporated vitb tji^ walls, were ^ 
chains found upon some hun<lreds of Christians, rel/sa^ed frpm pf^tiyi* 
ty by the taking of that magnificent city — the last rallying point and 
bulwark of the Arab domination. 



Leaving the western gate^ we now descended into the famous V^SH 
of Toledo ; a beautiful and highly cultivated plain, wliich fbii^s tJ^ 
right bank of the Tagus, and is everywhere divided into gardens and 
orchards. After walking a mUe or two, we came to the Hoyal Manur 
factory of Arms, reestabtished by Charles III. at the close of \]^ laif 
century. Here are made all the swords^ halberds, and lapci^s i^equiit 
ed for the royal armies. The establishment is on an adiyirahle foot* 
ing, and the weapons now made in it, are said to be nowise inferipv 
to those famous Toledanos, which, in more chivalrous time^i Effete the 
indispensable companion of every well-<appointed cavalier. Toledp 
was celebrated not only in the time of the Moors, but even nn4er the 
Romans, for the admirable temper of its swords, yirhiipb i» chiefly atf 
tributed to some favorable quality in the water of the TaguSy.u^ed Vik 
tompering the steel. As a proof that this is the case^ one jo£ t^ 
If^rkmen told me, that in ^e early period of the French mvy^siopi tb^ 
manufactory was removed to Seville, where the Nations] JMnta tl^n 
was ; but the swords manu&ct^ed op the bank^ of tl^ GwadaiquiKir 
were found to be very inferior to those wtuu/h the same workmen h^4 
nade in Toledo. 

B»eturning from the Manufactory, we passed ^l^e aito ^fjbe old 
^man amphitheatre* Only one arch remains perfects With the 
lapse of twelve centuries, the materiab have been gradually ^emiived 
as from a quarry, to build or repair the neighbouring city. Thei 
have likewise been freely used in the construction of a convent wbic^ 
gtands hard ^y ; now, ai^ in ruins, and wlj^ch will doubtless disap* 
pe^r entirely, as the Qtiemadiro of the Holy-Office has done^ befoffl 
the iail of the remaining arch of the amphitheatre. For the QtMnuir 
dSrp^ of which I had read in Llorente's History of the Inquisition, I 
looked in vain ; it had been utterly demolished in the revolution of 
}JS^Oi The place where it stood was still marked by a small boUow^ 
^ver which we walked, and which Father Thomas pointed out, witl^ 
out looking back or stopping. The QuemadSro, or furnace, wa4 aubf 
atituted for the stake and ft^got by the illustrious Torquemada, be- 
cause it was found to save fuel ; since a number could be roasted by 
a single i re. It consisted of a huge hollow statue of plaster erected upon 
a atone oven. The fire was kindled beneath, and the victims being le( 
down from above, perished slowly, rending the air with horrid yells. 



The last evening of my stay in Toledo, I rambled alone in the en» 
Tirons, clambering among the ruins which skirt th§ boldbfjat^ of tl^ 



NEW CASntR. 

^agUa Here I fotwd a battered ooliimn stuBOUBAed by sd old Mone, 
witk aa inscription aetttng forth that it had been erected on the aite 
^ the demolidied dwelling of Don Joan de Padilk and his wife 
Donitt Maria Pacheco, and stigmatizing them as tndtoMtO' their king 
and country. It had been newly restored aa a beaami to warn the 
patriots of nM>dem times. This monument, meant as a stigma, cidled 
at once to my remembrance the noble se^^erotion of the yeimg 
nobleman in defence of Spanish liberty ; his afieotionate af^al to his 
wife, when waiting for the summons of the executiaaer, and above iJI, 
the gloriovs conduct of Dcmia Maria herself^ who, snotfaetfing her 
grvafe and rejecting all womanish fears, fought in the tfame noblv 
^Qse^ and even outdid the noble actions of her husband.* 

Crossing the bridge, I ascended the rocky mountain that lieet <q>po* 
site, and, having gained the summit, turned to look back on ToMo. 
Beneath me lay the city, placed on the pimMcle of a found hill attd 
well nqrh encircled by the Tagus. This streatt would seem to have 
taken its course originally to the i^ight, and subsequently to have 
opened itself a narrow pass, through the rocicy bulwark which ky 
opposed to it ; for the opposite banke are very similar aaad beatf etvdeiir 
marks of having once been connected. After escaping from theatf' 
Mraots, the Tagns ezpanda its bed ; ita eouri^ beotfoies itiote quiet, 
and verdant islands nse midway between its banks. The Mt| ufloii 
which I stood, gradually lost its mgfed and nocky character, aild am 
^rown into' a pieasing snecesaion of swelling hiHs, covered nMt 
«K>cha«lB of dive. In fipont lay the ddiciocfe Veiga, ivrigtrted in>ei#<My 
dhreetioa: b^ ^e feitilifl&iiig wstem of the Tagns*, an^ divided de^ for as' 
the «7o could disoover, into- verdaflkt sttlpB rautting backwsiH! froitf 
the riiirer. The deeiinng mnt, as he sped his way to fhrlmb the daOf 
boon of light and heat to oChef tfud fkr diMuvt cliitfes^ sent his depiartHi 
ing THf9 obUqoely upo» the trawf&il efMface of the etrefam, w'hich' 
ihowed itself fe»m tinie to tiaitf iiv ii» Meandering^, Mfke $t McCeMioii^ 
Iff glassy lakes, shedding, at the same: tiitfe, a yM^nn Afld m^llbw huMlre* 
enrer the varied vegtstatiani of the Vega. The sc^e had i^ma&n^ nn^ 
altered hy the lapse of centui^ ; hut; how c^ifOigeM had hteit the 
foptuttea of tbaa attoietM city ! 

Two tbomattd yaars- before, the^ l«ws of ToMb and the fiei^ and 
fcarbaMraa CSispitaoiaaBhad beett competM'td j^feld to the dourage dotki 
and oondoet' of HaaMhal; The Roman domlniMSon foNowed^ estai^ 
Bahiag. itself alker'HMnf atrntgles^ and th& itthabitfeltlts^ Won ni>t leM 
by thv demenof than the: iwor of these gfdtterdiM conqueroi^, oauM 
at length to be softened hff the arts erf poaoei What a^ fUM^iAkHW 
mnat Toledo have made in those days of the triumphal arch, the 
aqueduct, and the amphitheatre, whev mamwalked forth robed in the 
flowing toga and borne op by the lofty soul of a Roman I Six peaceful 
edatariepvoH* bv, wtov a ooowdestf heat k aeeU' ad valuing With* mAbA 
«aoida(> dUMMed in an onkatotMr garb» and spealkteg ^ MfMge and 
" ' • tugne. Thest! ay« the lla^jr QMm, OdMMM, utlslio#ll>, 

* lulsmnfyClMatos t.. 
29 



9518 NEW CASTILi:. 

their hands and beards and faces smeared with the blood of the thocf' 
sands they have murdered in their long pilgrimage. They seek only 
present gratifications, and rather court than avoid a bloody death, since 
it is the sure passport to that paradise where they are to riot forever in 
ceaseless slaughter, pausing only to refresh themselves with draughts 
of beer from the sculls of their enemies. Toledo groans under the 
heavy yoke of these hard masters; the elegant and useful arts disap- 
pear together; the amphitheatre is demolished, temples are thrown 
down, and columns and statues precipitated into the Tagus. After 
two centuries and a half of toilsome servitude, these fierce conquerors 
give place to an eastern people, who bring with them the simple tastes 
and primitive customs of Arabia. The conquerors and the conquered 
live together upon a friendly footing, and the earth, cultivated with an 
hitherto unknown care, teems with redoubled fertility. In four more 
centuries these in their turn give place to the Christian ; each Saracen 
dying in defence of his home, or wandering back towards the land of 
h*s ancestors. The Cajstilian still preserves awhile his warlike spirit, 
until, at length, churches and convents rise in i every direction over 
mined habitations, and the din of chivalry is drowned amid chants 
and masses. ^ 

The city which once offered to the view so fair a combination of 
domes, and columns, and arches, now exhibited, as I looked upon it, but 
an uncouth mass of misshapen tenements, many of which were already 
abandoned and fallen, and many preparing to follow. A few listless 
inhabitants, enveloped in their lazy cloaks, were seen passing through 
the crazy gates of the city; whilst groups of dusty asses, iookin|i[ as old 
as Toledo, moved down the steep £ll-side, picking their way carefully 
amid the ruined fortifications, to have the earthen jars, with which they 
were laden, filled from the waters of the Tagus. The ruined piers of 
the many bridges, that, in times gone by, gave access to a great city^ 
are now converted into mill-dams to prepare the hard earned bread of 
a small and needy population. The wide road, too, beneath me, which 
has been trod in succession by the Carthaginian and the Roman sol- 
dier,, and the fearless Goth, and the rapid Arabian^ or by the steel clad 
warrior of the days of chivalry, going forth with poised lance and closed 
visor in search of adventures, now offered no other company than a 
few loitering priests and friars, dressed in their unmanly garb, and 
moving onward with slow and solemn composure; while here and 
there a student, hidden under a sable cloak and cocked hat, sat, like a 
crow, upon a parapet, conning his lesson from a ghostly volume, or 
gazing into the trembling waters of the Tagus. 



On Saturday mcnrning, being the seventh of April, I took leave of the 
good Canonigo and of Toledo. It was a ruinous and dull old place, 
yet I felt pleased with it in spite of myself— there was about it such 
an air of quiet repose and solemnity, so little of that stir and turbulence 
which I had associated with the idea of a warlike city, ever piooa to 



NEW CASTILE. 5KI7 

tevolt and mutiny. Having taken my chocolate and roasted egg, I 
was summoned to depart by the old hostler, who, having prefaced with 
an Ave Maria purissima ! pushed the door open to tell me the coaoh 
was ready. On reaching the front of the posdda, I found, drawn up 
bdfore the door, the coche-deH^SUras, that was to take me to Madrid. 
It was an antique vehicle, just like those I had seen so often upon the 
Prado, except that instead of the postillions riding one of the wheel 
mules, it had a wide wooden platform, planted firmly between the fore 
wheels, for the accommodation of the drivers. The bag of barley, 
which was to furnish the beasts with provender during the journey, 
served as a cushion. The mules, six in number, were hi and valiant; 
furthermore, they were tatooed and harnassed like those of the Cata- 
lonian diligence. The master and owner was a dried up, mummy- 
looking old man ; but the under driver was a merry young Biscayan, 
who had followed mules from his earliest youth, and who had been 
cast in his wanderings into the centre of the Peninsula, where he was 
now fixed and nailed fast forever, having first become the zag6i of the 
old man, and afterwards his yimo, or son-in-law. Both were dressed in 
velvet jackets and breeches, studded with brass buttons, gray stockings, 
long-quartered shoes, round hats, covered with brass points, and beads, 
and ribbons, with red sashes round the loins. The most remarkable part 
of their dress, however, was an outer jacket of brown cloth, ornamented 
with patches of red and yellow, like those worn by the caksiros of 
Madrid. This dress, though strictly Andalusian, and not common in 
Castile, is worn by the drivers all over Spain. Indeed, it would be 
deemed heretical to crack a whip in any other, and I have many doubts 
whether a Spanish mule would budge an inch for one not thus accoutred. 
The old man had his jacket fastened tightly about him, but the xagdts 
hung jauntily from his right shoulder. As I surveyed my present con- 
veyance, I could not help thinking that it was vastly better than the 
e&rro that had taken me to Aranjuez, and the roein and rudo that had 
brought me away again. I felicitated myself on the change. The old 
landlady of the Fonda-del-Arzobispo came out from her usual station 
in a large arm chair within the door-way, to take leave of the jSvem 
Americano, the chambermaid brought my little bundle, which she 
insisted upon conveying, and the hostler lent me his arm to mount to 
the step. I had no need of such assistance, yet I gave it a thankful 
acceptance. The little man cried out ' Arre yimo !* and the young 
fellow who had taken his station between the two head mules, gave 
way to their impatience, and away we went at a gallop. ' Qo with 
Ood ! ' was the universal greeting ; and the ancient landlady and the 
chambermaid, as they stood shading their eyes from the sun with the 
left hand, shook the right in parting salutation, and added, ' Ycon 
iq Virgm!' 



. I was not the sole occupant of the c6ehe. It was brimming full of 
yonng girls, who were going a short distance from the city, partly kx 



jlHB KEW CASTILE. 

the uk# of ike ride, bat chiefly to take leave of one of their nmotMr* 
who WW to keep on to Madrid, whither she was going to Bwrm # 
(Wj^so. J #000 found from their cooversation, that two of them were 
daughters of the old man ; the eldest, a close built, fast sailing little 
frigaie, wixh %n exquisitely pointed foot, a brilliant eye, and a preUy 
arch face*-^nQt at all the worse for two or three pockHuarks<--waa the 
newly married wife of the xagdl. The one who was now about to 
leave h^r bone fm the first time, was a younger sister of the bride, 
and the re#t were cousins and neighbours. They had all grown up 
together, and pow, as they rode furiously down the hill-side that leads 
away from Toledo, were as merry as crickets, laughing, giggling, and 
shouting to their acquaintance as they were left rapidly behind. By 
ai»d by, however, we got to the bottom of the valley, and began to uM 
up the opposite ascent. The excitation of the moment was over, %mi 
Abey remembered, that at the top of the hill they were to part with 
Beatriz. Their laugbiqg ceased, the smiles passed from their counter 
oanees, a painful expression came instead, and, when the coach «i 
length stopped, they were all in tears. Poor Beatrix ! she cried and 
kissed them all ; and when they got down from the coach and left her 
all alone, she sobbed aloud, and was half ready to follow them. 

Margarita, the elder sister, seeing poor Beatrix take on in this way, 
begged her husband to let her go along and come back the next trip. 
Andres would not at first listen to the proposal, but fastened the door. 
When she began, however, to grow angry at the refusal, he took the 
trouble, like a thoughtful husband, to explain how inconvenient it 
would be for her to go without any preparation ; if she had but spoken 
in the morning, or the night before, the thing would have been easily 
settled. All these reasons availed nothing ; Margarita grew more and 
more vexed, until Andres was driven from his resolution. He slowly 
opened the door, saying with a half displeased air, ' Enire mtedl * 
Contrary to all reasonable calculations, she stirred not a step towards 
accepting the offer, and her embarrassment and vexation seemed only 
lo grow greater, at thus losing the cause of her displeasure. By thia 
liHAe, the old mao, who had thought it was all over when he had kissed 
the children, and who did not understand this hemming and hawing, 
began to grow impatient, and gave the word of command. Away weal 
the mules. Andres would not part in anger ; he went to receive a 
farewell kiss from his wife; but Margarita turned away pettishly, 
•triking her little foot on the ground and shaking her head, as though 
she would have torn her ma/UiUa, Without more ado, he left her to Imt 
ill humor, and, overtaking the coach, caught the left mule by the taiL 
•ad leapt to the wooden platform beside his father. 

Meantime, Beatrix and I put our heads out of the window ; she firom* 
interest and affection, I from curiosity. The girls remained where we< 
left them, throwing up their handkerchiefs, and sending after us a 
thousand kind words and well wishes. Margarita alone stood motion- 
less in the same place, with her head turned away. Gradually, however, 
she moved round to catch sight of us, and when she saw that her hus- 
haiid was not kMkiflC ^ ^» ieemed to be sorry for what she had d«iie,. 



JJEW CASTOe. 299 

•book her fim It him ibadly, and cried out at the top of her vMce, 
* Until we meet, Andrew '-»' Hasta la ,tnsia, Andres ! ' But it was too 
tele, he would Dot hear, and beating the mule nearest him with great 
miergy, we were eoen descending the opposite hill. The last I saw of 
Margarita, she had hid her. face in her hands, and her companions 
war drawng round lo offer conselati<Hi. 

Andres forgot his wife and hie vexation at the bottom of the seeond 
liiH, and wont onward laughing and joking with every one whom we 
«ither met or overtook upon tl^ road. Sometimes he walked beside 
ihe imnles, cheering them with a tuneless ditty ; sometimes he sent 
them galbping down one hill and up another, himself standing with 
one loot in the step and holding by the door, as he spoke comfortable 
words to Beatriz, telling her how many fine things were to be seen in 
Madrid, and all about the palace and the Prado. Sometimes he ran 
away to exchange a word with a felk>w zagal; for we met many coaches 
going to Toledo to be there in the holy week, when it is one of ihe 
most wonderful places in Christendom. The cardinal archbishop was. 
among the number. He had no other attendants than his confessor 
and a single servant, who rode with him in a plain carriage, drawn by 
four hired mules. His own lieavy, well fed pair followed a league or 
two behind, conducted by an ancient postillion, half lost amid cocked 
hat and leather. This prelate is said to be the head of the ultrarfaction, 
as he is of the Spanish church, and one of the prime movers of the 
Portuguese rebellion. For the rest, he is of very simple and unosten- 
tatious habits, giving most of his substance in alms to the poor. 



In this way we came before sunset to the little village where we were 
to pass the night. The mules were soon led away by Andres, who 
helped them to some barley, and the old man proceeded to search the 
coach box for the rabbit, the rice; and the garlic, which were to be 
stewed for our supper. Taking my cloak, I seated myself upon the 
stone bench without the door, where the landlady was nursing her child. 
I had not been there long before a traveller arrived with quite a fine 
horse, which he tied carelessly to one of the bones, driven into the 
wall for the purpose. The horse in rubbing his head chanced to di»- 
engage the bridle, and, finding himself at liberty, strayed out into the 
street. The hostler, coming out at that moment, went slowly and slyly 
towards his head to catch him; but the horse seeing what all this 
meant, cocked his tail and threw his heels into the air, and, having 
accompanied the act with a very disrespectful salutation, set off at the 
top of his speed, the sides of the saddle standing far out like a pair of 
wings, and seeming to account for the extreme velocity of his motioB. 
The whole village was presently in a hue and cry; the women ran out 
and caught up their children, and the traveller started, bareheaded, in 
search oif his beast But the animal only wanted a little diversion, 
aad when he had rolled in a neighbouring wheat field, and stretched 
his kgs a little lo please himself, as he had done all day to please hia 



230 NEW CASTILE. 

master, bounding onward with the lightness of a deer, and throwing 
his raised head round with a joyful air, he presently grew tired of his 
liberty and returned towards the door of the posada. Finding that we 
had made a line and were throwing our cloaks up to keep him from 
going past, he trotted boldly into the courtyard. 

This source of disturbance was scarcely over, before a lolid grunting 
announced the arrival of the public swineherd, bringing home the hogs 
of the village from their daily pasture. He had on a tattered cloak, a 
sugar loaf hat, and a pair of ruined leather gaiters. In his left hand 
was a long staff, pointed with a nail, and in the right a singularly 
sculptured cow horn, through which he uttered a fearful noise that 
brought the tears into my eyes. The hogs, which had minded the 
horn of the swineherd and followed him very obediently hitherto, when 
they reached the first corner of the village, suddenly gave a loud and 
general grunt, which might be interpreted, ' the devil take the hind- 
most ; ' for they all, with one accord, set off at a full gallop in different 
directions, each bolting into the open door of his own house, and 
hopping over the sill to the terror of the little children. 

Before eight we were seated round our supper, which was placed on 
a small table in my own bedroom. It consisted of bread and wine, 
beside a well seasoned preparation of rice and rabbit, which, that it 
might keep the warmer, was served in the same iron stew-pan in which 
it had been cooked. A board was placed beneath, to keep the cloth 
from burning; and Andres, having politely turned the long handle 
towards himself, that it might incommode no one else, stirred it briskly 
with his spoon ; and, as the savory vapor rose curling along his hand, 
he smacked his lips, and said, ' Here, sirs, is food for great folk»,' — 
' Esto es para seniares ! * The old man would have served me in a 
separate plate ; but as it is considered among these worthy roadsters a 
friendly and fraternal act to eat from the same dish, I declined the 
offer, and we felkto with one accord. 

Supper over, I was left in quiet-possession of my chamber, and soon 
went to bed. I did not, however, get at once to sleep ; for some of 
the guests were talking in the neighbouring court-yard, without my 
door. In the various changes of conversation I found that I myself 
furnished a topic. One asked what countryman I was. The old man 
answered, Ingles, One said then that I must be a Judto, and another, 
a Prottstante, Beatriz took my part ; she had seen me cross myself 
as I went into church, where we stopped at noon ; and Andres, who, 
being a Biscayan, was more enlightened than the rest, contended that 
I was an Irlandes and a Cristictno. By and by, the talkers dropped off, 
carrying away the light, until none remained but Andres and a young 
wench, the Maritornes of the venia. 1 was greatly astonished to hear 
our zagal ask her if she had put any garlic in the stew ; for I had 
been so haunted by this detestable seasoning, that I conld not put my 
spoon into the saucepan to fish for a piece of rabbit, without bringing 
out a whole head of it. I was sure Andres could not be in earnest, 
and found presently that this was only the starting of a very di^reot 
subject; for when Maritornes defended herself from the charge, the 



NEW CASTILE. 23t 

excuse was admitted, and the conTer8ation*-4o which Margarita, had 
she been there, would not have listened with indifference — ^presently 
became lower and more earnest. 



The next morning we departed before the dawn, and ere the sun 
was many hours high, we began to approach the capital. The sur- 
rounding scenes had nothing new for me ; but it was not thus with 
Beatriz, who had never before been a league from Toledo, and who 
saw and caught at everything that was peculiar. The day before she 
had partly got over the grief of a first parting from friends and home, 
and when she saw any of the cocheros and arrieros whom she knew, 
she would salute them kindly and halloo to them with much vivacity 
as they came up ; but when they had passed, and she looked back upon 
them as they went their way to Toledo, the delighted expression for- 
sook her countenance. Sometimes a tear burst from her eye and hung 
quivering from the lid, until, growing too big, it fell heavily along her 
cheek; sometimes she got off with a sigh and a long drawn gape. 
I noticed that, at each gape, she crossed her open mouth devoutly with 
her thumb ; and once or twice, when Andres stood on the step, beside 
the carriage, talking with us, he had interrupted his discourse, at the 
recurrence of one, to utter the invocation of, ' Jesus^ Maria, Jose ! '-* 
a call for protection which I had never before heard made except on 
the occasion of a sneeze. Now, however, every object was a novelty 
to Beatriz ; and presently, when we came in sight of Madrid and the 
Manzanares, she was completely lost in admiration — masked what this 
was, and what that, then fell to exclaiming, ' Qtie de tonres — que 
puente — quanta genie!* 

In this merry mood we entered the city, where, having taken leave of 
the old man, of Andres, and of Beatriz — who from being pleased, had 
again become melancholy and tearful, at finding herself in a dirty inn- 
yard, surrounded by so many strange and noisy people — I took my 
bundle under my arm, and covering all under the full embozo of my 
capa, made for the Puerta-del-Sol, where I presently after received the 
hearty greeting of my friend, the old woman, of Don Valentin, and 
of Florencia. 



CHAPTER Xm. 

KINGDOM OF NEW GASTILE-JAEN AND CORDOVA* 

PiaaX departure from Madrid. — Ocania. — Cacanioo and fail BcoUier»io«lair^The 
(ji uadiana. — Manzanarcs. — Yal-de^Penias. — Dispeniaperros. — New PbpuTationi. 
— Fate of their Founder, Olavide.^Carolina. — Baylen.— -The Guadalquivfir and 
Andujar. — Herds of Hones along the Koad to Cordora. 

On the eleventh day of April, I took my last feaveof MFadrid. If 
Was with no little regret ; for, with all the magnificefrce of a great city 
and all the splendor of a brilliant court, it had something quiet, and^ 
retired, and unhacknied. My departure was the ntate painful, that 
aeveral friends came to take leave of me at the office of the dilrgcnce. 
We shook hands heartily, and being summoned by the conductor; T 
took my lonely station in the rotunda. The eabriokt atid the interior' 
had a supply of passengers ,' I waa all alone. * May you arrive with* 
sound ribs ! ' said one ; and just then the clock struck twelve. Crack I' 
went the whip of our conductor — the postillion mounted on one of the 
fourth pair of mules, which composed our team, responded from anoth-- 
er street, and away we went. In a twinkling, we had reached the 
Pherta-del-Sol, and as we were dragged at a gallop through the dispen^ 
ed crowd, I for a moment caught sight of the balcony of my apartment^^ 
that favorite lounging place, where I had passed so many happy mo* 
ments in pleasant company, gazing Upon the varied and characteristic^ 
scene below. Florencia was in her old 8tatH>n ; she, too, was albne, 
and waving her handkerchief. I had scarce time to answer; befbre^ 
the white-washed wall of the clumsy house, at the corner, intruded 
itself between and snatched her from my view. 

Traversing the Prado and taking into rapid review the Retire, the 
Museum, the Botanic Garden, and that beautiful promenade, over which 
1 should never again ramble, we passed under the Gate of Atocha and 
halted without the portal. Our conductor, a fine stout fellow, in the 
prime of life, who had a military air, and had doubtless been a aoldier, 
got down to take leave of a young woman with an infant in her arma, 
who had come thus far to greet with well-wishes the beginning of hiB 
journey. He kissed his wife on either cheek and with great aroctioD; 
then hugged the child awhile to his bosom, and abandoning it to its 
mother, jumped to the box of the diligence. When we had crossed 
the Manzanares and fairly turned our back upon Madrid, I thought 
that I had never seen it look so beautiful. Its infinite steeples and 
cupolas were gleaming to the powerful sun of this lofty and cloudless 
region, while the alamedas of trees leading to it had just put forth their 



m:W CASTILE, JAtlN. AND COtLDO'^A. 

Ibliage ; and the neighboaringr billa and plaioi, in winter to naked and 
monotonous, were now covered everywhere with the young wheat, 
forming one vast expanse of veivet verdure. 



Crossing the valley of the Jarana and the Tagns, at sundown we at>» 
rived at Ocania. I had already passed through Ocauia in coming from 
Valencia^ and it may serve to give an idea of the imperfect etate of 
communications in Spain, that the Valencia and Seville highroads are 
confounded for a distance of thirtysix miles, though these two places 
are situated in nearly opposite directions from Madrid. The Valencia 
road was probably constructed, when Toledo was the capital &nd great 
manufacturing city of Spain. 

We found the diligence from Seville already drawn up in the courts 
yard, and the passengers waiting for us to sit down to supper. Having 
shaken off the dust, with which we were literally whitened, we hasten* 
ed to take seats beside our temporary companions. The Spaniards, 
from most of the provinces of Spain, are very agreeable travelling com- 
panions. This is particularly the case with the Andalusian, who is 
full of amiable endeavours to make himself agreeable to those, into whose 
company he is thrown, though never so transiently. So much, it is 
true, may not be said of the Catalans and Valencians, who are but a 
rough and homespun set As we, however, had none.of these in our 
little party, we enjoyed ourselves much ; and many a hearty joke went 
round at the expense of a good friar of the order of Mercy, who was 
one of oi^r number, and whom we accused of being too polite to the 
buxom Mauchegas who served us. The good father joined in oar 
mirth, with as loud a laugh as any, and if we did not set him down aa 
immaculate, we at least acquitted him of hypocrisy. The order of 
Mercy originated in those days when many Spaniards were torn from 
their homes, either by the chances of war or by the incursions of Bar* 
bary corsairs, to languish in slavery. This order was then instituted, 
with the benevolent motive of ransoming captives ,* money being col- 
lected for the purpose by mendicant expeditions through the country. 
As our friar was going to Malaga, I took it for granted that he was 
bound on some benevolent errand to Algiers or Tunis ; but I learned 
by accident, some time after in Malaga, that the bishop of that city, 
who had lately died, had left all he possessed to the convent of our com- 
panion, of which he himself had long been an inmate, and that the 
good friar in question was hurrying on to secure the prize. 

Supper being finished, we found our way to the long bedroom, fur- 
. nished with a double row of cots, where, as usual in riding diligences in 
Spain, the passengers were accommodated together, so as to be called 
up with greater ease and certainty. Now a lady and her son had their 
cots in the anUchamber of our room, which furnished the only pusage 
to reach our beds; for in this land of suspicion, there is a great 
poverty of doors and windows. When, theren>re, his mother was snug, 
the young man came to conduct us through; and when he had suo^ 
30 



HmW CASTILE, iA£N» AND CO&DOTA. 

iMwied ift 'diimg m »H ioto our pea, lie double locked the door, to lb* 
M> am^i\ inoonveoiieiice of the reverend father^ who had been takes 
greatly into favor by one of the serving maids. We wei« to be called 
up at two in the morning, 00 1 jumped at oncei boots and aJl^ into bed. 
The others were more diUtory, especially the Padre. Having taken a 
huge gold snuff box from the bag sleeve of his outer garment, which 
eerved as a pocket, he fairly loaded his nostrils with to&cco, and then 
pUoed the box beneath his pilbw. This done, he took off, one by one» 
his flowing robes of soiled flannel and laid them (»ver a chair^ hanging 
on the corner the huge iong hat of the Spanish clergy ; until at length 
nothing remained of all this covering to hide the individual, but a black 
■ilk n^fhtcap and a jacket and drawers of the same white flannel* 
Heavens 1 what waa my astonishment and dismay to see this portly, 
helpless man of God turn into as strapping and raw«boned a sinner, as 
•ver ftigfatened a virgin ? I could scarce persuade myself that the friilr 
«as not still leaiiing over the chair at his devotions, and that a loqua- 
cious and sinewy fiisoayan of our number had not taken bis place at 
the bedside. 



We renewed our journey the next day at an early hour and arrived bjr 
•ighl at MadrilejoB, being escorted the whole way by lour wild horsi^ 
■Miy armed with a singular collection of guns, pistols, and sabres. It 
chanced to be Holy Thursday, an occasion of great solemnity in the 
Catholic Church. It is the ciislom in Spain to abstain from meat, 
thiimghottt the whole Passion week| and the innkeeper of Madrilejos, 
wheae pocket would be no less benched than his conscience, by giving 
us meagre fiire for our three pesetos, was preparing to serve us up a 
BAoet Catholic breakfast of eggs and codfish. But our female compan- 
ion protested that her rest hiui been sadly disturbed the night before bj 
the garlicky soup of Ocania; and since it was impossible to travel 
withont proper nourishment, she insisted on a pullet or a partridge. I 
pnt in a plea of indigestion, and when the birds were at length pro* 
dnoei, even the Pmirt joined in eating them, and none observed the 
last in stricteeasy except our Biscayan, who seemed a truly eonseien- 
tions and single-minded man. On our way to regain the dilicenee, we 
ymn surrounded by beggars who besought idms in a suppliant tone. 
It would have been impossible to give to one without giving to ^1| and 
to gif e to all would have been poor economy ; so I pushed my way 
through, closing ray heart to their supplications. I mind, however, 
the door of the Rotunda in poeaession of a poorly ckd friar, nvth a 
shafun cmvn. He opened it for me, offering at the same tine a 
inall omiey hos, upon which waa erected a copper image of the Or»- 
ei&tioii, and saying in accents that thrilled through me, ^ Smi^r t Pit 
In Fnsssfi de Jmterisio i ' The appeal would have been irresistible al 
any season, much less upon Holy Tburadi^ ; ao, dreading the nnsgiv^ 
tmaof anna aien co ,foUon asimihw occasion by ToriokoTtHd, Idroppei 



NEW CASTILE, JAEN, AND OCOUDOVA. 

lum % peseta^ aad aa we drove away be said, ' Go in a good hoor*- Cfod 
will reward you ! ' 



Leaviag Madrilejos, we travelled ou^ through a solitary eoiuitry, 
until we came to the vewta of Puerto Lapiehe, the very house iyo which 
Don Quixote watched over his armour and was dubbed kaigbt etrafly|» 
in the beginning of his adventurous career. Theeonductor bad taken 
bis seat l^cle me in the rotunda, and we were yet talking over tba e^- 
l^loits of that renowned hero, when ou^ conversation was suddenly wtd 
unceremoniously interrupted by the dischaige of muskets, the bud 
shouting of eager, angry voices, and the clattering of many boefc 
Here, indeed, is an uiveuture, Uiougbt I— ohL for Don Quisotel 
In the next moment the diligence stopped, and on looking out al the 
window, the cause of this interruption became mani^sst. 

Our four wild partisans were seen Aying at a fearful taie, closely 
pursued by eight still more desperate looking fellows, dressed in ahec^ 
skin jackets and breeches, with leathern leggings, and mmUere caps, 
or cotton handkerchiefe, on their heads. Each had four pistols at kis 
saddle-bow, a steel sabre at his side, a long knife thrust through the 
bek of his cartouob box, and a carbine, in this moment of preparalion, 
held across bis horse's neck in front of bim* It was as animattid soMtf 
Ibis, such as I had frequently be£>re ssen on oanvass, in Wdveimaa^s 
spirited little pictures of ro^«r broils and battle acenes; but wbkibl 
bad never before been so highly favored as to witness in reality^ 

Whilst this was going on iu the road behind us, we were made to 
get down by one of the party, who had been left, to take caie o£ us, 
and who now shouted in sapid succassion, the words, *Ajo,' tmt^! 
a Hin^a / bo$a ubtjfQ^ ladrmes I ' As this is the robber forsauia tbioiigli^ 
out Spain, its tianslatie* BMiy not be unacceptable to the reader. Let 
him learn, then, that ajo means garlic ; carajo, a thing not fit to be 
named ; and the remainder of the salutation, ' to the ground 1 mouths 
in the dust, robbers T Though this formula was mtered witb giMt 
voUftbiliiy, the present waa doubtles the first attempt of the perso* fteiK 
whom ift proceeded ; a youth, scarce turned of twenty and evidently a 
^oviosp— a mere Oil Blas-^at the business. We did not, hownvcs; 
obey him. the less quickly, and took our seats as ordered, upeiathe 
ground, in fiwot of the mtdes and horses, so that they ooHld onl j ai^ 
?nnea l^ passing over us ; for he was so much agitated, that his sraskct 
•hook UkA the spoot of a fire engine, and we kjaow full well, that in 
sucb situations a frightened is noi less to be dreaded than a foiions 
maiu Our C9nduetor , to whom this scene offered »o noveky, aad. who 
vaa anxious to oblige our visitora, placed himself upon hie hands and 
knees, like a frog when he is about to ynap, and asked if that wan ike 
eight way. He took eve, however, to turn bia onpteasaait situation le 
aceeuiit^ pulting a huge watch into the tut of tho road and eovenmi^ it 
eaBofiiUy with sand* Seme of the perly inaitated thb grnssbepper ett^- 
mde, and Fray Ajolonio avafled himself of the occaskm and the desw» 
tional posture, to bring op the arrears of his Paters and Aves. 



S86 NEW CASTILE, JA£N, AND CORDOVA, 

We had not been long thjis, before the captain of the band tetmneS^ 
leafing five of his party to take care of the guards, three of whom stood 
their ground and behaved well. Indeed^ their chief was no other than 
the celebrated Polinario, Tong the terror of La Mancha, until he had 
been brought over to guard the diligence, and had turned royalist 
volunteer. We could distinctly hear them exchanging ajos and cara^ 
jos with the robbers, and daring them to come tantos par tantos — man 
for man. As honor, however, was not the object of these sturdy cava- 
liers, they contented themselves with keeping the guard in cheeky 
whilst their comrades were playing therr part at the diligence. The 
ftrst thing the captain did, when he rode among us, was to cal( for the 
eondoctor's hat, and when he had obeyed, he bade htm mount upon 
the diligence and throw dpwn whatever was there. He cautioned him 
at the same time to look around and see if anything was coming — 
adding, with a terrible voice, as he half lifted his carbine, * And take 
care' — • Y cuidadot* The conductor quietly obeyed, and the captain 
having told us to get up and not be alarmed, as no harm was intended, 
called to us to put our watches and money into the conductor's hat^ 
which he held out for the purpose, much in the ordinary way of taking 
up a collection, except that instead of coming to us, he sat very much 
at liJ9 ease upon his horse, and let us come to him. I threw my purse 
in, and as it had nine or ten silver dollars, it made a very good appear^ 
ance and fell with a heavy chink. Then, grasping the bunch of brass 
leys and buttons, which hung from my fob, I drew out the huge watch 
which 1 had bought at Madrid, in contemplation of some such event, 
and whose case might upon emei^ency have served the purpose of a 
warming pan. Having looked with a consequential air at the time^ 
which it marked within six hours, I placed it carefully into the hat of 
the conductor. The collection over, the captain emptied parser, 
watches, and loose money, all together into a large leathern pocket, 
which hung from his girdle, and then let the hat drop under his horse's 
hoofs. 

*Cun%adif^ — 'brother-in-law!' — said the captain to oneofthewor- 
thiea— -his companions — ' Take a look into those trunks and boxes, 
and see if there be anything in them that will suit ns ' — * Las Uaoes^ 
Meniores t * — * The keys gentlemen ! ' 'And do you, zagtil, cast me loose 
those two horses on the lead ; a fine felk>w is that near horse with the 
saddle.' The two persons irfaus summoned, set about obeying, with a 
very different ,<?race. Our cuniado dismounted at once and hitched hia 
horae tothe friar's trunk. He then took from the cropper of his saddle 
a little bundle, which, being nnrolled, expanded into a prodigious long 
sack with a yawning mouth in the middle. This he threw over his 
arm, with the momh uppermost, and with a certain professional air. 
He waJB a queer, systematic little fellow this, with a meek and Joseph 
east of ooontenance, that in a market place would have inspired the 
most profound confidence. 'Having called for the owner of the nearest 
tmnk, the good friar made his appearance, and he accosted him with 
great composure. ' Open it yourself, Padre, you know the lock better 
than I do.' The Padre complied with becoming resignation, and the 



NEW GASTIJLE, JAEN, AND CCADOVA. 9» 

iKirthy tronk inspector proceeded to take out an odd collection of k>08e 
breechea that were secured with a single button, robes of white flannel, 
and handkerchiefs filled with snuff. 'He had got to the bottom without 
finding aught that could be useful to any but a friar of Mercy, and there 
were none such in the fraternity, when as a last hope he pulled from 
one corner something square that might have been a box of diamonds, 
tet which was only a breviary fastened with a clasp. The trunk of 
the Biscayan came next, and as it belonged to a sturdy trader from 
Btlboa, furnished much better picking. Last of alt he came to mine ; 
kfr I had delayed opening it, until he had called repeatedly for the key. 
In the hope that the arrival of succor might hurry the robbers away, or 
at least, that this double sack would fill itself from the others, which 
was certainly very charitable. The countenance of our euniado bright- 
ened up, when be saw the contents of my well filled trunk, and not 
unlike Sancho of old, when ho stumbled upon the portmanteau of the 
disconsolate Cardenio, in the neighbouring Sierra Morena, he went 
down upon one knee and fell to his task most inquisitively. Though 
the sack was already filled out to a very bloated size, yet there remain- 
ed room for nearly all my linen and summer clothing, which was doubt- 
less preferred in consideration of the approaching heats. My gold 
watch and seal went in search of its silver companion ; for Senior Cb- 
maiA> slipped it slyly into his side pocket, and, though there be no 
secrets among relations, I have my doubts whether to this day he^has 
ever spoken of it to his brother-in-law. 

Meantime, our female companion had made acquaintance with the 
captain of the band, who for a robber was quite a conscientious and 
conversable person. He was a stout, athletic man about forty years 
eld, with a weather beaten face and long whiskers, which grew chiefly 
under his chin in the modern fashion, and like the beard of a goat It 
chanced that among the other contents of the trunk, was a brass 
weight neatly done up and sealed, which our minister had procured 
from the Spanish Mint, and was sending with some despatches to the 
United Ststes. This shone well, and had a goldish look, so that our 
Ckanmdo would have put it in his pocket, but I showed him that it was 
only brass, and when he had smelled and tasted it, and convinced him- 
self that there was neither meat nor drink in it, he told me I might 
ask the captain, who graciously relinquished it to me. He also gave 
orders not to open the trunk of the lady, and then went on to apologize 
for the trouble he was giving us, and had well nigh convinced us that he 
Was doing a very praiseworthy act He said that if the proprietors of 
the diligence would procure his pardon and empk>y him as escort, he 
would serve them three months for nothing — * Tres meses de nada. 
iSby FeUpe CanOy y, par mtU nombre, el Caearuco* — said he — *\ am 
Philip Cano, nicknamed the Cacaruco. No* rat-catcher am I ; but a 
regular aobber. I have no other profession or means of bringing up a 
large family with any decency.' * 

* * A rat-catcher meuw one who doestiot follow the profesBion habitually, but only 
makes it a subsidiary pursuit. Thua, a tontrdbiahdiMta who has been plundered asd 



/ 



838 NEW CASTILE, JAEN, AND GOBDOTA. 

In twenty minotes after the arrival of theie unwelcoMe Tisten, tbe^r 
bad finished levying their contribution and drew together to move oA 
The double sack of the inspector was thrown over the 'back of one of 
the horses that had been taken from the diligence; for in this |Mirt ^ 
the country the leaders of the teams were generally horses. The berse 
now kMided with such a singalar burthen was a spirited asumal and 
aeemed to understand that all was not right ; for he kiokedawny atneng 
the guns and sabres of the robbers, until one of them, thus roagfaty 
handled, drew his sword to kill him, and would have executed bis pB»- 
pose had he not been restrained by Cacaruco. Before the robbers d»- 
parted, the postillion told Cacaruco that he had nothing iit the world 
bnt the two horses, and that if he lost them, he was a rinned matt ; he 
begged him, at least, to leave him the poorest of the twow After a sbort 
parley, the request was granted, and them they moved olF^at a walk, 
talking and gesticulating, without once looking back. We ke^ flight 
of them for near half an hour, as they moved towards a ravine, whiek 
lay at the foot of a neighbouring mountain. 

We now commenced packing up the remnant of our wardrobee. It 
was a sorrowful scene. Here a box emptied of some valuable arttoles, 
and the shavings, in which it had been packed, driven in every direo*- 
tion by the wind ; there another, which had been broken in by the butt 
of a musket, that had passed with little ceremony through die shade of 
an astral lamp ; here shirts, and there waistcoats— ^and there a solitary 
pair of red flannel drawers ; everywhere, however, sorrowful laees and 
plaintive lamentations. I tried to console myself, as I locked my trunk, 
with reflecting upon the trouble I had found the day before in shutting 
it down ; how I bad tugged, and grated my teeth, and jumped upon it; 
but this was poor consolation. My little portmanteau, yesterday 
so bloated and big, now looked lean and flabby. I put my ibot 
upon it, and it sunk slowly under the pressure. I now looked round 
for the robbers. They were still seen in the distance, moving 
away at a walk and followed by the horse, upon which was monatf 
ed that insatiate sack, which would have touched the grovnd on either 
side, had it not been crammed so full as to keep it from toiiehing 
the horse's ribs. There was a singular association of ideas betwsen 
the fatness of the bag and the leanness of my trunk, and as I still 
stood with one foot upon my trunk and turning my thumbs abont 
each other, I set up a faint whistle, as a baflled man is ape to do. fiy 
a singular coincidence I happened to hit upon that very waits in tkie 
Freyschutz, where the music seems to accompany the waltzeia and 
gradually dies away as they disappear from the stage ; and that, at a 
moment too, when the robbers having crossed a slight elevation were 
descending into the hollow beyond. The apropos seemed excellent ; 
so I continued to whistle, winding up as the heads of the robbere beb* 
bed up and down, and just blew the last note ae they sank Ibievcf be* 
yond the horizon. 

aimoanted by in aduanero, and who requites bimMlf en nme imbtppy ttevallsr, 
and ft earbonero, who leaven bb charcoal heap to put bUnaelf in aMbwb at tfie msA 

aide, are both rateros. 



KBM CASTILE, JAEN, AND CORDOVA. 2^9 

By tint time the gaieras^ and carts, and muleteers, whose progi«M 
had been arrested on either side of the road, got once more in motion, 
and when they had come up with the diligence, halted around it to 
learn the particulars of what they had only seen at a distance, and in 
pantomime. The sufferers were willing enough to let out their sorrow 
in words, and our painstaking Biscayan, who had very exactly ascer- 
tained the amount of his loss, told over the missing articles with a 
faltering voice and a countenance so sorrowful, that to have heard him 
and to have seen him, must have drawn pity, even from the stern Ca- 
carnco. 'A new brown cloak that cost me thirty hard dollars only a 
week ago in Bilboa ; six shirtsi— two most beautiful, with sleeve and 
breast ruffles, and a long list of trowsers, drawers, and socks '— *' Col* 
zones, €4»iz4mcillos y cakituiesJ ' At first, I almost forgot my own loss- 
es in the muery of the disconsolate Biscayan, who, in sooth, had been 
more unfortunate than the rest of us, having lost his cloak, that indis- 
pensable appendage of a Spaniard ; but at every place where we either 
ate or changed horses, until our arrival at Cordova, he would ring over 
the charges of his capa, parda^ calzones^ calzancUlos y calcUines^ until 
at length I only regretted that Cacaruco had not carried off the owner. 

Having received the consoling commiserations of the many passing 
travellers who had witnessed our misfortune, we once more set forward 
with our curtailed team and lightened burthen. The escort, who had 
returned to take their station at the side of the diligence, and with 
whose conduct we could not reasonably quarrel, now commenced rail- 
ing terribly at the authorities of the villages, who, they said, were 
openly protecting the robbers, and persecuting them. As a reason for 
this singular conduct, they told us, that the alcaldes and ayuntamientos, 
a kind of a mayor and aldermen, appointed from the inhabitants by the 
king, were bribed by the innkeepers and wagoners, who had conspired 
against the diligence and had even vowed to burn it. The motive of 
this hatred to the devoted diligence is, that formerly travellers loitered 
slowly through the country, leaving a little of their money at every 
venta; whereas, now they are whirled along without stopping, except 
at remote intervals. 



/ 



Shortly aftor renewing our journey we came to an extensive morass, 
which we traversed by a long causeway. This is the river Guadiana, 
which has here disappeared as a stream, and hidden its lazy waters 
ttnder ground. This morass, in which the waters of the Guadiana are 
loet, has an extent of nearly thirty miles from the first disappearance of 
the stream. As it is exceedingly rich in pasture, Antillon tells ue, that 
the Manchegos are wont to boast that their river has a bridge, which 
furnishes nourishment to many thousand heads of cattle. It was, per- 
haps, in allusion to this disappearance of the Guadiana, too, that a 
Spaniard, being a prisoner in Africa, and boasting, as people who go 
ahsoad are apt to do, of his native land, took occasion to say, that his 
kittf Wit tiMi asightieiM in the world, and that among other great and 



240 NEW CASTILE, JAEN, AND CORDOVA. 

wonderful things contained in his dominions, was a bridge seven 
leagues long, and a league wide.* This singular phenomenon was no 
stranger to the ancients. Pliny, who came as Procurator to Spain^ 
speaks of it in his Natural History. 'The Ana,' says he, 'sometimes 
confounds its waters with some lakes; sometimes passes through moun- 
tains, which appear to absorb it ; sometimes hides itself in the earth, 
and after disappearing often, for its own pleasure, at length empties 
into the Atlantic' t It would seem that the inquisitive of more modem 
times have not been inattentive to the subject; for Cervantes, who 
ridiculed everything that was ridiculous, makes his hero discover the 
true secret of the weeping Guadiana. It was in this very neighbour- 
hood, that Don duixote descended into the cave of Moutesinos ; thus 
we met with that valiant knight, just before and just after our disaster, 
and only missed him at the moment that we needed his assistance. 



On our arrival at Manzanares, the whole town came forth to hear 
the story of our disaster. Among the troops of children who gathered 
round to look at the smoking mules, and to gaze at and envy the 
-strange people, who were going so swiftly to the happy land they had 
heard of, beyond the Sierra Morena, we were shown the daughter of 
the man who robbed us ; the identical Cacaruco. She was an inter- 
esting girl of seven or eight, very neatly dressed, with a gold cross and 
rosary. The poor little thing, on seeing herself the object of general 
attention, slunk behind the door of the stable-yard and kept out of 
sight, until we had passed on. We here learned that Felipe Cano had 
commenced his career of honor as a guerrilla soldier, in the war of 
independence. By his superior courage and conduct, he rose to com- 
mand among these wild warriors, and when Ferdinand came back 
from his French visit, he made him a captain. When the Constitution 
was restored, in 1820, Cano entered into it with ardor, and of course 
became a free-mason. It occurred to me that had I been a brother, I 
should certainly have saved my effects, and I secretly determined to 
avail myself of the first occasion to get the brand of the hot iron. In 
his new political career, our hero, leaving behind the duller spirits of 
his time, managed to make himself very obnoxious to the opposite 
party ; for on the return of the king from Cadiz, he was sent to Ceuta 
for his excesses, to pass the remainder of his life in the Presidios. 
The Presidios are remote fortresses, where criminals are confined and 
kept at hard labor ; a punishment which has been substituted for the 
galleys. As is not unfrequent with Spanish prisoners, Felipe Cano 
contrived to escape from his ball and chain, and returned once more 
to Manzanares and the poetic shadelessnass of La Mancha. Finding 

* Peyron. 

t The word Guadi, found at the commeDcement of the names of most or many of 
the Spanish riven, was added by the Arabs, and means simply river. Thus Guadi- 
ani^— as the name of this stream now stands — the river Ana ; Ooadalaviar, clear 
river ; Guadalquivir, big river. See Gelif AUdris, traofiat«d into Spanish by Conde. 



Ni:W CASTILE, JAEN, AND CORDOVA. 5^1 

VkO easier means of gaining a livelihood, he collected a band of worthies, 
l:iot less conscientious than himself, and commenced levying contribu- 
tions under the nickname of Cacaruco, which has become the terror of 
the whole country. He does not appear publicly at Manzanares ; but 
comes and goes in the night, passing much of his time with his family , 
which is living comfortably without any visible means of support. Nay we 
were told, that it was more than likely he would return to sleep at home 
that very night. Hisworthy brother-in-law, the trunk inspector, is anoth- 
er robber quite famous in Iji Mancha, under the name of El Cochinero^ 
the pig-driver, probably from having once been of thai profession.* 



Leaving Manzanares, we arrived at Val-de-Penias towards dark. It 
was Holy Thursday, as we have already seen, and we found the entire 
population formed in procession along the principal streets. We did not 
join it, but contented ourselves with kneeling in the balconies of the po' 
sada, and crossing ourselves as the host went by. We were well paid for 
this act of penance, by passing in review a whole army of handsome 
Manchegas, The women of this province are said to be lively, animat- 
ed, and full of fascination, great singers of stgtndiUas and dancers of 
ihe fandango. Of course we saw nothing of this t)n Holy Thursday ; 
but the well modulated harmony of their voices told that there Was 
much music in them^-and the spring and precision of their step, and 
the vivacity with which they fluttered their fans and adjusted their manh 
tUlas, making the action an excuse for turning their faces towards us, 
and darting npon us their full and flashing eyes, gave sufficient assur- 
ance that they would appear well in the fandango. The females were 
dressed as usual in black — mantle, gown, and stockings, all of the same 
solemn color. The men wore blue stockings, with breeches and jack*> 
et of brown, and moniero caps of the same, or of black velvet The 
ample capa parda hung loosely from their shouldets, or was thrown 
into a variety of graceful folds. 

Yal-de-Penias is likewise famous for the delightflil wine of the Bur- 
gundy kind, which grows in its neighbourhood. There is, perhaps, no 
pleasanter table wine than this ; for it adds the strength of port to the 
rich and pleasant flavor of the original stock ; and yet it is so plenty, 
and so cheap, that you may buy a bottle for two or three cents. This 

* Ab the reader many feel some interest in the history of Cacaruco and his followers 
the following information contained in a letter from a fiti«nd may not be unaccepta- 
ble. 

^So you were itopped on your way to Andaluiia, and made to pay toll to the 
knights of the highway. By the way, the robbers mtfst hffve had a particular re- 
spect for yott wim your two watches. Yon must have been as great a person- 
age in their eyes, as that renowned chieftain. Two-guns, was among the^ Indians. I 
hope you told them you had bou^t one for their express accommodation. ^ 
has been more fortunate ; he escaped unharmed, which now-a-days is snmewhat 
extraordinary. But, perhaps, 3rou have not heard that the leader of the cang who 
robbed you, has been shot by soldien sent in pursuit «f him, and that bis band is 
broken up.' 

31 



JMS NEW CASTILE, JAEN, AND CORDOVA. 

is quite » fortunate circumstance ; for the water in La Hancha isgedef' 
ally very bad, and here, is hardly potuble. The people of La Man*' 
cba drink freely of their generous wines from necessity, as is done id 
other parts of tiie country from choice, and yet there is no intoxication^ 
Indeed, drunkenness is so rare in Spain, that it may be said to be un- 
known. The French are deservedly praised for their temperance ; but 
this praise, both 9» it respects eating and drinking, is due in a far 
greater degree to the Spaniards. During nearly a year that I remain* 
ed in Spain, I do not remember to have seen one single man reeling 
drunk — whereas, in my own favored country, the land which the world 
looks to for fair examples, one can never go forth into the most public 
streets, without seeing on the faces of many, the sure indications of 
habitual intemperance, or being staggered against and breathed upoo 
by these walking nuisances. The comparison is unpleasant ; I blnsh 
while I make it — ^nor can I avoid thinking that any measure, however' 
strong, that would tend to the substitution of wines for stronger drinks, 
would confer a moral benefit on our country of infinitely greater value 
fhafi the supposed economical one — for J deny its reality of being in 
all things independent of other nations. But we were speaking of the 
Val-de-Penias wine, which, though so excellent, is unknown out of 
Spain. The reason of this is found in the great imperfection of con-^ 
veyances throughout the country, and in the consequent expense of 
transportation. The only Spanish wines know in foreign countries 
are produced near the sea ; whereas, in France, where transportation 
js cheap, with few exceptionfr-Hiuch as of the Bordeaux and Marseilles 
wines — all the fitier qualities come from the highlands of the interior.- 
The central provinces of Spain, from their high and hilly character, 
their dry climate and powerful sun, are perhaps better calculated to* 
produce wine than any other country in Europe ; and this may become* 
manifest at some future day, when Spain shall have taken the station 
lor which nature destined her, among the nations of the earth. 

Though we had small cause for gladness, our supper at Val-de-Pe- 
nias, was nevertheless, a very merry one. We rallied each other on our 
losses and especially did we direct our face towards the poor Biscay- 
an, whom we christened CabaUero de-la^Triste Figura, We took in- 
finite pleasure in making him recapitulate his losses, and as we had 
already beard them often enough to know them by heart, if perchanoer 
he forgot uiy article, one of us would refresh bis nemory, and then 
another, joining in and increasing the interruption, would send him 
back to recommence the sad narration. Thus, in the sorrows of the 
diaoonsolate Biscayan, each sought an alleviation of his own. Nor 
did the friar escape so well from our hands, as from the followers of 
Cacamco. We ascribed all our calamities to the unchaste desires 
which he had cherished the night before, on the eve of eo solemn •$, 
festrval, and to his having ate the thiffh of a pullet on the n)omin|r ef 
Holy Thursday. In order to make him do penance for these sms, 
we would not let him eat anything but jread and lentils, and dole^ 
tbe wine out to him in portions, Uiat served rather to excite ihaa «» 
gratify. But our merriment was at its height when he took Iris hogr 



NEW CASTILE, JAEN-, AND CORDOVA. 24* 

snuffbox, which he did very often, from the bottom of his sleeve. 
We insisted that he ought to have given the gold box to the robbers 
who called repeatedly for tobacco, as the having kept back part might 
lead to future misfortunes. Our Padre contended on the contrary, 
that the robbers asked only for dgcrros and cigarillos^ and, that they 
never so much as mentioned the word polvo. To the lady and her 
«on, who, thanks to the courteous demeanour of Cacaruco, had saved 
everything, we offered our congratulations with the best grace we 
could ; but, in spite of ourselves, with the envious air of men who had 
tnuch rather the case had been their own. Thus was our sup- 
per seasoned by mirth and good humor. But when it was eaten and 
the toothpicks were handed about in a wine glass, and it became a 
question of paying, each, as he rummag^^d his purseless pocket, was 
overcome with confusion. We could only promise to hand the money 
to the conductor, at the end of the journey. As for the postillions, 
escorts, serving maids, poor friars, the lame, the blind, and askcrs of 
«lms, in general, we uniformly referred them to Cacaruco. 



Before the day dawned we once more set forward. The face of the 
country, which had maintained its level and monotonous character 
since we crossed the valley of the Tagus, now became broken and 
uneven. The day before I had looked in vain for the Sierra Morena, 
which I expected to have seen rising in bold perspective toward the 
south, to form a barrier between Castile and Andalusia. It was only 
in advancing that the rocks rose round us, and we found ourselves in 
the mountains, without having had the labor of an ascent. Nor was it 
nntil we saw ourselves surrounded by precipices and ravines, and crags 
and chasms, that we knew that we had abandoned the plain of Castile, 
and were prepared to estimate its singular elevation. At the Dispenia- 
perros — ^Pitch-off-Dogs, so called, for the abrupt and sudden nature 
of the declivity, the crags rose round us in such rugged and hardy 
confusion, that, when we looked back upon them, their tops seemed 
to be connected overhead. Yet this wild region, which scarce fur- 
nishes a resting place for a scattering growth of pines and brambles, 
is traversed by one of the most safe and beautiful roads in the world. 

The road of Dispeniaperros was constructed in the time of the good 
king Charles III., by M. Le Mauv, a French engineer, and is a noble 
triumph of art over the obstacles of nature. The difficulty of its ex- 
ecution may be estimated from' the number of its bridges, which, large 
and small, amount to four hundred. Tet the road is nowhere so 
steep, as to require the chaining of a wheel in the descent, even of a 
lieavy dilgence, or to occasion inconvenience and danger to the team 
und passengers ; a rare merit in a mountain highway, which may 
not always be said of the celebrated Simplon. To gain such a re- 
sult over a piece of ground, which has merited the name of Dis- 
peniaperros, required infinite art. Sometimes, the road follows the 
«eurse of a torrent, until met full in the fcice by some impassable haj> 



244 NEW CASTILE, JAEN, AND CORDOVA 

rier, it crosses to the opposite bank over a yawning chasm, spanned 
by a single hardy arch; sometimes, its way is forced by explosion, 
into the side of a crag, and the shattered rocks assume a new as- 
perity ; sometimes, an arched slope is run along the edge of a near- 
ly perpendicular cliff, clinging to the inequalities of Uie precipice, 
by a tenure, so slight, that it seems unequal to support the weight 
of the mason work, much less of the loaded diligence,, the mules, 
and the passengers, who are only separated by a low barrier from 
a deep abyss, where a fall would lead to many deaths. It rained 
hard as we passed through this wild region, and the bottoms of the ra- 
vines were every where torn by torrents, which often dashed through 
bridges beneath the road, covering it with their spray. The 
rain did not, however, hinder me from stretching my neck from 
the window to gaze, now at the rugged and saw-like crests of the over- 
hanging mountains,, rending the heavy clouds as they rushed furious- 
ly by ; now, at the deep ravine below, white with the foam of the 
dashing water ; or, at the well soaked mules and muleteers, that 
might be distinctly seen at no great distance from us, toiling up the 
weary side of the mountain, and turning, first to the right band, then 
to the lefl, as the road made angles, to overcome the declivity. Some- 
times, we appeared to be coming towards them, and they towards 
us, with inconceivable rapidity^ passing and repassing many times, 
the intervening rocks and trees seeming likewise to partake of the 
celerity of our motion, and the whole landscape changing at every 
step. 

This declivity of the Sierra, which below the Dispeniaperros softens 
into beauty, retaining merely enough of its wild and romantic charac- 
ter to add to its attractions, and which, from its sheltered situation, its 
southern exposure, and well watered and fertile soil, is so admirably 
adapted to be the residence of man^ was, until near the close of the 
last century, abandoned entirely to the ci^rice of nature and inhabit- 
ed only by wolves and robbers. In the paternal reign of Charles III. 
Don Pablo Olavide, who, by his own merit and the mere force of his 
oharacter, had risen to various offices of trust and honor, became in- 
tendant of Seville. Not content with doing good in that city, which 
is indebted to him for many excellent institutions, fine edifices, and 
pleasant public walks, he sought to extend the sphere of his use- 
fulness. He saw and lamented the depopulated state of Spain, and 
succeeded in interesting the king in a plan to people some of the most 
fertile parts of Andalusia, whieh the vices of an impolitic government 
had deprived of inhabitants and converted into a wilderness. The 
Sierra Morena especially attracted his attention and became the scene 
of his first experiment. 

Olavide saw, however, that the stock of cultivators in Spain was 
rather a bad one ; and that their prejudice against labor which has 
descended from those days when arms and not servile offices were 
the proper occupation of a Christian, together with the listlessness and 
indolence, which his small share in the fruits of his own labor has en- 
grafted upon the character of the Spanish peasant, would be heavy 



NEW CASTILE, JAEN. AND CORDOVA. 246 

impediments to the execution of his scheme. He determined, there- 
fore, to seek a population for his infant colony in some distant land, 
and thus to avail himself of that impulse, which emigration, like trans- 
plantation in the vegetable world, usually gives to human industry. 
Settlers were brought at a great expense from Germany, and each 
family received a portion of land, a house, the necessary implements 
of labor, and a certain number of domestic animals. When an emi- 
grant had cultivated and put in order his first allotment of land, he re- 
ceived an additional field. The houses were all built alike, and so 
placed as to form one or more wide streets on either side of the high- 
way. Particular attention was paid to the health of the infant colony, 
and no emigrant was allowed to settle near a morass. The new set^ 
tiers, to the number of seven thousand, were for a time supported at 
the public expense ; but first turning their attention towards produc- 
ing the immediate necessaries of life, they were soon able to go alone. 
Being directed by the aid of science in the choice of their crops» and 
freed from the support of an idle population of priests and friars ; from 
the burthensome taxes, ruinous restrictions, and thousand evils, which 
bore so hard upon the rest of Spain, they began in a few years to pro- 
duce some oil, wine, and silk for exportation, in addition to the 
wheat, barley, rye, oats, peas, and Indian corn, required for their own 
consumption. Some of the towns had also domestic manufactures of 
glass, earthen ware, hemp, silk, and woollen. Such was the transfor- 
mation wrought by Olavide, in the hitherto uninhabited regions of the 
Sierra Morena ; the haunts of wild beasts became the habitation of 
man ; the wilderness was converted into a garden ; the howl of the 
wolf and the whistle of the robber were exchanged for the rattle of 
the loom and the gleefiil song of the cultivator. 



But what was the fate of Olavide — ^the man who had done so much 
for civilisation and for Spain. Olavide hated the monks, both theo- 
retically and practically. He made a fundamental regulation, which 
excluded them entirely from the new colonies, and is even said to have 
built his house upon the ruins of a convent, which in times past had 
given shelter to a band of robbers, in return for a share in their spoil. 
But the monks were even with him, for in return they most cordially 
hated Olavide. It chanced that one Father Romauld, a German 
Capuchin, came on a mission to the Sierra Morena and was well re- 
ceived by Olavide. The good Father was delighted with the settle- 
ments. He had an eye to enjoy the beauty of the situation and the 
charms of the scenery ; nor was he unmindful of the amenity of the 
climate, the sparkling purity of the water, the generous and well fla- 
vored quality of the wine, and the excellence of the eating. Father 
Romauld thought, what a fine station this would make for a convent 
of Capuchins. He therefore advised Olavide, since his colonists were 
all Germans, to get some German friars to come and teach them how 
to get to heaven. But Olavide professed his satisfaction with the cu- 



346 NEW CASTU.E, JAEN, AND CORDOVA. 

rates attached to the different parishes, and declarcNi that their ser- 
vices were -quite equal to the spiritual wants of the eoioni&ts. Though 
Father Romanld was thwarted and baffled, he dissembled his disap* 
pointment, as became the humility of his office. But he did not f^* 
get it ; for sometime after, he availed himself of the intimacj to which 
he was admitted by Olavide, and caught up some imprudent express 
sions concerning the Spanish clergy, which dropped from him in the 
unguarded confidence of domestic life. These were repdrted to the 
council of Castile, and Olavide was called to Madrid, under the charge 
of reading prohibited books and speaking disrespectfully of the Cath- 
olic religion. 

Olavide had been a year in Madrid, and began to believe that the 
threatened storm had passed by, and that Father RomauM had forgot- 
ten him, as he had forgotten Father Romauld, when he Was sudden- 
ly seized with alJ his papers and taken by force from the bosom of bis 
family. His friends heard no more of him for more than a year, 
and could only form conjectures whether he were living or dead. 
The first intelligence they received of him, was when he was call- 
ed up to receive the sentence*of the Inquisition, of which he had 
all this time been the prisoner. Olavide was Confronted with his 
judges in the presence of many illustrious personages. He was 
dressed in a sanbenito of yellow, covered with flames and devils, 
and carried a green taper in his hand. He was accused of being 
a heretic, a believer in the doctrines of the Encyclopidie, and of 
having frequented the society of Voltaire and Rousseau. He was 
therefore exiled from Madrid and all other places of royal residence ; 
from Seville where he had long resided, and even from Sierra, 
the place of his nativity. His property was confiscated for the 
benefit of the Holy Office, and he was at the same time declared 
incapable of any public employment. Lastly, he was condemned 
to be shut up eight years in a convent and employ his time in 
reading such pious volumes, as should be placed^before him. His 
sentence was at once executed and he was confined in a convent 
of La Mancha. But his health and spirits sunk together under such 
accumulated misfortune ; and his tormentors, who had no desire of 
destroying life and thus curtailing their vengeance, sent him to re- 
cruit at some mineral waters of Catalonia. There, Olavide was so 
fortunate as to elude his keepers and to escape forever from a 
country, to promote whose interests and welfkre, had, hitherto, been 
the business of his life.* 



But, to return to our journey. As we descended the moun- 
tains at a rapid rate, the clouds grew gradually thinner and thinner, 
and the rain lighter, until, by-and-by, the sun occasionally emerged 
to cheer our progress and give us a wider view of the softening scenes 

* AntiUoii--Towi)tend— Bourgoanne. 



NEW CASTILE, JAEN, AND CORDOVA. 247 

of the nountaiB, sbiniog out at length, full imd clear to greet our ar-* 
rival into the principal settlement of Carolina. Leaving the diligence 
in the spacioua ia^-yvdi and pushing my way through the crowd of 
worthies, to whom our fellow travellers, with the Biscayan at their 
bead, were recoanting their misfortunes, I wandered f(^h to look at 
this beautiful village in the mountains, which might serve as a model 
Id all the village makers in the world. Its plan might well be known 
and copied in our own country, where new places are daily starting 
into existence, and where the will of two or three original settlers^ 
judicioiisly e3(ercised, might give convenience, and symmetry, and 
bMutf, to the future abode of hundreds and of thousands. 

I^a Caroliaa is traversed throughout its whole extent by the noble 
road of Andalusia, which forms its principal street. The other streets 
run, either parallel to, or at right angles with this, and not a scattering 
dwelling rises as a pioneer, in the neighbourhood of the town — or, in- 
deed, anywhere in the new settlement, without a reference to some 
future street Thus, the possibility of great future convenience, is 
purchased without the slightest present sacri^e. In the centre of the 
town is the Piaza May or y which serves on ordinary occasions as a 
market-place and general rendezvous, and on festivals as the scene of 
bull-fights and public spectacles. Here are found the village churchy 
with its clock and bell ; the AyuntaaUmto ,* the large and commodious 
ion, at which we were about to breakfast ; the smith, for the accom- 
modation of the town's people and travellers, and a variety of country 
stores, where might be bought a little of everything. The various 
buildings which surround the square, are uniform and connected, and 
their fronts being supported upon a series of arcades, they furnish a 
covered walk round the whole interior, where the villagers may at all 
times find shelter from the heat of the sun, or the inclemency of the 
weather. I noticed with regret, that several of the houses which sur« 
round this little square, were ruined and tenantless. It would appeu 
from this, that the colonies partake in the general decline of wealth, 
industry, and population ; indeed, they are now subject to the pressure 
of all the evils common to the rest of Spain, and are no longer, as for- 
taerly, exempt from the many burthens and restrictions, which bear so 
hard upon the Spanish cultivator. As I wandered in the direction of 
the Pojeo, which lies on the south o9 the town, the children, weary of 
their iaorning's confinement, were availing themselves of the returning 
sunshine, to sally forth to their daily pastimes. The flaxen heads of a 
few told that the Saxon stock had not yet been modified by a southern 
wn, nor lost in the blood of Andalusia. 

The Paseo is a beautiful' spot, planted witli wide spreading trees, 
whose thick foliage covers as with an awning the stone benches which 
are placed below, bi the centre of the area is a stone fountain sur- 
rounded by a curb, where the water is ever full and ever falling, and 
which, wilylst k cools the air and gives animation to the scene, serves 
likewise to refre^ the passing travellers and cattle. There are many 
iuch ifeuntaiM in OaroUna. They are supplied with excellent water by 
an aqueduct, which we were able to trace as we approached the town, 



448 N£W CASTILE, JAEN, AND CORDOVA. 

by the stone piers which rose at short interrals, to indicate the plaM 
where repairs might be necessary in case of any derangement. The 
public walk is as essential an appendage of a Spanish town, as the 
parish church. JThither the inhabitants repair at an hour established 
by custom, and which changes with the season ; in summer, the cool 
of the evening is chosen for this salutary distraction. I seated myself 
for a moment upon a bench, and^ though it was far from the hour of 
Paseo, the scene was so familiar to me, that I was able to people the 
walks and benches, and pass in review the whole assemblage ; the old 
indefinido^ with his rusty cocked hat ; the high stepping royalist volun^^ 
teer ; the village acoMe^ with his gold headed cane, his stained fingers 
and paper dgarillo. Nor did I forget the young mountaineer, with his 
round hat, covered with beads and turned gracefully aside ; nor, least 
of all, the pretty Andaluza, as she moved springily onward, shaking 
her fkn at a passing admirer, and piercing his heart with a sidelong 
beam from her full black eye. 

Leaving the Paseo behind me, I extended my walk to the scattering 
dwellings without, and wandered on, enchanted by the beauty of the 
surrounding landscape. The country was abundantly watered with 
mountain streams, running in open channels, or else led off in wooden 
pipes, to furnish the means of irrigation. On every side were fields of 
wheat, oats, barley, flax, and ^ar6anzoj— orchards of olive and aigarro*- 
ba, and sunny hill sides, covered to their summit with the vine. Nor 
was Pomona forgotten in this happy scene. Each house in addition to 
its shady arbour bad a little plantation of fruit trees on either side. It 
was the month of April, and they were all decked in their vernal livery^ 
blending the young foliage of the fig with the gaudy pink of the peach 
and the more modest, though not less pleasing tints, of the pear, the 
cherry, and the apple. 

It was delightful to gaze abroad upon this varied and wide extended 
landscape, where the wild beauty of mountain scenery was rather Bod* 
ened than subdued, by the magic touch of cultivation. The south 
wind had already floated away the moist clouds to the higher moun- 
tains, and the last thin veil of vapor alone lingered lazily in the heavens^ 
where the sun blazed out in a sky of transparent blue, clear and un- 
sullied, and with Andalusian splendor. The whole vegetable world 
seemed to have woke up renovated and refreshed by the showers of 
the morning. The wheat was higher and greener, and the meadow- 
lands looked so inviting, that I was half disposed to envy the luxurious 
indulgence of the cattle, as with balmy breath and swelling udders, 
they cropped the dewy herbage ; the horses and mules grazed with 
equal relish, while the sheep and goats sought their food perseveringly 
amid the overhanging clifts. The atmosphere I breathed, too, seemed 
to be of some happier world ; for the balmy breeze came burthened 
with sweet exhalations, newly sent forth by the thousand plants of the 
Sierra. What a transition this from the unvaried monotony of La 
Mancha, where, but the day before, we had gone forward for leagues 
and hours over an endless plain, without once encountering a tree, a 
rock, or a habitation I 



^EW CASTILE, JAEN, AND CORDOVA. 249 

On leaving La Carolina, the country became more and more lovely, 
the whole way to Baylen, which lies at the foot of the mountains. 
Baylen niakea a distinguished figure, in the history of the late war of 
independence ; and, indeed, in the history of Napoleon. It was there 
that the French were first beaten by the Spaniards in a pitched battle, 
and General Dupont was compelled to capitulate to the patriot array 
under the Swiss Reding. At Baylen, then, the imperial arms received 
the first check in their career of victory. 

When we left Baylen our anxiety was again awakened lest we should 
encounter robbers, for our road lay through a country much infested 
with this species of vermin. There was also a good deal of excitement 
among the three men who composed our escort, as though they were 
in expectation of an attack. Unluckily, one of the men had lamed his 
horse the day before in the mountains, whither the escort had been sent 
with the horsemen who came with us from Guarroman^ to find and 
break up a nest of bandits. The laming of a horse was, however, the 
only result of the expedition. Rather than have this man behind, the 
conductor, at the moment of starting, made him take his seat be- 
side roe in the rotunda with sabre and carbine, ready to repel an 
Attack. He was a hard visaged old veteran this, with long mustaches 
H>f mingled black and grey hairs. He had served in the northern cam- 
|>aJign8 with the auxiliary Spaniards, under the Marquis de la Romana. 
When Napoleon undertook his most unholy war against the indepen- 
dence of Spain, Romana eluded the vigilance of his perfidious ally and 
escaped with his army by sea, to share in the defence of his unhappy 
country. Our dismounted horseman followed the fortunes of his chief, 
until the day of his death, and then continued to fight against the 
French until the downfal of Napoleon. He did not tell me how he 
had gained his bread since the war ; but I took it for granted that he 
had lived either by swindling or robbery. He had entered the escort 
about four months before, in the place of one who had been killed in 
defending the diligence. Not long since they had skirmished with the 
robbers in the same fatal spot, and began to look out for a more deci- 
sive attack. We feared now, not for our pockets, but our ribs ; for 
the robbers always beat those who have no money. Having crossed a 
bridge, we began to approach the spot. It was a low hollow, opposite 
ma olive orchard, which furnished a convenient lurking place. One of 
our guards, a thin, long man, with a Moorish complexion and lank 
black hair, unslung bis carbine, and having looked at the priming rode 
slowly and composedly in advance. The other was evidently neither 
a muleteer, a soldier, a contrabandista, nor a robber, but a townsman, 
unused to this kind of work ; for he had a big belly and a frothy pot- 
valiant look, and sat his horse very badly. As an additional misfortune, 
H chanced that his carbine had been out of order, and believing that 
his comrade was to remain behind, he had borrowed his and lefl his 
4>wn with the blacksmith. No sooner, however, did the old soldier 
learn that he was to go in the diligence, than he at once regained pos- 
fies^ion of his piece. As we now approached the place of danger, the 
himi of the man began to fail him. But he laid all the blame upon the 



250 NEW CASTILE, JAEN, AND CORDOVA. 

carbine, and came, beside us to beseech his companion to give it aj) Uf 
him. My fellow hooted at the idea of being Jeft alone in the diligence 
with only a sabre; but being still pestered, he cocked his piece and 
pointed it out of the window, crying — ^Anda! * The poor man, think- 
ing the action was meant for him, as well as the word, spurred hi9 
beast into a gallop, and guiding him with an unsteady hand, posted 
away to the front. As he drew one of three pistols from his capacione 
belt, he looked more as if he were going to the gallows than to battle^ 



The sun had just disappeared behind the western horizon, when, on 
crossing a gently sloping hill, we came suddenly upon the Guadalquivir. 
The noble stream was gliding silently and with scarce a ripple between 
the verdant banks which confmed it, and which were covered with 
horses, and sheep, and oxen, whose jolly sides bore witness to the rich-' 
ness of the pasture. Some of them were wading along the shore lo 
crop the tender herbage, which grew upon the margin of the stream ;• 
whilst othefs, more adventurous, pushed further into the curfent to 
drink of the untasted waters, as they stole rapidly past, stopping awhile 
to sport in eddies round their flanks. The shepherd and the herdsman 
were either collecting their charge, or else were still stretched along 
the grass, gazing listlessly upon the current, and half chanting, half 
murmuring some of those wild melodies, which give such a distinct 
character to Spanish music. This then was the Betis of the Phoeni-^ 
cians, the Carthaginians, and the Romans, the Guadalquivir of tho 
Arab, and the Castilian. Can we wonder that they should have sung 
its praises boasiingly ; that they should have fought hard for ka poa^ 
session ? 

Andujar made a very pretty appearance as we entered it ; for its 
streets were clean and the houses freshly whitewashed ; each balcony 
was crowded with flowers and formed into a miniature parterre. Bui 
though the country was Andalusia, and the people Andalusians — ^ 
mous, all the world over, for their light and festive temperament — 
everything was now grave, and solemn, and noiseless. The people of 
the place were just returning from a ceremony in which they were 
shown the Passion of the Saviour, as it took place on Calvary. Afler*^ 
wards they had followed in solemn procession the bloody image of thieir 
Redeemer, preceded by the instruments of his torments — the cross, the 
crown of thorns, the spear, and the nails. The dress of the whole 
population partook, in a measure, of the general moQrning, and a few 
penitents, frightfully attired in black, and concealed in a mask which 
terminated in a tall steeple over their heads, might be seen moving 
slowly homeward. In this disguise, they had taken an ignoble and 
unworthy part in the ceremony of the Passion, as a self-imposed pen- 
ance for some real or imaginary crime. The next day at noon, ^w- 
ever, Judas was to be stoned and beat to death,, and hung, and drown- 
ed in the Guadalquivir ; and then the people of Andujar were to retorn 
to meat and wine, to the song, the dance, and the revel ; to boietursc 
and menearse, and in short, be once more Andalusians. 



NEW CASTILE, JAEN, AND CORDOVA. 251 

In the evening I went in search of the banker, named in my circular 
of credit. I found a respectable looking old gentleman seated among 
his iamily and just about to qualify his fast with a cup of chocolate, 
which he hastened to offer roe. When he found that I had just come 
in the diligence from Madrid, he inquired the particulars of the rob^ 
bery, which he had already heard of in a general way. I had heard 
the story many times; but had not told it once. In consideration, 
however, of the audience, I made the attempt, and being occasionally 
assisted by two or three pretty Andaluzas, when at a loss for a word, 
I was able to finish the sad narration. The old man every now and 
then exclaimed — ' Caramba ! ' — and his daughters stamped their little 
feet and tried to frown, and called the robbers demonios and tunanies. 
They seemed indignant, that a stranger should have met with such 
treatment in Espania ; but were somewhat consoled in learning that it 
had happened among the rough AJanchegos and not in Andalusia. 
The old man hastened to place his b^g pe and purse at my disposition. 
I thanked him for the first, and agreei»^ to take from the latter, as much 
money as would carry me to Seville. He took me over the way to his 
tienduy where he sold almost everything, and made his young man 
tell me out the required sum, for which he would not receive any per- 
centage. I afterwards found that the Spanish bankers are not in the 
habit of charging for small sums, advanced as an accommodation to 
travellers. The one in question, like most others I had business with, 
was at the same time an importing merchant and a shopkeeper. This 
circumstance sufficiently shows the fallen condition of commerce in 
Spain, where we see nothing of that subdivision of its pursuits which 
is found in more flourishing countries. These humble members of the 
eamercio are, however, the most liberal people in Spain, and have the 
clearest perception of the evils which distress their unhappy country. 
They are likewise distinguished for an unshaken probity, not universal 
in other parts of the world, where business is done upon a larger scale. 



The next morning we renewed our journey at an early hour, cross- 
ing the Guadalquivir by a rickety bridge, over which we preceded the 
diligence on foot. Our. morning's ride was indeed delightful, leading 
us, as it did, through a country of gently swelling slopes — of hills, and 
dales, and trees, and streams, and pasture land. The meadows were 
thickly dotted with cattle, and the banks of the Guadalquivir were 
everywhere alive with mares and young horses. The keeper would 
either be seen sitting on a knoll, directing the efforts of his dogs, or 
else, catching the nearest beast by the mane, he would bound upon her 
back and scamper away, Numidian like, to check the wanderings of 
his charge. The horses raised here are the finest in Spain. They 
)iave been famous ever since the time of the Arabs, who brought the 
original stock with them at the conquest. Spain has, however, always 
been famous for the excellence of its horses, whicli are supposed to 
^ave been derived from the African Arab. The Roman poets used to 



352 NEW CASTILE. JAEN, AND CORDOVA. 

say of them, that they were engendered by the wind. We are tetd 
that Julius Cssar, when he came the second time to Spain, with the 
office of Pretor, picked up, somewhere in the province, a young colt, 
' which, in addition to great spirit and beauty, had the remarkable pe- 
culiarity of having cloven feet. He carried this animal with him to 
Rome, and became so much attached to it, that no one was allowed to 
mount it but himself. When it died, he caused a statue of it to be 
erected in the temple of Venus — partly, doubtless, in honor of the 
beast — partly, perhaps, to show its peculiarity to future times.* But 
the most esteemed horses of the present day, such as those of Baylen^ 
Xerez, and Cordova, and the famous cast of Aianjuez, from which the 
Spanish kings mount their domestics and body guard, and which they 
send as presents to their royal cousins abroad, are evidently of the stock 
of Arabia. They have lost nothing of their native beauty, grace, and 
docility, by emigrating to the banks of the Tagus and the Guadalquivir. 
Indeed, the Spaniards have f^**Toverb that the waters of the Guadal- 
quivir fattens horses better thaXthe barley of other countries. I saw 
a greater number of truly beautiful horses, in my short stay in Spain, 
than I had before seen during my whole life. The Spaniards do not 
extend their hatred of the inKdels to these, their companions in the 
conquest. They treat and ride the Arabian after the fashion of the 
East, and though they wound the ox with a steeled goad, and beat the 
mule and the ass most unmercifully, they never strike the horse ; but 
frequently dismount to lighten his journey. They caress him, speak 
to him kindly and encouragingly, and sometimes cheer his labors with 
a song. 

Having recrossed the Guadalquivir by a noble bridge at Ventas de 
Alcolea, our road led us onward through gardens and orchards, until 
we at length entered the once imperial Cordova — ^Cordova, the Colonia 
Patricis of the Romans — ^the mother of great men — the birthplace of 
Seneca and of Lucan. 

* Mariuuu 



CHAPTER XIV. 

KINGDOM OF CORDOVA. 

Kingdom and City of Cordova. — Introduction of the Saracens, and Creation of Weil- 
em Caliphat — Its Day of Glory. — Decline and Downfal. — Present Condition and 
Appearance. — ^The Cathedra]. 

CoRDOYA, one of the four kingdoms of Andalusia,* is situated on 
either side of the Guadalquivir. That far famed and really beautiful 
stream, divides it into two widely different tracts, called Sierra and 
Campinia. The Sierra is a prolongation of the Sierra Morena, along 
whose southern base the Guadalquivir takes its course westward, to- 
wards Seville and the ocean. It is plentifully watered with springs 
and rivulets, producing abundance of food, pasture, medicinal herbs, 
fruits, flowers, and honey, and giving nourishment to great quantities 
of wild game, beside sheep, cattle, goats, and horses. Antillon welt 
remarks, that * in spring it furnishes a most delicious mansion.^ The 
Campinia or Plain is famous for the abundance of its wines and oil, 
which are extensively exported to the provinces of the Peninsula. 
Both sections are rich in minerals. Yet, notwithstanding these natu- 
ral bounties, the state of agriculture is so much depressed, on account 
of the number of entailed estates and the rich possessions of the 
church, combined with the consequent poverty of the cultivators, that 
the kingdom of Cordova does not even produce the wheat necessary 
for its own consumption.t 

The city of Cordova stands upon the right bank of the Guadalqui- 
vir, and at the foot of the last dying swell of the Sierra Morena. The 
country around is thrown into a pleasing variety of hill and dale, laid 
out in plantations of wheat, vines, and olives, with meadows of the 
most luxuriant green, and many orchards and gardens. The sky of 
Cordova is cloudless and transparent, the air balmy and refreshing, 
and the water of a sparkling purity. 



* At flie invasion of the northern Barbarians, in the fifth century, the Yandals set- 
tied in the ancient Betica and retained possession, until driven out by the Ooths. 
Hence, the name of Yandalusia. The Arabs called the whole Peninsula Andalu*,. 
from the first province with which they became acquainted ; just as they were and 
still are called Moors, because they came immediately from Morosco. 

t Martial has made the Campinia, the subject of one of his most beautiful odes^. 
He speaks in other places of Cordova as the renowned and the ancient 



254 CORDOVA. 

Cordova is a place of very great antiquity ; indeed, Peyron says — 
upon I do not know what authority — ^that, even before the Carthagini- 
ans and Romans, it possessed a school, where the sciences were pub- 
licly taught and in which were preserved the poetry and laws of the 
Turdetani. Be this as it may, Corduba was the first place in Spain 
that rose to the dignity of a Roman colony, and we are further told 
that when Julius CaBsar had pacified the whole of Spain, it was in this 
city that he held a general assembly of the province in order to con- 
firm the people in his interests, previous to his departure to meet Pom- 
pey in Macedonia. Nor can anything be more conclusive, as to the 
importance of Spain, under the Roman domination, than that Cssar 
should have left Pompey opposite Italy and master of the sea, to turn 
back to this remote province and put down the lieutenants of his ad- 
versary. 

Cordova makes a still more distinguished figure a few years after, 
on the return of Caesar from the conquest of Macedonia, Egypt, and 
Mauritania. The two sons of Pompey, animated by the recollection 
of their father's wrongs and excited by the reproaches of Cato, passed 
into Spain with the wreck of their faction, and determined to make a 
last effort against the power of the usurper. Pofnpey had rendered 
himself dear to the Spaniards, in his long government of the province, 
and for his sake and their own misfortunes many joined the standard 
of his sons. Cordova took the lead in their favor. Having remained 
a short time in Rome, after his return from Africa, Cesar despatched 
his troops in advance, and then embarked for Saguntum,., whence he 
passed in eight days to his camp near Corduba. It is a singular fact, 
that at the present day the distance is performed by the diligence in 
the same time. Cneius Pompey at first shut himself up in Cordova and 
the neigbouring cities ; but, growing at length weary of the long con- 
tinuance of the war, he determined to leave his brother Sextus in Cor- 
dova, and, taking the field in person, to stake all upon the fate of a 
single battle. The two armies came together near Malaga, and, after 
a long, doubtful, and most bloody contest, the victory declared for 
Caesar. Sextus Pompey, on learning that all was lost, immediate 
ly fled from the city and from Spain, and the citizens of Cordova who 
had most strongly espoused the unsuccessful cause, either shared his 
flight, or else killed themselves, to avoid falling into the hands of the 
conqueror. Escapula, who had been at the head of the sedition, pre- 
pared himself a magnificent funeral pile ; and, having divided all his 
riches among his relations, he supped sumptuously, drinking a mix- 
ture of wine and nard. This done he mounted the pile, which was 
immediately kindled by his freedman. Caesar soon after entered 
Cordova without resistance, and caused twenty thousand of the inhabi- 
tants to be put to the sword. Yet this man was renowned among the 
Romans for his singular clemency ! Let the lovers of antiquity say 
what they please ; we have gained much since the days of Csesar.* 



* Mariana. 



COftDOVA. S6S 

tt Was under the Arab domination, however, that Cordova attained 
its highest prosperity. Immediately after the battle of Xerez, where 
the Gothic power received its death blow, Taric divided his army and 
Bent it in different directions to receive the submission of the people, 
who were everywhere pleased at the prospect of a change, which 
might alleviate, but could not augment their sufferings. Mugueiz el 
Runie, a valiant Arab, who had commanded the cavalry in the field 
of Xerez, was despatched in the direction of Cordova. The inhabit 
tants were summoned to surrender, as soon as he appeared before 
their walls. But there happened to be in the city a few soldiers 
who had escaped from the battle of Xerez ; and counting upon their 
efforts, upon the strength of their walls, and the intervention of the 
river, they rejected the proposition with disdain. That very night 
Mugueiz caused a thousand horsemen to ctoss the river with each a 
foot soldier at his crupper, and these last having scaled the walls got 
possession of one of the gates, which they immediately opened to the 
cavalry, who in their turn made way for the whole army. The gov- 
ernor sought refuge in a church with four hundred followers, where 
they were at once besieged and put to the sword. The inhabitants 
asked and x'eceived the mercy of Mugueiz. The conquerors were 
everywhere received as at Cordova, and, in a few short months, 
Spain had exchanged the heavy yoke of the Goths for the lighter 
domination of the Arabs. 

During the first half century which succeeded the conquest, Spain 
Was given over to all the horrors of discord and anarchy. Twenty 
Emirs, to whom absolute powers were delegated by the Caliph, had 
governed in rapid succession, each devoting himself rather to the care 
of his own fortune, than to promote the public welfare. A civil war 
Was substituted for the holy one which had hitherto been waged 
against the enemies of Islamism, and those arms which might have 
served to overrun the rest of Europe, and which did cut their way, 
until arrested by Charles Martel upon the banks of the Loire, were 
stained with Mussulman blooJ. The warlike tribes of Arabia and 
the savage hordes of Africa who followed the same standards, brought 
with them a love of independence, a spirit of revolt, an impatient ar- 
dor of dominion, and a jealous horror of owning a superior. Thus the 
conquest was hardly over, before it was followed by the war of pos- 
• session. 

In this calamitous state of the affairs of Spain, several noble Mus- 
sulmans, chiefs of Syrian and Egyptian tribes, assembled secretly in 
Cordova, determined to seek with good faith the means of putting an 
end to the existing evils. To attain this desirable result, they formed 
a plan for establishing an independent empire in the West, and sever- 
ing the unnatural tie of dependence, which connected the political 
existence of Spain with the Caliphate of Damascus. To effect this 
they determined to call to Ihe throne the youthful Abderahman, tht 
last and only remaining descendant of the dynasty of Omeya. His 
family had been driven from the throne, which they had possessed 
during many generations, by the rival Abbassides — like them descend- 



366 CORDOVA. 

ed from the prophet — and had been cruelly put to death and hunted 
like wild beasts. Abderahman alone remained, and passing fronl 
Syria to Egypt, where he led the wandering life and shared tl^ toils 
of the Bedouin Arabs, he was at length dri?en by his hard fortune 
to take refuge among the tribe of Zeneta in Barbary* His mother 
had been of that tribe, and this circumstance, combined with his 
singular merit and unequalled misfortunes, secured him protection 
and hospitality. It was there that he received the embassy inviting 
him to take possession of Spain, and it was thence too that he set 
out at the head of seven hundred and fifty fearless cavaliers furnished 
him by his friends, to reap an inheritance, not inferior to the lost 
empire of his family. 

Abderahman landed at Almuniecar in the beginning of 7^. He 
was at once received by many Andalusian schieks, who swore allegi- 
ance to him, taking him by the hand, as was the custom. An im- 
mense concourse of people, brought together by the occasiou, set 
up the cry of ' May God protect the king of Spain — ^Abderahman 
ben Moarie !' Abderahman was in the flower of manhood, full of 
grace and majesty, and with a figure not less prepossessing than 
noble. But, what was of more importance to him, he had been 
tried and proven in the school of adversity. He knew that the 
roving affections of the Arabs could only be won by brilliant actions^ 
and that it was necessary to connect his name with glorious asso- 
ciations, and first to conquer his kingdom by dint of his own valor, 
that he might afterwards have the right of governing it with wis^ 
dom and moderation. Abderahman carried the war wherever there 
was a show of resistance, and placing himself at the head of his 
cavalry, was always found in the hottest of the fight. In this way 
the conquest was soon complete, and Abderahman turned his at-* 
tention to the arts of peace. 



The empire, thus happily established by Abderahman, resisted, and 
effectually defeated, all attacks from the East, from Africa, and from 
within, and continued to fiourish during more than two centuries, un- 
der a long and glorious line of Abderahmans, of Hixems, of Alba- 
kems, and Muhamads, princes who sought to merit sovereignty, in 
rising by superior intelligence and brilliant qualifications, as far above 
the common level, as they were already elevated over other men, by 
the dignity of their station. Though the empire continued to main- 
tain its lustre until the beginning of the eleventh century, it seems to 
have reached the summit of its power and glory, in the reign of the 
third Abderahman, who raised to even higher eminence a name, 
which had been so nobly borne by two predecessors. Possessing the 
chief, and, at the same time, the most fertile portion of the Peninsula, 
and master of Africa, under the title of Protector, he was one of the 
most powerful sovereigns of that or any other day ; the extent of his 
possessions was no more than a fair measure of his wealth aj>d re- 



GOHDOVA. 9fft 

mitce0» ftioee iiid«8try, oommerce, and tbe arte were ey^rywhere in 
Mn advanced state of developement. If it be considered that frequently 
during bis reign, be bad armies in Gallicia, Calalonia, and Africa, 
ted bad at the same time, frequent occasion to ttum his anns against 
tbe rebellious governors of his frontier cities ; and that, although be 
•ometinies experienced reverses, be never failed to effieu^e them by 
brilliant victories ; that, at the same time that he was occupied in 
tbe construction of his wonderful palace of Azbara, he built many 
moaques, aqueducts, and arsenals, equipped squadrons and armadas, 
and that, in addition to all these cares, he found time to watch over 
tbe public instruction and cherish the cultivation of science ; if we 
consider all this, we must admit that Abderabman was, indeed, a 
great king. 

The principal revenue of Abderahman waa derived from the dime, 
or tenth, which was received in kind of all the fruits of the earth, and 
which must have been immense, in a country where agriculture waa 
ao well understood and so highly honored* This plentiful supply^ 
served to defray the expenses of so large a kingdom, and to maintain 
tbe court of Cordova in regal splendor. An idea of the magnificence 
of this court may be gathered from the &ct, that the body guard of 
Abderahman alone, amounted to twelve thousand men* Two thirda 
of these were Andalusian and Zenetian horsemen, splendidly armed 
and mounted ; tbe rest were Sclavonian foot soldiers, brought at «. 
great expense from Constantinople, with whose emperors the kings of 
Cordova maintained the most intimate relations. These Sclavonians 
were charged with the immediate guard of the king's person. He had 
likewise large companies of huntsmen and falconers, who were ever 
ready in attendance, in the palace^ and at the camp, to supply the far 
vorite amusements of the time. 

The reign of Abderahman III* was not more glorioua for the snc- 
sessfril termination of the wars, nndertiJc^en during its continuance, 
than for the enlightened protection extended by the king to learned 
men, and the rewards which be heaped upon thoee of bis own coun> 
try, as well as upon those who were drawn to his court from the citiea 
of the East Indeed, the king would have risen to distinction from 
bis genius and poetieal taste alone, even if his talents bad not gained, 
as they did, by the lustve of royalty. He caused new schools to be 
everywhere founded for the instruction of youth, and established a 
university, where the acienees were publicly taught with a akill at 
that time unknown in any other part of Europe. Public justice waa 
placed upon a simple footing and made accessible to all, and no other 
laws were used in tbe kingdom except the Koran, with which every 
eiM was fomiliar. The Cadis decided according to tbe dictates of 
this codeL The criminal jurisprudence of tbe Arabs was even more- 
aimple and summary. The law of talion was aj^icable to every 
crime. This punishment might, however, be avoided by paying a 
eertain sum of money, provided always, that the aggrieved consented. 
The protection of these laws, together with the enjoyment of liberty, 
33 



d60 CORDOVA. 

eompMMate in this wnj for the iong primtion to whieh he wds subject^ 
ed by the protraetion of his own reign. He used often to saj to him 
good humoredly — ' It is at the expense of thy reign, my son, that mine 
is prolonged.' Bat when it at length ceased and the good king bade 
adieu alike to the cares and enjoyments of life, it was too soon for Spain 
and for Albakem. 

So greatly had the population of Spain increased, in consequence of 
the improved systems of political and rural economy introduced by the 
Arabs, that there can be no doubt that the country, which lies south of 
the Sierra Morena, contained more inhabitants than are now found in 
the whole Peninsula. The city of Cordova naturally rose to the rank 
ind standing worthy of the capital of so vast an empire. It abounded 
in useful monuments ; among which, were six hundred mosques, fifty 
hospitals^ and eighty public schools. All the streets were paved, and 
pure water was conducted from the mountains in pipes of lead, to nour- 
ish the public fountains which stood at every corner. Lofty embank- 
ments resisted the overflowing of the Guadalquivir, and furnished, at 
the same time, a planted promenade for the public recreation. There 
were likewise many washing places, and troughs for cattle and the 
cavalry ; whilst no less than nine hundred public baths were kept con- 
stantly in order, to maintain health and cleanliness among the people, 
and to facilitate the observance of the ablutions prescribed by the Koran. 
The million of inhabitants ascribed by the Arabian historians to Cor- 
dova is, doubtless, an exaggeration. Yet the city must have been im- 
mense, to judge fVom the size of other places of far inferior importance 
mder the Arab domination. Seville had four hundred thousand in- 
habitants, and Granada counted the same number when taken by Fer- 
dinand and Isabella. 

The picture we have given of the kingdom of Cordova, drawn after 
the fancihil descriptions of the Arabian historians, may, perhaps, con- 
vey an exaggerated idea of its weakh and power. * Indeed, it may 
rather be considered to have attained a high degree of civilisation, in 
reference to the other nations of that day, than when compared with our 
own. Tet, if an' extensive developement of local advantages and of 
the bounties of nature, combined with a fburishing, dense, and happy 
population, convey the idea of civilisation ; then, does this qualification 
belong in an eminent degree to the Arabian kingdom of Cordova. 



The empire lost nothing in the happy reign of Alhakem, and in the 
decline of the dynasty under the weak Hixem, it gained a new and un- 
known lustre from the brilliant qualities of Mahamad, sumamed Al- 
manvor, or the Conqueror, who with his son Abdelmelic, grew up 
beside the throne— like the iQayor of the palace in France — ^to wield 

* The foreji^ng obwrvatioM are chiefly taken— often literally — ^from the hiatorr 
of the Arab domijation» culled and translated by Conde from the valuable materiali 
in the Eacorial. This work haa bean handaomely rendered into French by M. De 
La Marlee. It k foil efintereit, aadcootaiM abiiiidttit hitenial evMoncaof tnilh. 



CORDOVA. 961 

tiM p¥ifet of h>yahy wHhoot ftasttiiiing the name. Bat on the liamtse of 
Iblher and son, in the be^nniog of nSb eleventh centory, the kingdom, 
whieh had long involved the elements of diseolution, crumbled at once 
Into pieees i and the ambitioue waii$, or governors of fortresses and 
dietriets, at onee asserted that independence, at which they had so 
' oAen aimed. Thas Spain was soon broken into as many petty king- 
doms, as lAiere were principal towns ; and Cordova even fell so low as 
to become a seoofidary city of the kingdom of Seville. 

The Christians, who had hitherto b«en tolerated in the mountains of 
the north, did not fail to profit by this division of their enemies. Some- 
times they attacked them openly ; sometimes they eqxMised the cmse 
of one king ibr the sake of plundering another. In this way, by slow 
yet certain steps, the Christians advanced into the plains, and gradaaMy 
won back a good portion of the lost land of their ancestors. At length 
in the thirteenth century, the Castilians, urged on by the brilliant des^ 
tiuies of St Ferdinand, began to cross the Sierra Moi^nfl, and ftit 
their habitations upon the banks of the Guadalquivir. In 1986, 4liey 
were again masters of Cordova. The governor of Ubeda was ioft>rme4 
that Cordova was scantily garrisoned. Not less brave t4ian ritilM, he 
formed at once the project of possessing himself of the city. The 
governor of Andnjar approved the plan, and agreed to share the dan* 
gers and glory of the enterprise. Having set forward seioretiy, they 
arrived in the dead of night at the eastern side of the city. The sealing 
ladders were at once placed against the ramparts, and having answerei 
the challenge in Arabic, they mounted the summit and laid the 8enCii> 
nels dead at their feet. Then getting possession of a neighbouring 
tower, they were first in a situation to maintain a siege, an^ then to 
become besiegers. Ferdinand had received timely information of the 
projected enterprise, and soon arrived befbte the walls with a numerous 
army. The inhabitants fought bravely so long as there was any pros- 
pect of success. Each house became a fortress, each street and square 
a field of battle. But without succor from without resistance was an<- 
availing. As there was no hope of any such relief, they determined lA 
procure the most favorable terms by an immediate capitulation. The 
Christians were aware of the famished condition of the inhabitants, and 
would, therefore, grant them no other boon than life, and the liberty of 
ffoing away, whitl^rwever they would. These conditions were hard, 
but their necessities were still harder. At the same moment, thei<efore| 
that the sainted king rode proudly into the city, surrounded by captains 
and cavaliers, the whole population moved away to make room far the 
victor. Hundreds of thousands of miserable beings turned their backs 
upon their homes — ^the homes of ten generations of their ancestors. 
The high-born, the far-descended, the rich, and the luxurious, sunk lo 
a level with the beggars which had fed for years in their courtyards^ 
the men with downcast heads and heavy steps, or hurried on by ^de> 
spair ; the women with neglected dress and piercing shrieks, and hands 
clasped in sorrow unutterable. A mother sustains the tottering foot- 
steps of her child, and weeps an answer to its prattle ; another claspi 
her first born infant to her breast and bathes it with her tears ; while a 



GQBDOYA. 

000 siMtainfl the iDfirmities of his sire. The sick are left to their 6le ; 
the dyiug to meet their agony, unaupported by thooe tender cares, that 
soothe the anguish of the parting hour; the dead to bury the dead. 

Unmindful of these scenes, which a single word from him might 
have spared, the first care of Ferdinand was to erect a cross upon that 
wonderful mosque, the most revered in all Spain. The interior of the 
building was then cleared of the symbols of the Mahometan superstition, 
and purified. Altars were erected ; the Te Deum was sung bj the 
assembled army, and mass celebrated. Nor, did the king fiirget that 
more than two centuries before, when the great Almanzor got posses* 
saoo of Santiago de Compostella,in Gallicia, that he took the bells from 
that venerated shrine, in which the remains of the blessed apostle St 
James are said to repose, ^ and' caused them to be brought upon the 
backs of Christians to Cordova, where they were suspended as trophies 
to the roof of the mosque. He now caused .them to be taken down 
from their station and carried back by Moors to Santiago.* 

When the inhabitants were gone,- Cordova remain^ desolate; the 
grass started up in its streets and in its courtyards, and the cooling mn- 
sic of its fountains now murmured unheard. The cattle had been 
driven homeward by the returning conquerors, and the (ace of the 
oountry no longer teemed with men and animaJs ; the plough stood 
still and rusted in its furrow. It is one thing to sweep ofi*, and another 
to restore a numerous and flourishing population. At length, by grants 
of houses and lands, with exemption from taxes, a few thriftless people 
were induced to emigrate from other parts of Spain and aettle in the 
newly conquered region. The descendants of these men form the 
scanty population of the country, as it exists in the present day. 



Cordova must, from its situation alone, be ever a delightful place. 
But, as a city, it has small claims to beauty ; being everywhere snr* 
rounded by walls, in which the works of Romans, Vandals, Goths, and 
Arabs are connected by a modern patchwork. The extent of Cordo- 
va is the same now as in the day of its greatest prosperity, although it 
contains but little more than thirty thousand inhabitants. The walls 
remaining the same, the houses have shrunk from each other and put 
themselves more at their ease ; so that most of them have a vacant lot 
beside them, which is laid out in a garden. Here one may find the 
fruits and flowers of the tropics flourishing unprotected in the open 
air, and living in fellowship and harmony with all the productions of 
the temperate climes. The peach, the pear, and the apple, the orange, 
lemon, fig, and even banana tree, all attain an equal perfection. Bat 
the most singular feature in the gardens of Cordova is the lolly palm^ 
which is seen towering far above trees, walls, and housetops. The 
palm is, indeed, among the first objects which the traveller discovers 
as he approaches Cordova, and for a moment he fitncies that he is about 
to enter some African or Asiatic city. 

* Marians. 



coRix>vA. an 

This plant is not more ringuiar in its appearanee than in its growth. 
When the kernel of the date is planted, the leares continue to unfold 
in succession for four or five years, until at length the stem emerges 
abote the ground, of the full diameter which it ever acquires; for^ 
thoogh it maj be measured frequently as it rises proudly and perpen« 
dicuiarly into the air, it is never found to vary in size. The leaves 
put forth in the spring and proceed entirely from the summit. They 
. are long and flat as a blade of com, falling over naturally with their 
own weight, like the hair of the head. As soon as the leaves of the 
past year are thus concealed from the view, they dry up and blow away^ 
learing circular furrows, which mark the age of the tree. This has 
been known to reach eight hundred years.* The dates grow below 
in bunches, as is the case with the cocoa not, which the palm greatly 
resembles. They have ever formed an essential article of food among 
Uie abstemious nations of the East. But the difficulty of collecting the 
fruit, from the smoothness of the trvnk and the great elevation, would 
to a stranger seem insurmountable. Nature, however, has forgotten 
nothing and has not been bountiful by halves. Thus Clarke tells us, 
that he was at first surprised with the facility with which the Arabs ran 
op and down the date trees ; but when he himself made the attempt, 
he found a series of furrows, left by the fallen leaves, by means of 
which the ascent was as easy as upon Che steps of a ladder. The el- 
eration of the palm is scarce inferior to that of the loftiest pine ; and 
this, combined with the almost artificial uniformity of the trunk and 
the bulky duster of branches that surmount it, produce a singukir ef« 
feet in a landscape. If the comparison were not eccentric, it might 
be likened to the head of a giant, planted upon his own lance. Among 
the Greeks and Romans, the branches of the palm were consecrated 
as an attribute of victory ; in Spain they are of little estimation, ex« 
oept, indeed, once a year, to carry in procession on Palm Sunday. It 
is said that all the palm trees in Spain — and they are very numerous in 
Andalusia, Murcia, and Valencia — proceeded from the one planted by 
the first Abderahman in his favorite garden upon the bank of the Gua^ 
dalquivir.t He had erected in the same place a lofty tower, firom 
whose summit the eye took in a wide view of the surrounding country. 
The amiable prince loved frequently to climb in the evening to the top 
of his tower, and to contemplate from the eminence, the outspread 
beauties of the very fiurest spot in that vast domain won by his own 
valor. When his eye, wearied with roving over the remoter objects of 
the landscape, returned to dwell upon the plainer beauties that lay be* 
low, and especially upon his favorite palm tree, touched with the ten« 
der recollections of his lost country, he would exclaim, in words 
which fancy could never have suggested ; — ' Beautiful palm tree I thou 
art, Kke me, a stranger in this land ; but thy roots find a friendly and a 
ftrtile soil; thy head rises into a genial atmosphere; and the balmy 
west breathes kindly among thy branches. Thou hast now nothing to 
fbar from evil fortune ; whilst I am ever exposed to its treachery ! 

* Bses' Eneyclopsdk. t Conde. 



aw CORDOVA. 

WliMi eruel fate and the iury of AblNw drore me from my dear coQti' 
Uy, my tears oileD watered tbe palm trees, which grew upon the banlui 
of the Euphrates. Neither the trees, nor the river have presented the 
memory of my sorrows. And thou, too, beautiful palmj hast also for* 
gotten thy country ! ' The palm tree is almost the only object that 
now remains to call to mind tbe glorious days of Cordova and the do* 
minion of her Abderahmans. The eye turns from the surrounding 
objects to dwell upon it with pleasure ; and fancy, calling up the ever 
fair picture of the things that have been, seeks to forget the present 
amid the associations of the past. 

But the palm tree should not make us forget the orange, which after 
all furnishes the fairest ornament of the gardens of Cordova. This 
tree is nowhere seen in greater perfection than here, where it no bng- 
er needs man's sickly assistance ; but where, leil to its own energies^ 
it grows up thick, and sturdy, and wide-spreading* It does not reach 
tbe height of the cherry; but has a larger trunk, an equally regular 
and symmetric growth, and a more impervious foliage. The Cordobeses 
are used to leave the oranges unpicked from season to season. Thus, 
in the middle of April, I saw the tree covered with fruit, at the same 
time that the blossoms were ripe and falling, Nothing in nature Qould 
be more enchanting, than to gaze upon these noble trees^ crowned at 
odce with plenty and with promise, the rich verduri^ of their foliage 
Mended with golden frnit and silver flowers. Their branches, too, 
aometimes projected over the garden walls, so that many of the streets 
were white with the falling blossoms. These being trod by the pass^ 
ersby, combined with the flavor of the fruit and the spicy aroma of the 
foliage, to load tbe air with the most delicious exhalations. 

The streets of Cordova are almost all short, narrow, and very crook- 
ed^ aa is the case in all the Spanish cities where the Arabs were long 
established ; for wheeled carriages were not in use among them — and^ 
coming aa they did from a warm climate, they made their streets nar- 
row, that the projecting roofs of the houses might efiectoally exclude 
the rays of tbe sun. They are, however, kept quite clean, and the 
houses are neatly whitewashed, with each its latticed windpw beside 
the portal, and overhead a projecting balcony, filled with dafibdilS| 
carnations, and roses, and now and then a young lemon tree, amid 
the foliage of which you may often catch sight of the full black eye and 
srniny cheek of some brown beauty, as rich as the ripe fruh that hangs 
beside it 



The only remarkable object to be seen in Cordova, the only monu- 
ment which calls to mind the age of her Abderahmans--'is the moeque, 
which Saint Ferdinand converted into the cathedral of a bishopric. It 
is, doubtless, the most singular structure in the world. The mosque 
of Cordova was erected after the establishment of the western caliphate 
by its founder, the first Abderahman. He resolved to give his capital 
the finest mosque in the world — superior in richness to those of Bagdad 



CORDOVA. 266 

bud Damascus, and an object of veneration among the believers, like 
the Caaba of Mecca, reared by the hands of Abraham and of Ismael, 
and the Alaska, or temple of Resurrection, in Jerusalem. He is said 
himself to have traced the plan, and even to have labored an hour each 
-day with his own hands, in order to give an example of diligence to 
the workmen, and of humiliation and piety to his people. The Arabi- 
an historians give a brilliant description of this wonderful temple. 
They say that it had thirtynine naves one way, by nineteen the other, 
end that these naves were sustained upon one thousand and ninetythree 
columns of marble. On one side were nineteen gates, corresponding 
to the naves. The central one was covered with plates of gold ; the 
others with bronze, beautifully decorated. The minarets terminated 
in gilt balls, surmounted by golden pomegranates. This vast edifice 
was lit by four thousand seven hundred lamps, of which the oil was 
perfumed with amber and aloes. Such is said to have been this mosqne 
in the time of the Arabs ; it is much easier to vouch for and determine 
its present appearante. 

The exterior of the Cathedral offers a quadrangle of six hundred and 
twenty feet, by four hundred and forty. The widls are about fifty feet 
high, of hewn stone, and very solid. They are perfectly plain, without 
columns or other ornament, and terminate at the top in alternate 
squares and vacancies, like the loop holes of a turret. The wonder of 
this building, however, lies within. Here, you find yourself in a per* 
feet forest of columns laid out in twentynine parallel rows. They are 
still more than four hundred in number, although many have been re- 
moved to make room for the choir and for chapels. These columns 
are of different forms and thickness, as well as of different materials- 
some being of granite, others of serpentine, porphyry, jasper, and mar- 
bles of every kind and color. They are supposed to have been collect* 
ed from different parts of the Peninsula, where the Greeks, PhcBnicians, 
Carthaginians, and Romans, had cut them from the quarries to adorn 
the temples of their gods. When thus brought together with infinite 
labor, ihey were sawn of equal lengths and then placed erect upon the 
pavement, without any bases. Singular capitals, in rude imitation of 
the Grecian orders, but almost each one of a different ornament, were 
then thrown from column to column, until the whole fiibrio was con- 
nected. On these arches rested, originally, a light roof of wood,* bat 
a century or two ago, the building underwent many changes. The 
wooden roof was removed, and a second series of arches was thrown 
over the lighter ones of the original construction. But the most re- 
markable idteration that then took place, was the erection of an im- 
mense Gbthic choir, which rises like a distinct church, in the centre of 
the quadrangle. It may be, that at the same time, ten of the naves 
were likewise removed to make room in front of the cathedral, which 
would at once account for the difference in the number of the naves 
md colnmns, as described by the Arabs, and as they are found at the 
present day. Where the original walls remain untonched, they are 
oovered with a profusion of minute ornament, worked upon a surfiuse 
84 



90S COftDOVA. 

of plaster^ «nd whicb, in the form of wreaths and garlandsi repreaent 
aentenceB fron the Koran. How beautiful an idea this^ to write moral 
maiims in lilies and in roses, that tbej might steal upon the mind with 
so many pleasing associations of beauty and of perfitmes 1 How differ- 
ent these, from the gloomy decorations of more modern times! a vir« 
l^in with a halo of swords, all pointing at the heart; a crucifixion, with 
Its nails, its thoraS| and its blood ; and, perhi^, a cherub holding a 
cup to catch the crimson stream, as it gushes from the side of the 
Saviour; the blood itself by a horrible artifice being made to sustain 
the cherub and his cup ; Saint Sebastian transfixed by many an arrow ; 
Saint Dennis, with his head in both hands, or Saint Bartholomew with 
his skin hanging over his shoulder 1 

On one side of the Cathedral is still found the spacious garden plant* 
ed by the third Abderahman, and which now serves as a vestibule to 
the temple. Over the portal which gives admittance to this place, is 
still seen an Arabi^ inscription from the Koran, beginning with — ' Of 
true bel levers ! -come not to' prayers when ye are drunk,' — and which 
the curious and laughter-loving may read at large in the chapter enti« 
tied Women* The area is surrounded by high wails, within which are 
some very large oraoge trees, said to be cotemporary with the MoorAi 
When I saw £em, they were loaded with fruit and flowers, and tefeming 
with the music of many birds. To complete the charms of the spot, 
there are several fountains of gushing water, ever falling into marble 
basins, which are filled with glistening shoals of gold uid silver fish. 
The main entrance to the rooaque lay through this grove, and it w^» 
probably intended by this display of natural attractions, to banish the 
recollection of the world without, and soothe the passions of the believ-' 
er, on his way to prostrate himself in the presence of his Ood. 

One of many visits that I made to the Cathedral was on Sunday, at 
the celebration of grand mass. It was Easter-Sunday-«-the &ithful 
were crowding to the sanctuary ; the dignitaries of the cathedral were 
all present; the choir was full, and the bishop himself stood ready to 
officiate, with crosier, and mitre, and all the pomp of qMsaopacy. The 
Passion week was past^-the sufferings, the agony, the deeth of Christ, 
had been commemorated, and now they had come together to celebrate 
his resurrection from the dead, mortification, ami sorrow, aud re« 
straint were forflotten ; happiness was in every heart, joy npon every 
countenance. The noble organ was touched by a master band, whilst 
the stringed instrun^ents, the bassoons and the various and wM paMV 
tised voices, harmonized in the softest symphonies, or swelled intosueh 
amoving chorus, that the lofly choir and the countless naves fairly fmg 
with peals of exultation. I knelt upon the pavement without, and 
whilst the sounds came thrillingiy upon my ear, my eyes sought te 
penetrate the obscurity of the columns as they opened in interminable 
vistu before me. As I glanced ronnd upon the work of Abderataan 
and upon the temple of Mahomet, over which thousands of lamps omm 
abed a noonday effulgence, and upon the pavement which had been 



CORDOVA. 987 

often strewed by the prostrate bodies d tens ot thousands of Moslemsi 
I felt more than half bewildered by the singolaritj of the associations.* 



* TUf iMMique wm the thJM in TMientkm amoDg the Mmwnlmaiw, b«iiig only 
inferior to those of Mecca and Jerusalem. It was customary, among the true Miev- 
ers, to make pilgrimages between Cordova tnd Mecca. Hence the Spanish proyerb— 
' irse de Ceea d Meea'—^ Going from Ceca to Mecca,' applied to a person who 
wanders a long way on a frnitleis errand. Ceca befaig^-if my memory serves me— 
dM Aiab name fer the mosiiae of Cordova. 



CHAPTER XV. 

KINGDOMS OF .CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. 

Ezcuraion to the Desert of Cordova.— The Hermano Mayor. — ^The Hermitage. — 
The Garden.— Return.— Start for Seville with Tio Jorge.— Croes the Guadalquivir, 
-^alera Party. — Azhara. — £cija and her Little Ones. — Decayed Condition of An- 
dalusia. 

Thb afternoon before leaving Cordova, I went to visit a very fa- 
mous hermitage, situated about five miles from the city^ in the last 
^nge of the Sierra Morena. An old porter, who had shown me 
all the wonders of Cordova, was to have been my guide to the des- 
ert, but as he did not come at the appointed hour, I grew impa- 
tient and started alone, determined to inquire the way. As I pass- 
ed through the beautiful public walk which lies without the gate, 
in the direction of the Sierra, a cut-throat looking group of three 
or four occupied the stone benches beneath the trees, and whilst 
one of them smoked his figaritto, the others were stretched flat 
upon their laces, enjoying a siesta, under the influence of the shade 
and of a gentle breeze which blew refreshingly from the mountains. 
Leaving t^e city walls, I struck at once into the road, which had 
been pointed out to me the day before, as leading to the Hermitage. 
I had not gone far, however, between waving fields of wheat and bar^ 
ley, before I discovered, that I was closely followed by an ill-looking 
fellow ; the same I had seen smoking upon the bench. This alarmed 
me ; for the porter had told me several stories of people, who had been 
robbed and beaten in this short pilgrimage ; indeed, he had shown an 
unwillingness to ^ on this very account. It at once occurred to me, 
that if the fellow mtended any treachery, it would be easy for him to 
spring upon me unseen firom behind ; so, crossing to the opposite side 
of the road, I slackened my pace suddenly and allowed him to go 
past. But he did not seem to like this new station in advance any 
better than I liked mine ; for he presently seated himself by the road 
side, and when I had once more got before him, he again resumed 
his journey. This looked very suspicious, I laid my hand at once 
upon a dirk, which I had of late occasionally carried in my erratic 
rambles, by day and night, and, turning towards the fellow who thus 
pertinaciously followed my footsteps, I awaited his approach. He 
was quite a young man, but sturdy and athletic, with a soiled or ne- 
glected dress, and as dogged and ill-favored a face, as I had seen for 
many a day. He passed the second time without noticing me ; and, 
on coming to a fork a little fiurther on, where, as is freauent in such situ- 



CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. 909 

ations, a rough stone cross bore testimony to some act of violence, he 
took a different road from the one leading to the Hermitage. It 
might be, that seeing me on my gaard, he intended to join his com- 
rades and waylay me in the cork wood farther on, or else upon my 
return to Cordova. I did not like the appearance of things, and stiU 
less, to turn back from my umdertaking ; so, I pushed on briskly, be- 
ginning to ascend the mountain. 

The level lands, covered with grain and pasture, and fruit orchards, 
now gave place to a rugged and graceless steep, plentifully sown with 
rocks and brambles, interspersed with a scattering growth of cork 
trees and c^arrohos, which soon concealed the Hermitage from my 
view. As I advanced, the beaten road gradually branched into sev- 
eral paths that wound among the trees. In such a case it was very 
easy to miss one's way, and as bad luck had of late presided over my 
destinies, it was more than easy for me to miss mine. Thus perplex- 
ed, I chose the path which led most directly upward, until it brought 
■le to a level spot, where there was a small farm house, surrounded 
by an orchard. There was nobody at home but a large mastiff, who 
gave me a very bad reception, springing at me fiercely as I entered 
the gate-way, and making the links of his chain crack and strike 
fire, beside a sunburnt urchin, who was scarcely able to hear and 
answer my questions for the bowlings of his noisy coadjutor. Find- 
ing, at length, what I was in search of, he told me that the road to 
the Desert lay a long way to the left, and that I should scarce get 
there with the sun. I knew that the little fellow must be mistaken, 
for there was yet two hours of day ; and though sweating with the 
heat, the toil and the vexation, I determined to persevere. The lad 
could not leave his home to accompany me the whole way, but he 
showed me the road, and just before he left me, he pointed to a sud- 
den angle of the path where an overhanging rock formed a cavern 
beneath, and told me how one Don Jose, a rich may&raxgo of Cordo- 
va, whom he seemed astonished that I should never have heard of, 
had been plundered in that very spot, of his horse, his purse, and his 
clothes, to his very shirt, and sent back to Cordova as smooth and 
naked as when his mother bore him. There was smaft encourage^t 
ment in this parting information of my little friend ; but I kept on, 
and after many a winding turn up the side of the mountain, came, at 
length to the gate of the Hermitage. 



I found the Hermitage situated upon one of the wildest ledges of 
the mountain. It is bounded on the southern and eastern sides by a 
precipice of a fearfiil depth, and on every other hand the world is as 
effectually shut out by an irregular wall connecting and binding to- 
gether the scattering rocks, which had been rudely thrown there by 
the hand of nature. Having rung at the gate I was presently recon- 
noitred through a small grated window, by one of the hermits with a 
pale face and a long beard. He asked what I would have, in a tone 



97« CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. 

of meeknew. I told him that I had come to gee the Desert efCordkK 
va. He disappeared to afik the permisuon of the chief brother; aaA 
soon after returned to give me admittance. My first' seQsation oa eof 
tering, was one of most pleasing disappointment I had eiq>ected 
to find everything within dreary and graceless, as became the abode of 
austere misanthropy ; but instead of that, there were fifteen or twenty 
little whitewashed cottages, nestling among the rocks, and aJbnoM 
overrun and hidden amid vines, fruit trees, and flowera. Nature 
here was as savage as without ; the rocks and precipices were ci 
equal boldness ; ^t man had been busy, and the rain and the eon 
bad lent their assistance. Indeed, vegetation could nowhere be 
more luxuriant, and the plants and flowers had a richness of color and 
of perfiime, that could scarce be surpassed. 

On entering the cottage of the Hermano Mayor, he came to the 
door to receive me, signed the cross over me, and pressed my hand 
in token of a welcome reception. Like the other hermits, the Her- 
mano Mayor wore a large garment of coarse brown cloth, girded rouai 
the middle with a rope and having a hood for the head ; Uie only oov* 
Ming of bis feet consisted of a coarse shoe of half tanned leather. Yet 
was there something in his appearance, which would have enabled 
one to single him out at once from the whole fraternity. He had a 
lofty and towering form, and features of the very noblest mould. I 
oannot tell the curious reader how long his beard was ; for after de- 
scending a reasonable distance along the chest, it returned to expend 
itself in the bosom of his habit. This man was such an one as, in 
any dress or situation, a person would have turned to look at a second 
time ; but as he now stood before me, in addition to the effect of hie 
apostolic garment, his complexion and his eye had a clearness that no 
one can conceive, who is not familiar with the aspect of those who 
have practised a long and rigid abstinence horn animal food and 
every exciting aliment. It gives a lustre, a spiritual intelligence to 
the countenance that has something saintlike and divine ; and the 
adventurous artist, who would essay to trace the lineamenta of hie 
Saviour, should seek a model in some convent of Tri^[>pists or Caita- 
sians, or in the etherial region of the Desert of Cordova. ^ 

When we were seated in the cell of the superior, he began at^enee 
to ask questions about America ; for I had sent in word that a citizen 
of the United States asked admission, having ever found this charao* 
ter to be a ready passport. He had been on mercantile business to 
Mexico many years before, and had come away at the commencement 
of the revolution. He felt anxious to hear something of its present 
condition, of which he was very ignorant ; and, when I had satapAed 
his curiosity and rose to depart, he gave me a little cross of a wood 
that had grown within the consecrated enclosure, and had been rude> 
ly wrought by the hands of the hermits. He told me that, if troublee 
and sorrows should ever assail me — ^if I should grow weary of world* 
ly vanities — ^if the burthen of existence should ever wax heavier than 
I could bear, I might leave all behind and come to their aolitiidA, 
where I should be at least sure of a peaceful and a welconie home. 



CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. 371 

Shelly ordering a brother to show me everythioig, he uttered a ben^ 
diction and bade me ' Go with God I ' 



A good natured firiar of the convent of San Francisco in Cordova^ 
who had come out to take the mountain air with two young lads, his 
reiations, took his leave at the same time of the Hermano Mayor, and 
we all went the rounds together. The little chapel we found under 
the same roof with the principal cell. It has been very much enrich- 
ed by the pions gifts of such of the fiiithful and devout, as have wish- 
ed to secxae an interest in the prayers of these holy recluses ; for sil** 
ver, gold, and precious stones, are everywhere in profusion. As the 
Desert is under the invocation of the Virgin, the altar of the chapel is 
decorated with her image. It is a little painting, either an original 
of Raphael, or else a copy of one of his best heads ; for it has all 
that heavenly sweetness which gives such a distinct character to his 
pietares of the Holy Family. I lingered long in this fairy spot. 
What a contrast between the dazzling splendors of that altar, and the 
humble garb and hpmble mien of the penitents who lay prostrate be- 
fore it? 

From the ehapel we went to see the different cottages of the breth^ 
r^i. They are very small, containing, each, a smdl sleeping room 
with a broad platform, a straw pillar, and two blankets for the whole 
bed furniture. A second apartment serves as a workshop and a kitch^ 
en. Each brother prepares his own food, which consists of milk, 
heans, cabbages, and other vegetable dishes, chiefly cultivated by 
themselves in the hermitage garden. There is a larger building for 
the instruction of novices, where they pass a year in learning the du- 
ties of their new life, under the tutelage of an elder brother. Among 
many other curious things to be seen here, was an instrument of tor- 
ture for mortifying the flesh, when under the temptation of the devil. 
It coDsists of a square piece of net work, made of short bits of iron 
wire, the points of which are left sharp and projecting ; at two ends 
are handles to pass a cord through. This ingenious contrivance is 
i«rdy used) but by the novices, who often being young men and lately 
aeenstomed to a grosser diet, are much more liable to fleshly visita- 
tions. Nor do they resort to it, except in emergent cases. When^ 
however, all other means have failed to keep down the tempter, the 
iron bandage is placed about the thigh, with the points inwards ; and 
then the string is passed, and drawn to a comfortable tightness. 

The brother did not fail to lead us to the projecting point of the 
ledge upon which the Hermitage stands, near two thousand feet above 
the levd of the city, and which is bounded on three sides by a fearful 
abyss. Hence you command a broad view of one of the ftiirest re- 
gions of Andalusia. A rock which occupied the spot has been hewn 
away, so as to leave a stone arm chair, just at the pinnacle. This 
stose chair hns received sundry great persouf^es ; among others the 
French Dauphin, and Fernando Septimo, who halted here to review 



S72 CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. 

a part of his kingdom on one of his forced marches to Cadiz. Thd 
august pressure, which the chair had felt on former occasions, did not) 
however, hinder us from seating ourselves in turn and gazing ahroad 
upon the splendid panorama. The view was, indeed, a fine one ; the 
hour for contemplating it, most auspicious ; for the sun had well nigh 
finished his course and was soon to hide himself-^unclouded and hril- 
liant to the last — behind a projection of the Sierra Morena. The 
country about us was, indeed, broken and savage ; the precipices and 
ravines, the rocks and half grown trees, were thrown together in the ut- 
most confusion ; but below the scenery was of the most peaceful kind ; 
for there the Campania spread itself in a gentle succession of slopes and 
swells, everywhere covered with wheat fields, vineyards, and fruit or* 
chards. The Guadalquivir glided nobly amid the white buildings of 
Cordova, concealed occasionally in its meanderings, as it wound round 
a slope, and emerging again in a succession of glassy lakes, which 
served as mirrors to the rays of the sun. The course of the river 
might, however, be constantly traced by the trees which skirted it, 
and by a broad range of meadow land sweeping back from the banks, 
and thickly dotted with cattle. In the distance rose the towering 
Sierras of Ronda and Nevada, the latter blending, its snowy summit 
with the clouds. At its foot lies Granada, blest with a continual 
spring and surrounded by that land of promise — that favored Vega, 
over which the Genii and the Daro are ever scattering fertility. 



But the pleasantest, if not the most interesting portion of our ram^ 
ble, was when we came to wander through the garden. It was ar<> 
ranged in grades, without much attention to symmetry, wherever the 
rocks left a vacant space, and levelled off to prevent the soil from 
washing away. These grades were occupied by plantations of peas, 
lettuce, and cauliflowers, interspersed with firuit trees, which seemed 
to thrive admirably ; whilst the vine occupied little sonny angles 
formed by a conjunction of the rocks, between which it hung itself in 
festoons. Nor was mere ornament entirely proscribed in this little se- 
clusion. There were everywhere hedges of the direst flowers, divid- 
ing the beds and creeping along the rocks ; so that here the perfumes 
of the parterre were added to the wild aromas of the mountain. The 
roses of white, of orange, and of crimson, formed, however, the chief 
attraction of the spot ; for they had an unequalled richness of smell 
and color. We were allowed to select a few of these beautiful flowers, 
which are in such estimation throughout Andalusia, that you scarcely 
meet the poorest peasant, going to his daily toil, without one of them 
thrust through his buttonhole or lodged over the lefl ear, his round 
hat being gaily turned aside to make room for it. This passion for 
roses is of course stronger among the women. They wear them in 
the folds of their hair, or at their girdle ; and oflen wear them in the 
same hand that moves the fan, or else hold them dangling by the stem 
from their teeth» 



CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. 39t 

An occasion now occurred of seeing something of this, in the eager- 
ness of the two lads, and even of their old tio, who hastened to avail 
themselves of the privilege of carrying home each a bunch of flowers. 
One of these two lads had a pale, sickly, city look ; the other was about 
thirteen, and one of the handsomest boys I had ever seen. He had 
come from Montilla with his sister to spend the Holy Week in Cordova* 
It was the first time that he had been so far from home, and his city 
cousin and their common uncle, the friar, had brought him out to so* 
the wonderful Desert. He was dressed in the true nu^ style, as be- 
came the son of a sturdy cultivator — a low crowned beaver with the 
brim gracefully turned upward, and ornamented with tassels and varie- 
gated beads ; a shirt, embroidered at the sleeves, the collar, and the 
ruffles ; a jacket and. breeches of green velvet, everywhere studded 
with gilt basket-buttons, with shoes and leggings of the beautifhlly tan- 
ned and bleached leather in use in Andalusia. The boy was enthusi- 
astic in. praise of the roses, which he allowed were finer than any tfi be 
found in Montilla, though but a little while before he had been eulo- 
gizing his native place, for the whiteness of its bread and the flavor of 
its wine. 

By the time we had seen the garden, the sun had got low and warn- 
ed us that we had to sleep in Cordova. The friar had made himself 
acquainted with all my affairs, and finding that our roads lay the same 
way, he proposed that we should all go together. The proposition was 
glaxlly accepted, both for the sake of good fellowship, and because I 
had not forgot the possibility of an encounter in the dark, With the fel- 
lows who had shown a disposition to escort me in my outward journey. 
I took leave of the hermits and their peaceful abode, with a feeling of 
good-will which I had not yet felt in turning my back upon any reli- 
gious community in Spain. These recluses take no vows at the time 
•f their admission^ so that they may return to their homes whenever 
they please. The Hermano JUayor had formerly been a wealthy mer- 
chant in Mexico^ and afkerwards in Cadiz, which place, the friar told 
me, he had left some years before to bury himself in this solitude. 
There was another hermit who had been there twenty yejirs. . He was 
a grandee of Portugal, and had given up honors and estates to a young- 
er brother, to turn his back upon the world forever. The rest of the 
brethren were vulgar men, chiefly peasants from the neighHourhood, 
who had been conducted to the Desert by a deep-felt sentim^t of 
piety, ot by worldly disappointments and blighted hopes, or who had 
come upon the more difficult errand of escaping from the stings of re* 
morse, and easing a loaded conscience by ceaseless prayers and uiire- 
lenting maceration. These humble brethren do not live by the (bil of 
their fellow men, but eat only the fruits of their own labor. .Their 
wants, indeed, are all reduced to the narrowest necessities of nature. 
It may be that their piety is a mistaken one ; but it certainly must be 
sincere, and if they add little to their own happiness, they certainly take 
nothing from the happiness of others. 



35 



W4 CORDOVA AND SEVILLE; 

At the gate of the Hermitage wc met Fray Pedro, a lay brother and 
kind of |)orter to the convent of our monkish friend, and who like hiro 
wore the blue habit of San Francisco. He had come out with the party 
to lead the mule, which was browsing among the rocks, and when he 
had caught it we all set out on the descent. After winding by zig-zag 
paths half way down the side of the mountain, we came to a little rill, 
springing up under a precipice, and which had been made to fall into 
a stone oasin. Here Fray Juan commanded a halt, and when old 
Pedro had come up with the mule, he took down the alforjas and pro- 
duced a skin bottle of plump dimensions with some bread and a pre* 
paration of figs and other dried fruit, called pandigOy or bread of figs, 
which is made into roils like Bologna sausage. This simple food need- 
ed no other seasoning than the keen appetite which the exercise and 
the mountain air had excited, to become very acceptable ; nor did I 
wait a second invitation to join in and take my turn at the wine skin, 
as it rapidly performed the round of our circle. Fray Juan had proba- 
bly done penance in the Holy Week, and doubtless thought the occasion 
a good one to bring up arrears ; indeed the skin lingered nowhere so 
long as in his hands, until at length he became as merry as a cricket. 
The remains of our repast being stored away in the saddle-bags, and 
old Pedro having mounted the mule, with one of the lads before and 
the other behind him, we once more set forward. Fray Juan rolled 
his habit snugly round him and tucked it under his rope girdle, so as 
to leave his thin legs unembarrassed, when he set off capering down 
the mountain, the most ludicrous figure imaginable. By degrees he 
cooled down with the exercise, and then went on more quietly, striking 
up a Royalist soog of triumph to one of the old Constitutional airs. 
The others joined in at the chorus, and formed a music which in this 
mountain solitude was far from contemptible. 

In this way we went merrily forward, and at sundown arrived at a 
huerta^ or fruit orchard and kitchen garden, that lay in the road to 
Cordova. It belonged to the convent of San Francisco and was kept 
by a friend of the friar; so we walked in and were well received by 
the farmer and his wife. The whole huerta was levelled off with a 
gentle slope, artd in the highest part, near the house, was a large reser- 
voir of mason work, kept constantly full of water by means of a nev^- 
failing brook, which passed along the outer wall, paying a tribute of 
fertility to many an orchard and garden in its way to. the Guadalquivir. 
From the reservoir the water is sent at pleasure to any part of the field^ 
hi little canals formed along the surface of the 'ground, and thus the 
inconvenience of a drought is always avoided. The field thus furnish- 
ed with the means of fertility was laid out with beds of vegetables, in- 
terspersed with date, fig, olive, orange, lemon, almond, peach, plum, 
and pomegranate trees. The orange and the lemon still preserved 
their fruits, and they, as well as many of the other trees, were likewise 
covered with leaves and blossoms, in the full pride of their vernal de- 
corations. 

On our return from walking round this delightful spot, we found 
that the woman of the house had placed a little wooden table by the 



CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. 276 

side of the reservoir, and had prepared a saJad for us, which with bread 
and sometimes meat, forms the common evening meal in all Andalusia. 
We accepted this simpJe food with the same frankness that it was of- 
fered ; and, seated under a wide-spreading orange, whos^ blossoms 
would now and then fail into our common dish, we talked, or ate, or 
anuised ourselves in throwing bread to the gold fish that swam about 
in the reservoir, and now and then came to the top of the water to beg 
a part of our pittance. Whatever we did, it was all novel, ail amusing 
to me ; and when we took leave of the un bought hospitality of this 
humble roof and reached the streets of the city, where I bade a first 
and last farewell to my kind-hearted companions, it was with feelings 
of no common good-will towards everything belonging to Cordova. 
Yet the Cordoveses are spoken of by writers of travels, and even by 
Antillon, the Spanish geographer, as wanting education and politeness, 
and being in fact a brutal people. Of this I saw nothing during my 
short stay in Cordova, although i had frequent occasion to ask my way 
in the streets of the meanest people. The only thing that struck me 
unfavoraUy amongst them, was an unusual number of royalist cock- 
ades. 



Cordova being seen, the next thing was to think about getting for- 
ward in my journey ; and this I was the more anxious to do« that my 
lodgings in the chiei posada of Honda, which stands next to the many 
columned cathedral, were quite as miserable as they could possibly 
have been, in the meanest caravansary of the days of Abderabman. 
The diligence which had brought me from Madrid had gone on with- 
out delay, and I had taken leave of my friendly companions, with the 
promise of finding each other out and talking over our misfortunes in 
Seville and in Cadiz. The next diligence would not be along for a 
day or two— so I determined to take some slower conveyance, which 
would carry me to Seville as quickly, and at the same time give me an 
opportunity of seeing something of the interesting country. It would 
have been too hot work with the eorscariosy or regular trading muleteers, 
$fid my ride to Aranjuez had given me abundant experience in the way 
oCcarros, I therefore decided for the only remaining alternative, that 
of getting a passage in some galera on its way from Madrid to Seville. 
The master of the posadoy to whom I made known my intentions on 
the night of my return from the Desert, told me that Tio Jorge, the 
galera-man, was then in the posada; that his mules had rested the 
whole Sabbath, and would go off for Seville with the better will the 
sezt morning after the matin mass ; adding that he was sure he would 
receive in^niio gusto from my company. Uncle, ojr rather Gaffer 
Qeorge, was accordingly sent for, and made his appearance in my 
rooiB-*-a tall, robust old man of fifty or sixty, with a weather beaten, 
wind worn countenance, which expressed a droll nixlure of round- 
about cunning, combined with bluntness and good humdr. He was 
dressed in a well worn jacket and breeches of changeable vetvet, with 



«W CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. 

coarse blue stockings below y an attire not at all calculated to improvtr 
his ^ppearatoce^ inasmuch as the old man was terribly knock-kneed^ 
and had feet that were put together with as little symmetry ; for his 
shoes were everywhere pierced to make room for the projection of 
corns and bunches* Tio Jorge and the Posadero sat down on either 
side of me, like allied armies before a besieged city. Thus hemmed 
in, I surrendered after half an hour's parley, and the capitulation being 
made for something less than double the common price, the two wor- 
thies went away to divide the excess, over an alcarraza of vino tirUo, 
leaving me, in return, a pious prayer for my repose— ^'Qtcc usteddes* 
canse cabalUre /' 

The next mdrning I was called at an early hour and summoned to 
the gakra. And then it was, to my no small dismay, that T discovered 
that I was to be fellow passenger to near twenty noisy officers, who,- the 
day before, had kept the whole house ro a continual i^roar. The 
eight mules, too, which, according to Tio Jorge's account, were so fat 
and arrogant, had as meagre and broken spirited a look as one can weH 
conceive. Instead of Ming their heads impatiently^ shaking their 
bells, and endeavouring to break away from the zagal, as valiant mules 
are wont to do, they stood mostly on three legs, with each his head 
resting on the rump of his antecedent, or on the neck of his companion, 
or dtse turned back wistfully in the direction of the stable. The offi- 
cers were all stowed, and Tio Jorge sat upon the front, just within the 
pent-house of reeds and canvass Ihat covered the wagon, inviting me 
to enter with the most guileless countenance in the world. My trunk 
was alre'ady stowed, my bill was paid, and I had exchanged the parting 
Adios with the landlord, the mozo, and the moza. There was no al^ 
ternative^HSO, swallowing my vexation, I told the eld naa I would 
overtake him beyond the Guadalquivir. 



The bridge whrcb was then emptying its current of market people, 
men and women, carts, mules, and asses, in front of our posada, and 
over which I followed the galera^ has served during many centuries to 
effect the passage of the Guadalquivir. It is of very massire constnac- 
tion, and has towards the centre a shrine containing the image of the 
pfeUron of Cordova, the archangel Raphael. A lantern hangs overhead 
and is lit during the night for the convenience of such pious traversers 
of the bridge, as may be disposed to kneel upon the pavement and ia- 
dnlge in a passing devotion. This bridge and the present station of 
Saint Raphael, were once the scene of a singular and terrible tragedy. 
Soon afier the period of the conquest, tho Moors of the neighbouring . 
provinces of Africa revolted against the Arabs and drove an army of 
Syrians and Egyptians, under Baleg-ben-Bakir, to the sea-coast, whence 
they sought refuge in Spain. There Baleg was joined by certain fac- 
tious chiefs, who were enemies of the Emir Abdelmelic, and who per- 
suaded him to raise the standard of revolt, under the pretext that the 
Emir was about to declare himself independent of the Caliph of Dtr 



CORDOVA AND SEVILLE!. 27t 

tAUtvus. On hearing this unwelcome intelligence, Abdelmelic imme- 
diately mustered his forces and marched against the rebels * but for- 
tune betrayed him. His courage and self-devotion were of no avail, 
and, having lost the battle, he was forced to take refuge in Cordova. 
Baleg marched at once upon the capital, and the treacherous inhabi- 
tants, purchasing safety at the expense of honor, revolted against Ab- 
delmelic^ seized upon his person, and tied him to a stake in the 
centre of this very bridge, over which Baleg must needs pass in his ad- 
tanee upon the city. The head of Abdelmelic was severed by the first 
assailant, and carried as an acceptable offering to the rebel chief, whilst 
the rest of their army took their way over the headless trunk of the 
murdered Emir.* 

The Guadalquivir at Cordova flows a considerable stream ; but it is 
not deep^ except in the season of freshets^ when, like the other rivers 
of this mountainous country, it becomes very much swollen ; for, being 
many hundred feet higher than the sea, its course is necessarily very 
rapid. As I now looked over the parapet, the bottom might be seen m 
several places, and I fully realized the possibility of the fact mentioned 
by Hirtius in the Commentaries^-^that Csesar, in the siege of Cordova, 
passed his army over the Guadalquivir upon a bridge constructed by 
throwing baskets of stones into the bed of the river, and connecting 
them with a platform of boards. t We learn, however, irom Pliny that 
the river was navigable in his time as high as Cordova. This naviga- 
tion had been long abandoned, when Marshal Soult caused it to be 
reopened, to facilitate the transportation of military stores between 
Seville and Cordova. 



When we had reached the left bank of the Guadalquivir, the gaUra 
struck into a fine wide road, which was originally constructed by the 
Romans. By and by, however, I began to tire of treading this clas- 
sic causeway, and then crouched quietly into the narrow seat, which 
Tio Jorge had offered me. Here I found my situation by no means 
so pleasant as in the gakra of Manuel Garcia ; for my present com- 
panions were not at all to my mind, and even had they been the 
best fellows in the world, there were too many of them. Among the 
number was a a curate, who was going to Seville to contend in the 
puUic convention for some one of several vacant livings, in the gift of 
the Archbishop, and which were to be bestowed according to the rel- 
ative merit of the candidates. The rest were all officers from Biscay, 
who had been apostolical gueriUos in the late counter-revolution, and 
who were now going to join the garrison of Algeziras. Though dis- 
posed to be as civil as they knew how, they were low fellows with 
nothing of the officer in their manners and appearance, and had pro- 
bably been bought over, from being distressed mechanics or broken- 
down shop-keepers, to rob, and plunder, and cut off heads, in the de- 

* Coode. t De Belto Hisptn. V. 



Wfi CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. 

fence of the altar and throne. From our numbers we were necee* 
sarily stowed very closely ; indeed, the wagon could only contain us 
all, by our fitting ourselves together like a bundle of spoons ; and thus 
acconunodatad, it was utterly impossible to turn over, except by com*- 
mon consent. 

This unpleasant state of aiiairs, within the galera, furnished an 
excellent excuse for descending frequently, and footing it onward 
during the greater part of the journey. The curate was much of the 
same taiind ; so we soon engaged in conversation. {le was qui$^ a 
handsome man of thirty, dressed in a round jacket and AndaJusiajn 
hat ; retaining no other badges pf his clerical office, except breeches 
and stockings of black, with silver buckles at the knee and shoeHUe, 
and a silk stock streaked with violet. He was evidently a very good 
scholar ; and, though he knew very little about the present state of 
the world, could tell all about the days of antiquity. Whs4i however, 
contributed most to render his company agreeaWe, was the extreme 
amenity and courteousness of his demeanour. The re^i^lar clergy in 
Spain, and especially in Andalusia, are remarkable for the amiability 
of their manners; a quality which they acquire by constant inter- 
course with society, and by close attention to ail the arta of rendering 
themselves agreeable, as the only means of riveting and extendijag 
their influence. 

Tie Jorge, likewise, fiirnished much amusement when he oeoasion- 
ally alighted to stumble up a hill ; for there was something very pecu- 
liar and original in his way of thinking. It seemed that he had con- 
tracted to carry the load of officers to Seville for a certain stipulated 
sum, which he now found, or pretended to find, deficient. This he 
endeavored to make up, by keeping them upon a low diet ; doubtless, 
not without a view to the benefit of their health ; for they lay close all 
4ay, talking, singing, or sleeping, and took no exercise. The officers 
in return passed alternately from jest to abuse ; and the old man gave 
them as good as they sent, growling quite as loudly. As I was not 
obnoxious to the charge of having held him to a hard bargain, he 
took a pleasure in teUing me his griefs ; nor did he fail to revile 
the officers, in a smothered tone, for their devotion to the priesta and 
4o royahy. He asked me if there were any chance that the English, 
who were then upon the Portuguese firontier, would march into 
Spain ; ten thousand cosacas encardadas would, he said, be sufficient 
to rally the whole country. I thought so too ; with this difference, 
however, that where one Spaniard would go over to the English, 
there would be two ready to knife them. * What a fine thing,' he ad- 
ded, ' would it not be, if the English were to blockade the whole of 
Spain 1 There would then be no coasting trade ; everything would 
have to be carried inland. If they come, too, they will have a great 
tleal of stores to carry ; a Spaniard will go bare-footed through the 
bushes and march all day upon a crust of bread ; but your English- 
man will only fight upon a full belly. To he sure they are heretics, 
tmd a little brutish withal ; but then they pay well. They give you 
few good words, but they count down the hard dollars.' 



CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. 370 

As for the xagaJ of our galera, he wad no other than the son of 
Tic Jorge ; Juan by name, which the soldiers, in consideration of his 
youthful years, converted into Juanito and Juanico, when they wished 
to speak kindly, and by the diminutivos despreeiatioos of Juanillo and Ju- 
antonto, when they wanted to jeer him. The boy was indeed somewhat, 
obnoxious to raillery, for he was quite as odd and oldfashioned as his 
sire. Though only in his fourteenth year, he had already filled the 
office of zagal nearly two years ; and now walked almost every step 
of the way, cracking his whip and reasoning with the mules, from 
morning till night, notwithstanding the inconvenience of locomotion 
upon knock-knees and crooked feet ; for the lad was his father's son> 
every inch of him, nay, to the very toes ; a thing not always self-evi- 
dent in Spain. Nor should I forget to mention the humblest of onr 
whole party, a youQg Gallego, who did little offices about our vehicle, 
for the privilege of having his bundle stowed in it, and of walking the 
whole day within the sound of our bells. This young man was wan- 
dering away from home, as the poor of his province are wont to do» 
in search of employment. They usually stay away ten or twenty 
years, and when they have accumulated a few hundred dollars, re- 
turn, like the Swiss and Savoyards, to die quietly in their native 
mountains. He tendered me his services in the capacity of squire ; 
but, though I afterwards gave him something to do in Seville, I de- 
clined the offer, from the consideration that it was quite as mnch as I 
could do, to take care of myself I met him in the street at Cadi2 ; 
he had got a place, having found many countrymen there in the ser- 
vice of the merchants, who employ them as porters and trust them t6 
the utmost extent, even to the collection and payment of monies. 



As we journeyed onward, I looked in vain for any remains of the 
ivonderfril palace of Azhara, constructed by the third Abderahman 
upon the banks of the Guadalquivir, a few miles below Cordova. The 
Arabian historians, translated by Conde, tell us that its vaults and 
irches were sustained upon no fewer than four thousand three hun- 
dred columns of marble. The pavement was composed of variegated 
marbles, cut in squares, circles, and diamonds ; the walls were im-> 
3ressed with regular figures and inscriptions, intermingled with fruits 
ind flowers ; whilst the beams, which sustained the ceilings, were 
elaborately carved, and the ceilings themselves everywhere painted 
^ith gold and azure. Every apartment had one or more fountains of 
chrystal water, constantly falling into basins of jasper, porphyry, and 
serpentine. In the centre of the great saloon, was a large fountain, 
from the midst of whose waters rose a golden swan, which had been 
made in Constantinople. Over the head of the swan hung suspended 
a very large pearl, which had come as a present from the emperor 
Leo.* The curtains and tapestry were all of silk, embroidered with 

* Probably Leo the Pbfloiopher, Emperor of the Eaet 



280 CORDOVA AND SEVILl^ 

gold. Adjoining the palace were extensive gardens, planted with 
&uit trees and flowers. They contained also groves of laurel and 
bowers of myrtle, which enclosed numerous baths and glassy sheets of 
water, in which the branches of the overhanging trees, the clouds and 
azure sky, were seen again by reflection. But the great wonder of 
Azhara was the favorite pavilion of Abderahman, in which he used 
to repose afler the fatigues of business or of the chase. It stood upon 
the summit of a little knoll, whence the eye overlooked without obsta- 
cle, the palace, the garden, the river, and a wide extent of the sur- 
rounding country. The columns which sustained it, were of the 
choicest marble, and surmounted by gilt capitals, whilst in the centre 
stood a porphyry couch, which served as a reservoir to a jet of quick- 
silver. Whenever the rising and setting sun sent his rays upon the 
falling drops and ever undulating surface of this wonderful fountain, 
they were reflected and dispersed in a thousand directions, with ma« 
gical effect.* 



During the whole day's ride, the country through which we passed, 
lost nothing of its beauty ; indeed, I had scarce ever witnessed a fair- 
er scene than broke upon me, when, afler toiling up a hill side be- 
hind which the sun had just sunk to rest, we at length attained the 
summit. Before us stretched the storied Genii, winding its way at 
the bottom of a deep and verdant valley, too soon to lose itself amid 
the watery of the Guadalquivir. The river was traversed by a time 
worn bridge, at whose extremity lay the city of Ecija, long a border 
fortress between Moors and Christians, and famous in many a rounde- 
lay. The walls which had once teemed with spears, with crossbows, 
and with fighting men, were now fallen or overgrown with ruins and 
brambles ; the clang of the trumpet and the shock of chivalry, were 
exchanged for the low of herds, the bark of house dogs, and the 
mournful toll of las animas. 

In modern times Ecija has founded its reputation, chiefly, upon a 
band of robbers, who lived and exercised their depredations in and 
nbout the city ; rendering the name of the Thirteen Little Ones of 
Ecija, Los Trieze Ninios de Ecija, not less famous and formidable 

* This description of Azhara may seem exaggerated and fanciful ; it may indeed 
be so ; but oi.e who has seen the Court of the Lions at Granada, which in a auad- 
rangle of one hundred and twentysix feet by seventytwo, has one hundred and 
twen^eight columns, and wtiich, in addition to a single fountain of thirteen jeta, 
has sixteen others, wliich may be discovered simultaneously, — who has wander- 
ed through the halls of the Alharabra, gazing with wonder upon the curious 
painting and gilding of the ceilings, and upon the surrounding walls, everywhere 
elaborately impressed with fruits, flowers, and inscriptions,— finally, who has wit- 
nessed the ruin wrought in the old palace by the lapse of little more than three cen« 
turies, finds little here to stagger his crcdulitv. The fountain of quicksilver will 
appear the least wonder of all, if we remember that the mine of Almaden, in the 
neighbouring Sierra, produces annually, twenty thousand quintals of lliat precious 
fluid. For the rest, the envious reader may be pleased to learn that these moulder* 
ing monuments of Arabian greatness gain little by oontemplation. 



CORDOVA AND SEVILLE. ^1 

thwi th«Lt of the Forty Thieves, I knew a young noble of Ecija, a ca- 
det in the king's body guard, who was taken by them when a child, 
on his way to Madrid in a galera. He said they made all the passen- 
gers get down to search among the load, and, seeing that he was quite 
small and a good deal frightened, they took him out and laid him on 
the grass by the road side, as carefully as though he had been a bas- 
ket of eggs. It is a singular fact that, though these bandits were often 
pursued, and sometimes one or more of them were killed or taken, 
yet their number ever remained the same ; it was still Los Treizc Ni- 
nios. After years of successful depredation, the fraternity has not 
disappeared until very lately. This long continuance is partly attrib- 
uted to their not having wantonly murdered any of their non-resisting 
victims ; but chiefly to the singular regulation, which they religious- 
ly observed, of dividing their spoil always into three equal portions. 
One of these portions was conveyed to certain alcaldes of the vicini- 
ty ; another to a convent of friars who protected and concealed them ; 
whilst the remainder only was retained as the share of the Little 
Ones. 



The second night of our journey was passed at Carmona, which is 
situated upon the pinnacle of a mountain, overlooking a rich and va- 
ried view of the valley of the Guadalquivir. This city was quite fa- 
mous under the Romans, and wr^ for a short time the capital of one 
of those petty kingdoms which sprung up in the decline of the Ara- 
bian domination. Beside Ecija and Carmona, we met but a few villa- 
ges between Cordova and Seville, and no solitary farms, nor houses, 
other than the public ventas. Though the soil was everywhere fertile 
«Lnd capable of nourishing a numerous population, yet it was in gen- 
eral very imperfectly cultivated, and often abandoned to the caprice 
t>f nature. Nothing can be more painful than to b^faold this country, 
which rose to such a high de^ee of prosperity under tne Romans and 
Arabs, now so fallen, so impoverished. The principal source of this 
depopulation may be found in the division of property ; nearly the 
whole country being owned by large proprietors to whose ancestors it 
"Was granted at the time of the conquest. Hence the soil has to sup- 
port, not only the laborer who cultivates it, but likewise the idle land- 
lord, who lives at court, and contributes nothing towards the business 
of production. They who preach the preservation of families and es- 
tates, and deprecate the unlimited subdivision of property, should make 
a journey to Andalusia. Other causes are found in the odious privi- 
leges of the mestOy in the exorbitance of the taxes, and in the vexatious 
^stem of raising them ; in the imperfect state of internal communica- 
tions, and in the thousand restrictions which check circulation at 
Bvery step. Not to mention the clergy, the convents, and the robbers, 
have we not already causes enough of ruin and desolation t 



36 



CHAPTER XVI 

KINGDOM OF SEVILLE. 

Arrival tn Seville. -^-Cua de Pupilos.— History of SeviUe.-rlts Genenl AppetranecT 
and Remarkable Edifices. — Catbedr&l and Giralda. — Amusements. — Murder of 
Abu-Said.-^Isabel Davaloa.— Guzman the Good.— Italica.— A Poor Officer.— 
Seville at Sunset. 

Early on the third day of our journey from Cordova^ a more careful 
cultivation announced our approach to Seville, which we presently 
discovered in the plain before us, conspicuous by its lofty and far- 
famed Giralda. Towards noon we entered the suburbs of the cityy* 
and kept along the road which follows the arches of the aqueduct. In 
passing the front of the tobacco manufactory to reach the southern 
gate, I noticed on our left the naked carcasses of six horses^ which a 
noisy congregation of crows and dogs were hastening to devour^ 
These were the victims of a buU-fight that had taken place the day 
before in the P]aza-de*Toroa. At the gate^ we were made to stop and 
deliver our passports. Here too, we were encountered by the wife of 
Tio Jorge, a dried up and dark-skinned old woman, who came forth to 
meet her husband ; bringing in her hand, a thing rolled in a bundle which 
proved to be a diminutive baby — the child of their old age. Tio Jorge^ 
when they had entered the gaUra, took the infant into his arms^ and 
leaving Juanito between the head mules, which he guided with imrcb 
dexterity through the narrow windings of Seville, he fell with great 
earnestness to chuckling and kissing it ; indeed, he seemed to hafer 
forgotten the mother, the mules, and Juanito, in his fondniesa for tbiar 
imperfect production. 

My first intention had been to take lodgings during my short stay io 
Seville, in a posada^ which had been recommended to me by a friend ; 
but the curate counselled me to go with him to a boarding-house^ 
where one would find more comfort, more retirement, and at the s^iqe 
time more society. I readily agreed to do so ; and, leaving our bagr 
gage, we went to seek a place that would answer. We had not gone 
far with our eyes on the lookout for the required sign of casordftu^ilds^ 
when, coming to a barber's shop, we walked in to make inquiries; for 
the barbers here, even more than elsewhere, know every thing. It 
was a barber's shop in Seville, and, though the young man who rose tQ 
receive us, instead of the dangling queue and silken gorra of the g&o^ 
nine ntqjoj his jaunty jacket and breeches covered with gilt buttons ; 
his gaudy sash, well filled stocking, and neat shoe-tie ; was plainly 



' SEVILLE. ^^ 

dressed in an embroidered roundabout of green, with linen trowsers ; 
yet the towel thrown over his arm professionally, the brazen basin, 
scolloped at one side, which hung from the wall, ready to. receive the 
neck of the subject and to remind one of the helmet of Mambrino ; but 
especiaUy, his vivacious air and ready civility, as he hustened to hang 
his guitar by its flesh colored ribbon upon a peg in the oorner, announ- 
ced the son of Figaro. So soon as he had learned our will, he stepped 
forth into the street, with the springy tread of one not unused to go 
forth in the waltz ; proceeding to explain to us where we might 
find what we were in search of, and asking us to take the trouble 
to go a very little way in this direction and then givfe a vueltacita round 
the left corner^ where we would find ourselves in front of a house kept 
by a widow lady, where we could not fail to be d gusto. We thanked 
him for his advice, and having accepted his invitation to return to his 
shop when we should again require his services, soon entered the house 
in question. 



The outer door was open as usual, and, on knocking at the inner 
one, it was presently jerked by a string from the corridor of the second 
story, so as to admit us into the central court*yard. * Pasen usfedes 
adelantCf Seniares* — ' Please to pass onward !' was the next salutation; 
and taking the speaker at her word, we made a turn to avoid a noisy 
fountain, which stood in the centre of the court, and ascending the stairs, 
wheeled round the corridor to the front parlour. This room was an 
oblong with two balcony windows on the street, which were shaded 
from the sun by awnings, or rather outer curtains of red and white 
Btripes, placed alternately. The walls and rafters were newly white- 
washed and the tile floor looked cool and cleanly. Its furniture con- 
sisted of a marble table, surmounted by a looking-glass, beside a good 
assortment of rush-bottomed chairs ; the backs of which were prettily 
painted with French love 'scenes. There were few ornaments here ; 
unless, indeed, three young women — the two daughters and niece of 
the ancient hostess — who sat with their embroidery in the cool bal- 
cony, might be so esteemed. One of them was at least five and twenty 
— a complete woman ; the next might be eighteen — a dark-haired^ 
dark-eyed damsel, with a swarthy Moorish complexion, and passionate 
temperament. The neice was a little girl from Ecija, the native place 
of the whole family, who had come to Seville to witness the splendors 
of the Holy Week. She was just beginning to lose the careless anima- 
tion, the simplicity, and the prattle of the child, in the suppressed de- 
tneanor, the sbftness, the voice, and figure of a woman. She looked as 
though she might have talked and acted like a child a week or two ago 
in Bcija ; but had been awakened to new and unknown feelings by the * 
^scenes of Seville. As for the Morisca, she touched the guitar and 
sang, not only with passion and feeling, but with no mean taste ; for 
she went frequently to the Italian opera. The other two waltzed like 
true Andaluzas, as I had occasion to see that very evening. 



284 SEVILLE. ' 

Such being the state of affairsi, the curate and I decided that we 
would go no farther, and accordingly accepted the rooms thi^t were 
offered us, and agreed to take our meals with the family. Nor did we 
afterwards regret our precipitation ; for the house was in all things 
delightful. As for myself, it furnished me with an additional and most 
intimate opportunity of seeing something of those Sevillanas, of whose 
charms and graces, of whose sprightliness and courtesy, I had already 
heard such favourable mention. With these and some other specimens 
which I saw of the sex, as it is in Seville, I was indeed delighted ; — 
delighted with their looks, their words and actions; their Andalusian 
Spanish ; their seducing accent; and their augmentatives and diminu* 
tives from grandissimo to poquito and chiqui'tv-ti-ii'-to, — Every thing is 
very big or very little in the mouth of a Sevillana ; she is a superlative 
creature, and is ever in the superlative. 

There was one thing, however, in my situation in this casa-ck-ptqnlos, 
which was new and singular, to say nothing of its inconvenience ; and 
which may furnish a curious study of Spanish customs. This was the 
position of my bedchamber. It had a grated window on the street 
and a door opening into the courtyard. Next it, was a long room, run* 
ning to the back of the building. This also was a bedchamber, and 
the bedchamber of the old lady and of the three little ones of Ecija^ 
who slept on cots ranged along the room. But it may not be amiss to 
tell how I came by this information. Now, it chanced, that the parti- 
tion wall betwixt my room and this next did not extend to the cluing ; 
nor, indeed, more than two thirds of the way up» the remainder being 
left open to admit a free circulation of air and keep the rooms cool ; 
for Seville, in Summer, is little better than an oven. This being the 
case, I could hear every thing that was going on next me — We used 
to commend each other to God, over the wall very regularly every nighty 
before going to sleep; and, presently, I used to hear the old woman 
snore. The girls, however, would go on talking in a whisper, that they 
might not disturb their mother. In the morning again, we always 
woke at the same hour, and with the customary salutations. Some- 
tiroes^ too, I would be aroused in the dead of the night, and kept from 
sleeping for hours, just by the cracking of a cot, as one of my fair 
neighbors turned over ; or may be, on no greater provocation than the 
suppressed moan of a troubled dreamer, or the half-heard sigh of one 
just awoke from some blissful vision to a sense of disappointment. 



But to return to graver matters, Seville is by far the largest of the 
four kingdoms of Andalusia. Nor is it surpassed by any province of 
the Peninsula, except perhaps Valencia and Granada, in fertility and 
abundance. It has mines of silver in the neighbouring Sierra^ and 
produces everywhere generous wines and fruits of delicious flavor. 
The wheat of this kingdom, though unequal in quantity to the dome*- 



SCYILLE. 9t6 

tic GOtttomption, is of the very finest quality.* Oil is^ howeTer^ the 
staple production of this kingdom. It has a strong taste, from the wa j 
in which it is purposely prepared. The pickled olives of Seville are 
the largest and finest in the world. 

Seville, the capital of this kingdom, is situated chiefly on the 4eft 
hank of the Guadalquivir, and has a bridge of boats connecting it with 
the suburb of Triana. This is a very old city — so old, indeed, that its 
foundation is ascribed to the Lybian Hercules, who makes a great 
figure in the fabulous history of the Peninsula. This is even set forth 
in an ancient inscription over one of the city gates. ' Hercules me edi^ 
fic6 ; Julio Cesar me cerco de muros y torres alias ; y el Rey 8anio me 
gan6 con Oarei Perez de Vargas ' — ' Hercules built me ; Julius Ciesar 
surrounded me with walls and towers ; and the Sainted king gained 
me, with the aid of Garci Perez de Vargas.' The sainted king was no 
other than Saint Ferdinand, who took Cordova firom the Arabs ; and as 
fi^r Garci Perez, he was a right valiant cavalier — a second Cid — who not 
only with word and voice, but also with lance and buckler, did many 
wonders in the sie{[e of the city. Notwithstandin|; this very positive 
assertion, the origm of Seville is involved in a great deal of learned 
doubt, and certain antiquaries rather opine that it was buOt by Hispalis^ 
whom Hercules left governor of Spain when he had subdued his ene- 
miesy and who called the new city by his own name. Others again 
will have nothing to do with either Hercules or his lieutenant ; but 
ascribe the foundation of the city to the Phcenicians. At all events, 
Hispalis was a very important place in the time of the Romans. Pliny 
tells us that it was one of the four chief tribunals of Betica ; and we 
ready at an earlier date in the Commentaries, that when Ciesar had 
gone to Cadiz, after the capture of Cordova, the head of the elder of 
the two Pompeys— -sons of the Great Pompey — ^who had been made 
prisoner near Gibraltar, was brought to Seville and exposed on the 
walls, in order to strike terror into the turbulent spirits of that city. 
In the time of the Emperors, the impatience of Hispalis became some- 
what eclipsed by Italica, which stood upon the opposite bank of the 
Guadalquivir, at the distance of five miles. It again recovered its pre* 
ponderance, however, under the Arabian dominion ; and, indeed, rose 
to a degree of wealth and greatness, that it had never yet known. By 
the aid of the improved systems of rural economy, introduced by that 
industrious people, the country attained the highest state of develope* 
ment of which it was susceptible, and the population of the city alone 
is said to have risen to four hundred thousand souls. On the dismem* 
berment of the kingdom of Cordova, Seville became the capital of an 
independent state, surpassing all the other petty kingdoms in extent, 

* Whether the wheat of Spiin has a degree of excellence not found in other coan- 
triea, or from whatever cauie, the bread is perhaps sweeter and better there than any 
where eke. This is esDedaJly the case in Seville, where the bread is unequalM 
for beauty and relish. It to not much raised nor spongy; but rather solid with a 
close gnih and rich color. It retains its freshness a long while ; indeed I have tasted 
some, a week or ten days* old, that had been sent as a present to Gibraltar, even then 
hr better than the best I had ever ate out of Spain. 



286 SEVILLE. 

population, and power. It was the largest fragmentleft from the wreck 
of that once mighty empire.^ Though almoaft constantly involved in 
wars with its Moorish or christiati neighbors, its ptosperity Continued 
to increase, and industry and the sciences to flouridi in its walls. Until 
(he fatal period, when Ferdinand, having made himself master of Cor« 
dova, at length turned his attention towards the conquest of Seville. 
Force and fortune followed the banners of the Saint. The odds were 
tearful, and Seville Soon opened her gates to the conqueror. The ca- 
pitulation granted the inhabitants the privilege of preserving their 
property, and of remaining each in the quiet possession of his dwelling. 
One hundred thousand souls rejected the alternative, And, disposing of 
their property as best they might, passed into voluntary exile* Some 
went to Xerez ; some ^to the Algarves : some to Granada ; and some, 
sharing the adverse— as they had shared the moreprosperous fortunes — 
of their prince Cid-Abu-Abdala, passed with him into Africa. Others 
make the number of the exiles amount to four hundred thousand ; and 
this will not appear incredible if we reflect that the fhass of the popu- 
lation, finding themselves subject to very different terms from those 
fixed upon in the capitulation and treated with the scornful indignity 
due to infidels, may well have wearied of theh: condition and dropped 
gradually away, until Seville once more became a truly christian and 
Catholic city. 

Though occasionally the residence of i\ie CastiTian court, Seville 
^continued fallen and unworthy of its former rank, Until the discovery 
of the New World, when it became the exclusive depot of the com- 
merce to the colonies. So rigorous, indeed, was the monopoly enjoyed 
by Seville, that all shipmasters, from whatever ports of Spain they 
might have sailed, were compelled to bring their return cargoes to 
Seville, under pain of death. This valuable trade, and the concentra- 
tion of wealth, population, and power, which must have ensued, raised 
Seville to the highest rank among the cities of the Peninsula. Now, 
however, that these exclusive pretensions have been long removed, and 
that the other ports of Spain have been admitted to an equal participa- 
tion in the trade, which no longer exists, Seville has shrunk from her 
former magnificence. Her population scarce amounts to one hundred 
thousand souls, and twentyfive hundred silk looms alone survive thfe 
wreck of ruined industry. As for her commerce, it is now reduced to 
a petty trade with Barcelona and some other Spanish ports, with occa- 
sionally a foreign arrival. Seville may even be said to have fallen far 
below her fair value ; for situated, as she is, near a hundred miles in 
the interior of a country, where the productions of the temperate, har- 
monize with those of the tropic climes, and which, for natural riches, 
knows no superior in Europe ; and upon a noble stream, which might 
easily be rendered navigable as formerly for large ships, Seville is emi- 
nently calculated to hold a high station as an agricultural, manufactur- 
ing, and commercial metropoTis. 



SEVILLE. 287 

Seville is bjr no me&ns i^ handsome city ; nay,, so far as mer6 beauty 
is concerned, it may scarce be admitted to the rank of mediocsity. It 
is flanked on every side by ragged gates and towers, which bear the 
impress of every age, since before the beginning of the christian era j 
and its streets have been rendered narrow, crooked, and irregular, by 
the long residence of the Saracens. . Notwithstanding all these defects, 
Seville is not entirely destitute of the grandeur belonging to a great 
city. Among a countless number of churches, chapels, and oratories, 
one hundred convents, and other public edifices in proportion, all of 
which offer some interest in the way of architecture, paintings, or his- 
toric associations, there are a few which attract more particularly the 
attention of the traveller. Among this number is the common foundry ; 
an immense establishment, where have been cast some of the most 
beautiful brass pieces in the world. It is still in operation, though 
Spain is no longer troubled with the task of fortifying the many strongs 
holds of the New World. The tobacco manufactory is in the outskirts 
of the city. It is a noble pile of quadrangular form and very solid con- 
struction ; which^ with the deep trench that surrounds it, and the 
drawbridge that rises every night and insulates it completely, give it 
the appearance of a fortress. Here is prepared the tobacco sold by 
government, of which it constitutes the chief monopoly. This oppress- 
ive system causes an extensive contraband trade with much misery and 
more vexation. As for the establishment in question, it produces a 
revenue to the crown, which might be raised at half the expense in 
some other way. It further furnishes a semi-sinecure to a swarm of 
idle officers, and a vast seraglio to some dozen or two of old fellowS| 
who strut round with cigars in their mouths, superintending the labors 
of many hundreds of young women, whom they search, as they tell me, 
muy i menudo every night, as they go over the drawbridge, to see that 
they have no tobacco concealed. The Lonja, or Exchange, is the 
roost regular and beautiful building in Seville. There are collected all 
the documents relating to the Indias. Among many precious materi- 
als connected with the colonization of America, is the entire library of 
the learned Ferdinand Columbus. Here is also seen the only original 
portrait of his father, the Discoverer. It was deposited here by his 
descendant, the Diike of Veragua, as the most proper place for the 
preservation of a thing so precious.* It is to be deeply regretted that 
this painting was found in the family gallery in a defaced condi- 
tioui and having been retouched, the reality of the resemblance has 
become a matter of learned disputation. The Alcazar, often the resi" 
dence of the Castilian kings, and the favorite abode of Peter the Cruel^ 
is a most singular edificei composed of a confused pile of Gothic, Ara^* 
hiCf and modern constructions. The inhabitants find a favorite prom^ 
enade in the equally ainffular gardens which lie adjacent; erst the 
lounging place of the lovely Eleanor de Guzman, Maria Padilla, and 
the ill-fated Blanche de Bourbon. 

* Thci LoDJa i^ iDde«tnictlbl« } the ceilings being vaulted and the flooii paved/ 



The Marine Academy is pleasantly situated without the walls of the 
city. This institution was founded by Ferdinand Ck>lumbus, to educate 
a number of young men, with the view to their becoming masters of 
merchant ships. They pass several years in making a good theoiretical 
study of navigation, and in learning seamanship from a number of very 
good books, aided by a little antique frigate, suspended upon a pivot in 
one of the rooms, which they tacked and veered for me with suq>riBing 
dexterity. The absurdity of this system is self-evident, Tn the mer- 
chant service, the future master must learn the science of navigation, 
whilst he is yet in a subordinate station, either in the interval of his 
voyages, or better from his superiors during their continuance. This 
is the mode practised in the United States, whose ships sail more safe* 
ly, more expeditiously, and more economically, than those of any other 
nation. In the military marine, where a higher order of professional 
excellence is required — where the skill of the thoroughbred sailor must 
be added to the science of the mathematician and the gentlemanly ac 
Gomplishments, which raise a national character in the eyes of strange 
ers, the necessary education can scarcely be acquired except in an 
academy, where theory should go hand in hand with practice ; and 
where daily studies on shore should be alternated by daily exercises on 
ship-board ; not a ship moored head and stern, like the school of prac- 
tice at Toulon, nor built upon terra firma, or rather on the tops of trees, 
as at Amsterdam ; but a real, live little ship, that could loose her sails, 
and lift her anchor, and turn her back upon the land at pleasure. The 
periodical vacations, everywhere found necessary to relieve the mind 
of the student, might consist in little voyages idong the land, which 
should at the same time be rendered parties of pleasure. This would 
furnish the young men with much minute information concerning their 
native coasts, which older sailors, en^raged in the ordinary business of 
the profession, have no means of acquiring. Nor should the adventur- 
ous aspirant after naval glory, shun to dip out into the ocean and learn 
thus early in his little bark, to brave the element destined hereafter to 
become the scene of his triumphs. 



But by far the most conspicuous monument of Seville, is the Cathe- 
dral. It is indeed famous in all Spain, where the three principal temples 
are thus characterized. Lade SeviUa, la grande, la de Toledo, la Hca, 
y lade Leon, la heUa, In Andalusia it even receives the disputed ap« 
pellation of patriarchal. And, indeed, whether we consider its ex- 
tent and proportions, or the pomp and ceremonial of worship, it is 
certainly one of the noblest temples in all Christendom. The extent 
of the church itself, is four hundred and twenty feet by two hundred 
and sixty, with a central nave rising to an immense height. The en- 
dowment of this temple accords with the magnificence of its construc- 
tion ; for, so late as the last century, the archbishop received the 
handsome income of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; with cor- 
responding provision for two hundred and thirty-five canons, prebenda^ 



SEVILLE. 3» 

vied, curates, confessors^ musicians, singers, and levitical aspirants.* 
Nor wiU this number of dependants appear extravagant, if we remem- 
ber that they have to officiate at no fewer than eighty-two altars, and 
perform five hundred masses on a daily average. 

The exterior of the Cathedral offers a grotesque grandeur, produced 
by the combination of three utterly different species of architecture. 
The church itself is of Gothic construction, piurtly erected at an earli- 
er period than the eighth century ; the sacristy is entirely in the mod- 
em taste, whilst the court and garden adjoining, with the thrice fa- 
ipous Giralda, date from the dominion of the Arabians. This won- 
drous tower of Giralda was built towards the close of the twelfth 
century, in the reign of Jacub Almanzor, by Algeber, a famous mathe- 
matician and architect.! Originally it rose to an elevation of two 
hundred and eighty feet, and was surmounted by an iron globe of pro- 
digious size, which, being splendidly gilded, reflected and almost ri- 
vaSied the brilliancy of the sun. Immediately beneath this ball was 
the gallery, whence the mudhews convoked the faithful to their stated 
devotions. The ascent of the tower is effected by a spiral stairway, 
without steps, and of such gradual inclination that a person walks up 
with scarce an effort, as he would up a gentle hill. In more modem 
times, the globe has been removed, and a small tower of inferior di- 
ameter has been erected above, making the entire present height of 
the whole construction three hundred and sixtyfour feet, more than 
two thirds of the higher pyramid.} This immense and misshapen 
mass terminates in a colosisal statue in brass, of a female, intend- 
ed to represent the Faith. This is the famous Giralda or weatheiw 
cock, one of the great wonders of Spain and the subject of many a 
poetic allusion. It is certainly a little singular that any good Catho- 
lic should have thought of setting the emblem of his faith up for a 
weathercock, to turn about with every change of wind^ though, the 
different destinies, which have ruled Seville, and the widely different 
religious usages with which this same tower has been associated, all 
point to the possibility of variation. As I walked up the winding hill 
which leads to the tower, it was evident to me that two cavaliers, ac- 
coutred with spear, shield, and helmet, and mounted upon their war- 
horses, might easily ride side by side to the top of the tower, as is said 
to have been done on more than one occasion ; and as for the Knight 
<>f the Mirrors, though he told Don Quixote many a lie, he was at 

*TawiiMiid. 

t The inyention of Algebn hasiieen attributed to this Algeber of Seville, from whom 
it is mid to derive its name. Thoueh thb science is known to have existed many 
centuries before, yet it is very possible tbat he introduced it amonshls countrymen ; 
for it first became Imown in Europe tb rough the Arabian Spaniards, who cultivatad 
mathematics so successfully, Oiat wheb AlMisothe Wise arranged the celebrated as- 
troDomic tables, which still bear his name, he cot most of his calculations fiom the 
astronmners of Granada. Nor is there any good reason why Algeber may not have 
reinvented the science ; for these things are not Uie accidental offipring of a single 
brain; but real, existing combinations, growing out of the state of science, and wut- 
4ng iSbe grasp of the master mind who leads the van of discovery. 
t Conde and Antillon. 
37 



9»0 SEVILLE, 

leaat Willun the bounds of probability, when he reoounted his adveOk 
tnuTQ with tbegiiinteas Girdda. From the gallery at the top of the 
tower t<0^ ene may estimate the difficulty and danger of the fearitil 
feat executed by that wild warrior, Don Alonzo de Ojeda.* The 
view from this mmmnfie eleration is necessarily a fine one ; the huge 
Cathedral be]<»w ; and ronnd about it the city with its many churches, 
its hundred convents^ its Alcazar and Amphitheatre ; without these, 
the ancient walk and time worn turrets of Hispalis ; the masts, 
yards, and streamers of the vessels in port, and the leafy promenades 
that oifer shade and shelter for the daily and nightly exercises of the 
Sevillians ; and,, io the remoter portions of the panorama, a vast tract 
of level country traversed by the winding Guadalquivir, all combine to 
furnish a delightful pieture. 

But to return to the interior of the Cathedral ; it is very rich in 
paintings, statues, and relics, and contains the tombs of many cava- 
liers, whose names are deservedly dear to the Spaniard. Here rest 
the remains of Ferdinand Columbus, a great benefactor of Seville ; 
of Maria Padilla, the guilty mistress, or, as some say, the unhappy 
wife of Peter the Cruel* Here too, are found all that could die of 
Saint Ferdinand, by whom the cathedral was conquered and conse- 
crated ; a man, according to Fatlier Mariana, who was endowed with 
all the bodily and mental acquirements, that any one could desire ; of 
whom it was doubted whether he excelled for goodness, greatness, or 
good fortune. So pure, indeed, were his manners that they won htm 
while living the surname of Santo^ and- caused him after death to be 
regularly enrolled upon the list of the beatified.t 

A fer finer sight, however, than all these marble heaps, that cover 
the bones of the departed, are found in the many beavtifbl paintings 
thai adorn the walls and chapels of the cathedral. They are above 
all praise. It is, indeed, only in Seville that one may properly ap- 
preciate the school of Seville ; a school which would take prece- 
dence of all others, if the successful imitation of nature were made the 
standard of excellence, in an art of which the solb object is imitatioa. 
This school owes its chief celebrity ta Murillo, bom in Seville, like 
Us great master Velasquez, and who spent the greater part of his life 
in painting for the churches, convents, and hospitals of his native city. 
Scarce a public edifice t^re, but contains sooiething from the penoil 
of this great man. The Hospital of Charity, near the- bank of lAie 
river, is especially rich in these precious productions. Among the 
number are the return of the Prodigal Son, and Moses smiting the 
rock in Horeb. The fine study offered by the emigrant childreii of 
Israel, but now ready to die with thirst, thus suddenly furnished with 
a running stream of crystal water, has been admirably carried out by 
Mnrilk). The men, women, children, and even the beasts of the 

* Irving's Life of Columbus. 

t One of his saintly qualities was his detestation of heresy, which was so great 
that he personallv pemrmed the drudgery on more than one occastony of carryiaip 
wood to the bonfire of an unbeliever. 



SEVILLE. 9H 

thursty oaravan are drinking with a joyfiil a?idity, Ibat «gure9 almoat 
equal delight to the spectator, brought hy the aid oCganiftUi into poai- 
ti?e, palpable presence of the scene. Here, too, was ociginally placed 
the wonderful painting of Saint Isabella dressisg the a»rea of aiek 
mendicants, which was carried to Paris by the Freiftdi aiKl u^juetl^ 
retained by the Academy of San Fernande at Maditid, wh^ restored 
aAer the second fall of Napoleon. This is to be negretted^ fat it is 
now considered by many, a disgusting picture ; whereas, if contoia- 
plated in the Hospital of Chanty, wh^ doubtkas ftmiished the origi* 
nals of those loathsome wretches who still hre ^asd suffer after >the 
lapse of nearly two centuries, the behcrfder would only be aliTe to the 
perfeaticm of the copy. 

Campana's famous Descent firom the Cross now hangs in the Ca« 
thedral. It is a noble painting, not unlike, nor altogether unw<Nrthy 
of being compared, to the great masterpiece of Reubens. Munillo 
greatly admired it ; indeed, he begged IhaA he might be buried in the 
church of Santa Cruz, where it then was, and directly opposite the 
painting. He used to come almost daily to gaze upon it ; and when 
once, the sexton asked him what he was seeking, he answered, ' Estoy 
esperaaido que acaben de h(^€ar de Ja Crux m ese bendito Senior I ' 



The amosementfl lof fleviHe are sufficieDtly numerous ; for the peo* 
pie of that caty are famous all ihe world over, as a light-hearted, laugh* 
ter*loving people ; eternal soratehem of the guitar and dano«rs of the 
waltz and bolero. They hate a tolerable eompany of comediane and a 
▼ery good Italtaa opera. Here, however, more than elsewhere, the 
bull-fight constitutes the leading popnlar amuseaient ; and the, Amphi* 
theatre of Seville^-^-said te be a very fine one— is looked up to hy those 
of Madrid, Reoda, and Grenada in the light of a metropolitan. The 
right way to turn a bull with the lance, or fix a banderilla^ or deal the 
death blow, is always the way it is done ia ■Seville— ' Asi se haee en la 
Plaza de Sevilla P There is, however, another amusement, which 
though not so passionately beloved by the people of Serillei is, never- 
theless, more freipieatly enjoyed ; for t\i» fiesta de toras seldom oooies 
more than oooe a week, and costs money, whereas the pctseo takes 
place daily, and may be had by the poorest citizen for the mere trouble. 

There are a variety of pleasant promenades in and about the oky^--^ 
You may wander through the orange grove of the old Alcazar ; or 
omss over to Triana and take a look at the convent of the silent Oar* 
tttsians ; or following the receding tide, as it jBoats along the quay, yeai 
flsay mingle amid the motley group of sailors and landsmen these 
assembled, until you pause to contemplate the famous Golden Tower ; 
a venerable pile which has in like manner been looked on by Sertorine 
and by Cesar. And then, as yon proceed, you may chance to dis- 
cover some nakfod people bathing, or walking along the bank of the 
rtver in their snug^setting suit of buff. Or, perhaps a group of le* 
mates — haply the same clnste nymf^s of the Gnadak|uivir invoked by 



903 SEVILLE. 

the bard of Gonsaivo. Thence, turning back upon the Betiti, you may 
seek the shade of the neighboring alameda. Here you find a throng of 
soldiers, citizens, and peasants ,' with priests and friars, no longer so 
gra?e as in Madrid and Toledo ; perhaps too, a light-hearted French- 
man from the garrison at Cadiz, who has come in search of a little 
amusement, moving about as if he had lived all his life in Seville, and 
already on the best terms in the world with some dozen of newly*made 
acquaintances ; or else, an Englishman from Gibraltar, who has come to 
see the Holy Week and sneer at papistical degradation ; buttoned to 
his chin in his military frock, between which and his slouched foraging 
cap, he looks defiance upon the multitude. Here too, are hosts of 
gracious Sevillanas, with pretty nurses not a few ; and grouip of boys 
and girls following in the train of their parents, with each a wodly 
white dog, or a pet lamb adorned with bells and ribbons and accom- 
modated with a pair of mimic panniers, which the little ones load with 
grass and thus make their favorite carry home his own supper. I have 
no where seen such a fondness for this little animal — emblem of inno> 
cence — as in Seville ; it is quite as common an inmate of the house as a 
dog, and it is by no means rare to see a full-sized merino, thus grown 
up in family favor, following its master about the streets to his daily 
avocations. This simple bias would go fiur to intimate and indeed to 
produce an amenity of disposition, difficult to reconcile with a taste for 
the sanguinary sports of the arena. Whilst the children, caring little for 
the thoughts of others, abandon themselves without restraint to the frolic 
of their disposition, the full-grown, on the contrary, scarce seem to 
live for themselves. With them, all is deference, courtesy, and submis- 
sion, on the one side, met by a winning display of charms, of graces 
and fascination. Little do these happy moruds remember that the 
ground which they now tread with so free a step has been stained by 
the crimes of Peter the Cruel ; has heard the^ reproaches of the mur- 
dered Abu-Said, or rung with the wailings of Donia Urraoa de 
Orsorio ! 



It was in* this very alameda that Peter — whose title of Cruel has 
been otherwise rendered the Justicier, and whose crimes an English 
divine has been willing to palliate ; God knows for what reason ; unless 
it were that Blanche of Bourbon was a Frenchwoman, whilst Peter 
was the ally of the Black Prince — gave his last audience to the king 
of Granada. Abu-Said had usurped the throne of Granada to the ex* 
elusion of the rightful king, the virtuous Muhamad. Peter became 
the ally of the exile, and, having collected his troops, marched wiUi 
such of the Granadians as remained faithful, to replace him upon his 
throne. The efforts of the two armies were successful, and they sooo 
arrived beneath the walls of Granada. But when Muhamad found 
that his subjects did not rally to his standard, as he had hoped ; when 
he reflected upon the horrid evils that must befall Granada, should he 
prove victorious, his heart bled for the miseries of his disobedient pe(^ 
pie ; he begged Peter to return and leave him to his fate, since of the 



SEVILLE. 398 

two he preferred tbe loaa of his crown to the ruin of his coimtry. Peter 
yidded to his request, and Mahamad retreated within the walls of 
Ronda. But his mercy and moderation did more for him than a thou- 
sand battles ; they gained him the hearts of his people, and the usurper, 
finding his power on the wane, sought aid in turn firom the court of Se- 
ville. He dismissed the Grand Master of Caltarava, whom he had 
lately made prisoner with many other Castilians, not only without 
ransom, but even loaded with presents for their master. Not content 
with this, he set out in person for Seville and came into the pres^ 
ence of Peter, making a splendid display of riches and magnificence ; 
ibr, not only the garments of himself and followers, but even the 
housings of their Arabian horses were every where glittering with 
gold and jewels. The gracious reception of Peter filled the heart of 
Abu-Said with the happiest anticipations. But this dazzling show of 
wealth is said to have caused his perdition. Peter had not beheld it 
with indifference ; for calling together his counsellors, it was at once 
decided that Abu^^aid was an usurper, and deserved death. That 
very night, when all the Granadian cavaliers had sunk to sleep with 
the most pleasing impressions of christian hospitality, they were trai- 
torously set upon and murdered. The next day their bodies, bloody, 
and deqx>iled, were carried into this open field, without the gates ol 
the city. Abu-Said was conducted to the spot ; and When he bad been 
allowed a while to contemplate this scene and read his own destiny in 
the fate of his followers, the Castilian king drew nigh. Abu-Said had 
scarce time to exclaim — ' Oh, Pedro !^»what a return is this for so much 
confidence 1— how shameful this victory V ere the dagger of the i 
sin had found its way to his heart 1* 



It was here too, that when the valor of the Black Prince had restored 
him to his throne, he burnt to death the aged Donia Urraca de Orsorio, 
because she had given birth to Don Alonzo de Guzman. Alonzo had 
espoused the cause of his relative, Henry de Transtamar — the bastard 
brother of Pedro and son of the ill-fated Senor Guzman — who had 
already driven the monster firom the throne, and who was yet destined 
with his own hand, to avenge himself and the world upon so ruthless a 
murderer. The old age and the sex of the unsuspecting mother of 
Guzman were no protection against the fury of Don Pedro. She was 
bound to the stake and the faggots were kindled around her. But this 
outrage upmi the sex was doomed to redound to its honor ; and to show 
that there is no limit to the self-devotion of women. Scarce, indeed, 
had the flames caught the attire of Donia Urraca, than her waiting 
maid, the fiiithful Isabel Davalos, unable to support the cruel sight, 
sought the only relief for her outraged feelings in sharing the tortures of 
her benefactress. She rushed into the fire, and unmindfiil of her own 
person, sought to preserve a little longer the dress of her mistress from 

* Mariana. — Conde. 



»4 SEVILLE. 

indecent diseomposure. Though herMif unbound^ the wo«ld ooft 
escape from the flames, but ching tighter to Doaia Urraea, and shared 
her agony !* 



The last afternoon of my stay in SeFiUe was spent in a short excur- 
sion to the ruins of Italioa. T made it afoot and alone, for the want of 
a better conveyance and better company. The distance is about five 
miles, and when I had travelled three of them, through a country, flat, 
marshy and po<H4y cultivated, though susceptible of the highest im- 
provement, were the land held under a different tenure, I found myself 
in front of the convent of San Isidro. An aged friar of the order of 
Mercy who was walking under the trees that stand on the knoll in 
front, attended by two very good companions on a promenade, his staff 
and snuff-box, readily undertook to answer my inquiries concerning 
the convent and Italica. It appears that San Isidro owes its foundap 
tionto Alonzo Perez de Guzman, better koown in^Spanish annals bj 
the appellation of Guzman £1 Bueno ; his remains with those of hii 
wife now repose within these walls, raised by their piety. Guzman 
was born to a high rank among the nobl&s of Castile ; but he rose far 
above all the cavaliers of his time for valor, prudence, and such unshak- 
en integrity, that it procured him the surname of the Good. It chanced 
that in his time the fortress of Tarifa was taken by surprise from the 
Moors. From its remote situation, and its being nearly sunounded 
by Algeziras and other frontier fortresses of the king of Morocco, it 
was a place rather to be razed than defended; but Guzman, being 
ready to make every sacrifice to promote the interests of his faith and 
nation, readily undertook to maintain it for his king, and was ac- 
cordingly appointed governor. Soon ader. Prince Juan — who claimed 
the cities of Seville and Badajoz in right of the will made by his father 
Alonzo the Wise, to punish the disobedience and rebellion of his oldest 
son, Don Sancho — having been repeatedly conquered by his brother, 
was at length forced to flee from Spain and take refuge in Africa. 
There, he boasted to the kinji^ of Morocco, that if he would furnish 
him with a few troops, he would soon put him in possession of Tarifa. 
The king, being very anxious to recover so important a fortress, readily 
put him at the head of Ave thousand horse, with which and the garri- 
son of Algeziras, the siege was soon formed. But the place was so 
stoutly defended by Guzman, that the efforts of the assailants were all 
rendered unavailing. Thus baffled, Juan had recourse to an expedient, 
the idea of which had doubtless given confidence to his promises of 
success. 

It chanced that among the followers of the prince was the only and 
much beloved son of Guzman. The boy had either fallen into his 
hands by accident, or else had been entrusted to him to train up ; for 
we read that it was the custom in those days for noble youths to enter 

^Mariana. 



SEVILLE. SOS 

the service and attend upon the persons of princes, which situation, if 
they had merit, furnished them with a ready introduction to honor and 
office. Ph>fiting by this circumstance, Juan now sent a herald to invite 
thc^ governor of Tarif;! to a parley, and, when Guzman appeared upon the 
rampart, he caused his little son to be led in chains beneath the walls. 
When the father had been allowed a while to contemplate this dear 
object, towards which his heart yearned, he was suddenly recalled to 
himself by a threat from the renegado prince, that if the place was not 
forthwith surrendered, the boy should be put to an instant and cruel 
death. Guzman was indignant at this vile threat, so full of outrage to 
the feelings of a father and the honor of a Castilian, from one who so 
far degraded the royal and the christian name, as to war against his 
own country, and in the ranks of infidels. He rejected the proposition 
with disdain, and declared that if he had an hundred children, it were 
but just that he should hazard them all, rather than, by staining the 
fair name of Guzman, to bequeath them a heritage of ignominy. Nay, 
to his words he added actions, and, glowing with scorn, he drew his 
sword from the scabbard and hurled it from the ramparts, that if the 
prince had the mind, he might not lack the means of perpetrating such 
an atrocity. This done, Guzman turned away to where his wife, igno- 
rant of what was passing, was waiting to sit down to dinner. He had 
not, however been long with her, ere he was aroused by a loud uproar 
npon the ramparts, cansed by the horror of the garrison at the murder 
of that unhappy boy. Scarce, indeed, had Guzman returnd to tb^ wall, 
when the severed head of his child was thrown over by the Africans, 
and fell bounding and bloody at his feet. This was a sad sight lor a 
father ; the father of an only son. Yet did Guzman sustain him- 
self, supported as he was by the courage of a soaring soul and by the 
sense of having done nobly. Losing the • father in the patriot, he 
concealed his emotion lest his followers should sink into desponden- 
cy ; and smoothing his brow, he merely said, ' I thought that the ene- 
my had got possession of the city' — Cuidaba que las enemigos hahian 
cntrado la ciudacP — and then returned to his wife, having now another 
and more painful motive for dissimulation.* 

When the good monk had told me all about Guzman and San Isi- 
dro, where masses are daily said for the souls of the founders, he 
pointed out the direction of Italica. Having taken leave of him, I 
pursued my way and presently passed through a miserable collection 
of hovels, called Santi Ponce. To the left, and a little farther on, are 
the hills, upon which, like Rome of old, once stood Italica, a city of 
great wealth and magnificence under the Roman domination. Its total 
decline and utter desolation can scarce be accounted for, by the prox- 
imity of Seville, and by the variation in the course of the Guadalquivir, 
which now takes its way many miles to the left, though it formerly 
bathed the walls of Italica. An amphitheatre, which may still be 

* Mariana. This Guzman the Good, was of the family which has since become 

famous under Uie title of Dulces of Medina Sidonia. The ill fated Leonor was his 

lineal descendant. The Roman act here related has furnished the painter and the 

^ poet with many a study. The following sonnet is by Lope de Ye^ ; like the deed 

It commemorates, it may, peihaps, be esteemed bombastic ; but both the hero and 



%96 SEVILLE. 

distinctly traced between two hills, is the only lingering remnant of 
flo much greatness. Having penetrated up the ravine in which it lies, 
I came to a place where a boy was busy turning water into four earth- 
en jars that were balanced in a wooden frame upon the back of an aas* 
The spring at which he filled them, stood opposite to the amphithear 
tre and emerged from the side of a hill. On entering the aperture^ I 
found that it was the work of art, apparently the remnant of an aque- 
duct, constructed to convert at pleasure the neighbouring arena into 
a lake for the display of naval races and engagements. The boy lent 
me the gourd with which he took up the water, and, having drank, I 
clambered to the top of the ruin. This amphitheatre is not a large 
one, its greatest diameter being only two hundred and ninety feet, 
and the lesser, two hundred. Its form and extent are now all that 
one may discover; the grades and facings of hewn stone having 
all been removed to build the convent of San Isidro, or make a break- 
water in the Guadalquivir. The benches which had been often 
crowded with their thousands on thousands piled ; which have rung 
with the approving shouts of tens of thousands of happy and exulting 
Italicans, now offered nothing but a succession of hills and chasms^ 
overrun with weeds ; whilst the arena below, fattened for c^turies 
upon the blood of wild beasts and gladiators, was cbvered with a heavy 
crop of waving wheat, which each instant changed its hue, swept by 
the passing gdes, as they entered the arches of the amphitheatre. 
Thrown, as I was, alone upon this deathlike solitude, it was scarce 
possible to realize that the city which now neither owns a bouse nor 
an inhabitant, was indeed that Italica that furnished Rome with three 
of her mightiest emperors ; nay, that the very amphitheatre where I 
now stood, the native of a new born land, had been oft graced by the 
presence of Trajan, of Adrian, and Theodosius ; of Trajan, the disci- 
ple of Plutarch ; Trt^anus Optimus ; he of whom the Romansspake, 
when they were used to exclaim at the inauguration of an emperor — 
' May he be happier than Augustus ! may he be better than Trajan I ' 



the bard belong to a peculiar people— to a land of extravagance and ezaggeratioa^ 
not to be measured by an ordinary standard. 

* Al tiemo ninio, al nuevo Isac Criatiano, 
En la arena de Tarifa mira 

El mejor padre con piadosa ira> 

La ledtad y el amor Cuchando en vano. 

* Alta la daga en la temida mano ! 
Glorioso vence ! intrepido la tira! 
Ciega el sol ! nace Roma ! amor suspira ! 
Triun& Espania ! enmudece el Africano ! 

* Baxo la frente Italia, y de la soya 
Quito a Gorcato el lauro en oro y bronces, 
Porque ninguno ser Guzman presuma ; 

* Y la fama nrfncipio de la tuya, 
Oweman ei Bueno escribe, siendo entonces 
La tinta sailgre, y el cuchillo pluma !' 



SEVILLE. 297 

On mj return homeward, I remembered that there was a convent 
of Cartusians on the bank of the river above Triana, and turned aside 
to seek admittance. After much knocking at the postern, a surly old 
porter came to reconnoitre me through a little trap ; but he refused to 
let me enter, or even to go himself to ask permission of the prior. The 
season was one of solemnity, and the devotion of these sons of Saint 
Bruno could not suffer interruption. I turned away in disappoint- 
ment, and walked quickly along a narrow path which skirted the batik 
of the river. The rapidity of my pace soon brought me up with an 
officer who was walking at a slower rate in the same direction ; and 
as the path chanced to grow narrower just there, he politely stood 
aside to let me pass him. He was dressed in an oilcloth cocked hat, 
with a red cockade covering the whole side of it, and which was in 
turn concealed under two broad stripes of tarnished gold lace. His 
coatee of green, with a strap on either shoulder, and his legs, which 
were bent to the saddle, together with the height and heaviness of his 
tread, announced a captain of cavalry. Instead, however, of a sabre 
be carried nothing but a yellow walking cane ; and, as for his cheek 
bones and mustaches of Mack and gray, they were quite as hollow 
and qnite as crest fallen as those of Ik>n Quixote. . He was ei^idently 
a poor officer — a very poor officer. Poor' as he might be, however, 
the courtesy with which he stood aside, putting out his cane to keep 
him from falling into the Guadalquivir, whilst with his lefl hand he 
waved for me to pass on, was at least entitled to an acknowledge- 
ment, and this was in turn a Mr introduction to the discoursie which 
followed. 

He soon learned that I was a stranger — an American, and had been 
disappointed in seeing the convent. He too had failed to gain admit- 
tance ; but his errand had related to something else beside mere cu- 
riosity. It appeared that he was an indSfinido, and, when I asked 
him if he had made himself obnoxious during the constitutional sys- 
tem, he said no— he had ever been true to his king , perchance, to 
the prejudice of his country. He had long since been regularly pu- 
rified, and was now ready to go, wheresoever the king his master 
might be pleased to send him. But no orders came for him to go 
tipon active service, nor had he, and many others in Seville, received 
any halfpay for near a year. What could he do ? it was too late in life 
for him to begin the world anew ; he could not work — and he glanced at 
the soiled embroidery of his uniform. He had to struggle along with 
his wife and two children, the best way he could. A relation who 
had a place in the Cathedral had done something for them, and the 
prior of Cartuxa had been very charitable. His necessities, however,, 
had outgrown these scanty supplies, and he had gone again to-day to 
the convent to seek relief firom pressing want, but he had not seen the 
prior. Meantime, his wife was at the term of her projniancy, and he 
did not know where he was to find bread for her and for the children, 
much less the comforts and assistance called for by her peculiar con- 
dition. The threadbare dress o( the veteran, his meagre countenance, 
the contending sense of pride and poverty there expressed, and the 



tP9i;fti| fjrip ib^ ypdaimed the triumph of the last, were m vmaj 
pledgee 19 titi^ figitbfiilDe^ of his tale. Doubtless, he had not over-' 
come hi^ shAfl^ f^ made me privy to his poverty, for the sake of 
being piti^. I did whut I could lor him; though, it was rather in 
acfBordance withmy means, than with my own will or his necessity. 
The old xfum was gratefiil and glad; he begged me to stay a day or 
two in Seville, and promised to procure me the sight of the Cartuza 
and of whatever el^e was still worthy of being seen. He now walked 
quicker than be£9re» ai^l seemed as, anxious to reach hia home, as he 
had lately vpp^ufi^ n^wUting tp go there. 



In this wsy we gained the bridge of boats, which now as in the 
time of the Moors coiwecis the iNinks of the Quadalquivir.* The 
netting sun had already withdrawn from the surface of the stream, 
and was sending his last rays upon Seville, gildii^g her antique towers 
and gateways, and shining^ through the spars anu rigging of a dozen 
petty feluc^^as, that lay at intervaJiB along the quay. Tfa^ tale of the 
poor officer, the season and the sight were all of a melancholy cast. 
Clould this then be the same Seville, that had witnessed the departing 
shins of Columbus^Ojeda, Co^z, and Magellan, and acted such a 
l^rilliapt part in the conquest and colonization of the other hemi* 

jspbl^re ; which lo^g reo^e^ ^he undivided tribute of a virgin world, 
and was .thronged by the. ships and mercbauts of all Europe, bringing 
their richest productions to barter for the gold of the Spaniards. Id 

, the various revolutions c^ the moral as of the physical world, may she 
not hope again to recover her lost magnificence, or is she, indeed, 
destined to wander back to the condition of Italica? 

I had come to Seville with expectations greatly raised, and had met 
in som^e measure with disappointment Instead of the delightful situ- 
ation of Cordova; the at once protecting and cooling neighbourhood 
of the Sierra Morena, and the pleasing alternation of hill and dale 
that there meet the eye ; here, if you except a hig)dand im the direc- 
tion of Italica, the surrounding country is flat and marshy ; which, in 
connexion with its partially drained and poorly cpltivafed oonditioa,* 
furpishes the fruitful so«uce of fevers. Indeed, were it not for the 
thousand interestin|^ associations that hover over HispaHs and Seville ; 
had not San Fernando taken the city ; and Peter the Cruel delivejted 
l«ouor de Guzman into the hands of his mother and her rival, and 
9lal^be<l the Moor, and burnt Donia Mozacca ; had Algeber fbrao^* 
ten to build the Oiralda, and Ojeda to stand upon it wiA one .Utf ^ 
whilst be flourished the other in the air for the gratifica,^oii^ of Jsahei- 

* Some modern antiquitfian hav pretQnded tp find at Seville a tuoas^ ander.tb^ 
Gitad)ii(Hllvir, siipflAr to the one now attempting at London ; and aald to have been 
#ie went of the Saracens. No aach roeam of eoramunieation between the eppoaite 
Neka ia menlioBed bjr the Arabian writert* tranriatnl by Gonde ; and we weaanNr 
thstths distraction of th9 bridge of boatf.by Ssii^ Fsidiaand» led A» t^ imipNM^e 
nirpender of the city. 



SEVILLE. 9W 

la ; I would not ffho a pn to hate seen it Bat it ill beeomes the 
merchant to speak diapuragingly of his merchandize, or the voyager 
to ondenralae his ; so J wUl even send the nntraveUed reader away 
regpretibl and envious, by quoting an old proverb quite common in 
8|^in: 

• He who hutfa not Seville aeeoi 
Hath not tten ftruigft thfi^ I weetk' 

« Qnien no ha ykto S««illa» 
NohaviftoMaraviUa.' 



CHAPTER XVIL 

SEVILLE/ 

Steamer Hernan Cortes. — Guadalquivir.— Bonanza.— Perplexities at Santa Maria. — 
Arrival at Cadiz — Its Situation and early History — Its Destruction by Essex — 
Present Condition — Appearance.— The Gaditana. 

The clock had scarce struck four on Monday morning, the twenty- 
third of April, ere I heard a knocking at our outer door. I was on the 
alert, as a man on the eve of departure it apt to be, and readily con* 
jectured that it could be no other than the porter, who had promised 
to call' me, and carry my trunk to the steamer that was to start that 
morning for Cadiz. Having dressed myself by the aid of a small lamp 
that was burning in the vestibule, I bade farewell again to my female 
friends on the other side of the partition, who had been waked by the 
tumult, and who, although I had received their hearty well-wishes the 
night before, were still nowise niggard of their commendations to God 
and to the Virgin. This, if it was uttered with no other advantage, at 
least served to send me away from Seville with the happiest impressions. 

On gaining the street, I noticed that the porter avoided the direct 
route, and, passing close to the Cathedral, took a broader street that 
lay to the right. Having asked the reason of this, he told me that sev- 
eral passengers, while going to the quay a few mornings before, had 
been waylaid and plundered. Quite as much interested as himself in 
avoiding such a rencontre, I assented, and having passed the gate, we 
proceeded along the quay and arrived safely on board the Hernan 
Cortes. The coolness and mist of the morning and the deeper dark* 
ness that precedes the dawn, all made the deck unpleasant and furnish- 
ed an inducement to dive below in search of better weather. Though 
this was the only steamer known in the country where the discovery 
first met with a successful application, it had been built in England, 
and» if not so gorgeously decorated as is usual with us, possessed every- 
thing that one might desire in the way of comfort. Some twenty or 
thirty gentlemen were stretched at full length upon the settees and 
benches, or else sitting round a dim lamp that stood on the table before 
them, engaged in a sleepy, scattering conversation. Politics being a 
proscribed topic among Spaniards, they talked of pleasure. The per- 
formers of Seville were compared with those of Cadiz, the boiero and 
boUra were discussed, and various opinions were put forth upon the 
stars of the opera. Commerce, of course, came in for a share of notice 
among commercial men» and ail joined in deploring its unequalled de« 



SEVILLE. Ml 

prewioiiy though no <me did more than advert to the oaQse. From 
Europe thej passed to America^ to Cuba, Mexico, and the United 
States, where some of them had been. It was delightful to hear my 
native land spoken of by the Spaniards in the language of unprejudiced 
eulogy — the equal fi>oting upon which foreigners are admitted into it— - 
the way in which commerce is left to take care of itself, and the mer- 
chant to dispose of his capital as he pleases, and the singular liberty 
enjoyed ^y both citizens and strangers of coming without any passport, 
and of going from city to city, and from state to state, without awing 
the permission of any one. And yet with all this freedom, there was 
frir more security than at Cadiz — a robber or a murderer was inevilaUy 
brought to justice. This led them to speak of a robbery which had 
lately been committed upon Xiraenez, a merchant of Cadiz. Several 
thousand dollars had been taken from his counting-house, and the per^ 
sons who had been engaged in it, from being poor people, were now 
seen leaving off their labor and enjoying a momentary affluence ; yet 
there was no taking hold of them, no convicting them of the theft, 
though everyone knew them to hare committed it. These gentlemen 
evinced an intelligence and a knowledge of what was passkig in the 
world, which I had nowhere met with in Spain. It was the first time 
since I had crossed the Pyrenees, that I had found an occasion of con* 
versing with Spaniards of my own country in my own language. 



. When the light besan to break in upon us through the oabm ' 
dows and drown the feebler, glimmering of the lamp, we were tempted 
to return to the deck. As the sun rose, the mists gradually regained 
their elasticity and floated away, discfosing a scene in which ve looked 
in vain for the beauties of AndsJusia. The Guadalquivir betow Sttritte 
passes through a level track, and divides itself into three branchee^ 
which reunite before it empties itself into the sea, near the port of San 
Lucar. These lowlands are almost entirely without cultivation and 
inhabitants, if you except a few herdsmen who tend the cattle and 
horses that graze in large droves upon the meadows. As there are no 
levees^ the river sometimes overik>ws its banks and covers the country 
with devastation. Towards the mouth, the meadows give place to 
sand banks thrown up by the sea, and covered with pine woods that 
furnish abundance of charcoal. On the right a single continuous hiU 
follow^ the course of the stream ; that is a minor branch of the Sierra 
Morena, holding out to the last and dying only in the ocean. In the 
.east, of the two hundred, towers of Seville, the Giralda alone still ling* 
ered above the horizon. 

Having asked some questions respecting the navigation of the Gua- 
dalquivir, I was informed that it was no longer navigable to Seville for 
vessels drawing more than nine feet of water, but vessels of three or 
four hundred tons may enter the river. This, however, is now a mat- 
ler^of Utile inportane^, since few vessels of any class are found to profit 



k^ it#* Atfiong the gtonp of sailorft, frcftn wlMMn 1 wts gtiheiitf g thli 
iiflbmiatioii, was a Kiaft •# tofly penon afid noble eoantenanea, but 
very meanly drerted in n diifgy ckHik of broWt!, and arotinfd hat alo^eh* 
ed over tKe ftioe. He Memed P^ know mneh abeut the eoantry, and 
expresfled hiitiidlf wHh an elegaaoe and flueikey whielf enhaiieed the 
baaoty of the graoefnl hmgnage in #hieh he npdke. Hia aecent had 
BOthing proftecial, and I fek Bare he ooold be ilo other than a Oastilian. 
I fbend, however, on the eontrary, that he waa not even a native of 
§^nw He Was born in Cavaeeaa, and his condonation idiowed he 
■laat have biden among the fiM of hit own country ; but he had dome 
early to Spain and taken emptoyaoent under the government^ and 
meantime the revolution broke out iff Anlerica. The gtyvermneitt not 
having the means of eompulaioB, had sent! Mm and two associates to 
try the ahernative of ilegotiation, but he returned witfiom efteting 
anything. He said nothing about his presetft oecupttion, but it was 
evident^ that, wliatevav it might be, it was uot congenial with his fbei^ 
ings nov early edocation. I^nbtless, he had taken the generous side 
in the diaseaaioas of the Peninsula, and was nowetpiatiafg the sin of a 
political hereay. 

As w« descended the stream, the breeze gradually came in str6ng 
fmm tbe ocean, audi made if evident that we would not be able to 
reach Oadiss in the pack?et ; for the aea is said to be rough on the bar. 
Under these circumstances it was determined that we should put into 
Bonanza. As we entered this little port, we passed through a fleet of 
fishing and coasting vessels that were riding at anchor. One of the 
aeamen of the peekec who belonged to Hn^va, poiiiied out a felucca 
among the number, which was eommatided by a descendant of Martin 
Alonzo Pfaiaoii, who bore ao conspicuous a part hi the itrat voyage of 
OolambttB. As we went by the little iehieca, which might be noticed 
among the rest for its neat order and compact rigging, a fine looking 
young man stood up to see vAi paaa. This was no other than Pinzon, 
with whom the sailor exchanged a shout of recognition. The sailor 
told me that Palos, which witnessed the doubtfitl departure of the ad^ 
venturous enthusiast and the gk>rious return of the discoverer, is now 
so dwindled that it scarce owns half a dozen fishing boeto. Hoelva 
has been increased by emigrants from Palba, and the Pinzons aie 
among the number. There are four fiimilies of them ,* they are not 
wealthy, but are much respected and are very proud of their aneeatofy 
whoae papers and jonmdb they preserve with religiotts reverence. 
Well may they be proud of Martin Alonzo; lor the honor of having 
acted the important part he did in the discovery of another world, la 
not lesa a sobjed of honest exulution than Mie proudest achievements 
of a Cid, a Guzman, or a Gonsalvo. 



•■nie (Saaddoaivir aloanda In «MABDt fifh. fheahid aa 
America, makei iti umua] viiiti here. 



KYILUS. MV 

A Imj w^ bojftofipQt Kfoe awaited lui at Bonanzs wIkw peaoafiil 
fluid pleaaaBl uBmip mghi We led ua to look for better thingB. Scarce, 
indeed, had our aacU^ dropped and the packet tended to the tide, tbae 
we were surrounded by boatmeB from the shore offering to land ns; 
fixr to have taken the packet .abngaide of the wharf w^ki have been 
a dangerous infringement of their rights* Here ensued a scene of 
bustle and clamor for precedence, which drowned entirely the hiss of 
the escaping steam* On reaching the wharf new troubles awaited us ; 
herds of hungry porters seized upon our trunks, while custom-house 
officers stopped us at the gate to examine their contents, and see what 
we might he smuggling from Seville to Cadiz* These trials passed, 
yet another set met us on the beach, where a number of caU$as were 
drawn op to carry us to Santa Maria, which stands upon the bi^ of 
Cadiz, opposite the city. The drivers, accoutred in the genuine 
breeches .and many colored jacket proper to cahserQs, rushed round ua, 
cracking their whips and praising their. mules and horses; or calling 
our attention to the softness of the cushions, or to the painting of a 
ship or a saint, whioh adorned the back. Among the passengers waa 
a British colonel with his lady. He could scarce say yes and no in 
Spanish, and yet was surrounded on every side by these clamorous 
mortals, talking to him as fast as they could, and at the top of their , 
lungs. The U>atmaa was demanding an additional pefeto^-the cw 
tom-houaa officer thrust out his hand for a fee, and the porter sat upon 
his portmanteau* as if determined to maintain possession until fully re^ 
munerated ; while the caUuros were calling his attention to their veh>- 
cle& The poor man understood not a word of it ; he only knew that 
there was a general conspiracy to cheat him, and was determined to 
resist the injustice, instead of submitting quietly to the operation. He 
was a stout, well set man, with a fiery complejuon, which seemed no 
unfair indication of his character; for he looked as though be would 
willingly have whipped off the head of every sinner of them, casting 
his eye first on his sword and then on his wife, the recoHeotion Si 
whom recalled him always to the more pacific use of words. He talked 
to them in no very good French, then attempted a word or two of 
.Spanish which the fellows repeated by way of ridicule, and at last MX 
to cursing them soundly in plain English. They were not be intimi- 
dated — they called him ' God damn,' and * Carajo,' and insisted upon 
having the money. In this situation, a fellow passenger came to his 
assistance with an offer of interpreting for him. By a little k>wering of 
demands on the part 4>f these worthies, and an increased anxiety to get 
forward on the other, Jthe matter was presently arranged, and the colo- 
nel set out for San Lucen in a caiesin, drawing sundry comparisons 
between England and Spain, which were by no means favorable to the 
latter^ By this time, all the other passengers had gone away and left 
me abne to fight it out for myself. There were, however, several caU' 
sines untaken ; so, putting myself up at auction, I presently knocked 
down to the lowest bid<]^r, and hurried away, aiding the driver in 
baetiof the horse sotnidly, that we might overtake the rest of the cara- 
van. This was a matter of no squall importance, for though the coan- 



804 SfeVfLLfi. 

irj was sandj and open, we were now attended 1^ not le^ than six 
horaemen pnid by the proprietors of the packet, and I had always Iband 
that the danger from robbers was in proportion to the strength of the 
escort. It appeared indeed from what had been said on board, that 
the taUseros are connected with the robbers, and sometimes tag behind, 
when they take advantage of an angle of the road to pick up a strag- 
gler — at others, they seize boldly upon the inn that stands Upon a hfll 
midway between San Lacen and Santa Maria, and have a regular 
rencontre. 



We reached the port of Santa Maria at sunset and without any ad* 
ventures. We were extremely anxious to pass the night in Cadiz, 
rather than in the indifferent inns of Santa Maria. But the tide was 
now too low to leave the river, and though one of the boatmen endeav- 
oured to get us on board of his felucca, with the view of making sure 
of us for the morrow, yet the representations of the landlord of the 
posada^ who was anxious to have our company, connected with the ex- 
perience of some of the paity respecting the danger of crossing the bar, 
induced us to wait until morning. Afler a poor dinner, which was a 
little qualified by some genuine Sherry, one of my fellow travellers 
proposed a ramble to which I gladly assented. On leaving the posada 
we struck into a path leading along the bank of the small stream which 
fk>wed beneath our balconies, and the mouth of which forms the little 
port of Saint Mary. This is the Guadaletc, upon which stands the 
famous old city of Xerez. Near Xerez was fought, eleven centuries 
since, that -celebrated battle between the Arab Taric and Don Roder- 
ick, the last of the (joths, which decided the fate of Spain. An old 
tradition says, that Roderick, having lost the day, escaped to Portugal, 
where he died in obscurity, upon the authority of which Southey has 
undertaken to resuscitate him. The Arabians assert that his head was 
sent to Damascus, and the Spanish chroniclers will have it that he was 
drowned, like many of his followers, in this same stream of Guadalete, 
and that a part of his royal apparel was found upon the banks. Xerez 
is also celebrated in Spain for its fine horses, and, all the world over, 
for the excellence of its wine. Santa Maria is the depot of this pro- 
duct ; the first qualities are much finer, and far more expensive than 
the best wines of Madeira.* Having rambled through the pleasant 
paseo, which lies northward of the town, and admired some fine speci- 
mens of the black eyed beauties, for which Santa Maria is famous, we 
returned to the posaiki. 

The next morning we rose at an early hour, and found ourselves as 
badly off as we had U»en the night before ; for the tide had flowed and 
ebbed again, and was now once more at the lowest. The masters of 

* It is a fliiisiilar ioBtance of die EosHsh faculty of dlfltofting foreign names, that 
Xerez SeeOy dry Xerex, should have been oooverted iniD Sherry Sack. We have 
a liinilar instance in our own oountry. Cajo Hoesois the name of a amaB Island on 
the coast of Florida. It means literally, Bone Island— we have turned it into Key 
West. 



SEVILLE. aOi 

two ot the feluccas htd however been wiser than tlieir bc^hreo ; for 

during the night they had moved them withoiit the bar. Several e4d&' 
seros, who had concerted with the boatmen, had their caiesines drawn 
up at the door, and offered to convey us round to the feluccas. The 
idea that the tide would be at the same point again the next morning 
had not occurred to us in the evening, and our host had neglected to 
remind us of the fact, lest he should lose our society in taking his cbo- 
tolate. As the matt^ stood, there was no alternative between taking 
the advice of the poscuiero and the boatmen, whose feluccas were at the 
quay, that we should wait the flowing of the tide, or of the caleseras 
and the boatmen from without, who insisted that we should arrive two 
hours sooner at Cadiz by employing them. The most expeditious way 
of escaping from these perplexities and torments seemed the best, and 
we, one and all, determined to go round with the caleseros. This ar* 
rangement and its general adoption by the whole party did not at all 
suit the views of the watermen, who were thus left without employment. 
When persuasion and arguments failed, they called us tonics for paying 
away so much money uselessly, and first growling at the cideseros^ they 
presently began to quarrel with them. When we started off, they even 
caught hold of the backs of the caiesines to stop them. This brought 
ihem sundry strokes with the whip, followed up by others upon the 
rumps of the horses, which soon relieved us of the embarrassment, and 
sent us away in a hurry with the curses of the watermen, leaving an 
£^n quarrel between them and the eaUseros to be afterwards settled 
over a pot of wine, or more summarily decided by the arbitration of 
the knife. This was not the last source of vexation ere we reached 
Cadiz. When we got to the beach opposite to the feluccas, several 
fishermen volunteered their services to carry us on their shoulders to 
them. When this service had been rendered, they demanded an ex- 
orbitant remiroeration, which some of us consented to pay, but which 
an honest Catalan who had labored hard to gsi his gear, and thought 
that what had given so much trouble in collecting, was at least worth 
taking care of, absolutely refused. He was a very robust, portly man, 
and had made quite a ludicrous figure in coming off, mounted upon 
the shoulders of the fisherman. He said not a word about the price 
tlien, but kept cautioning him against letting him into the water, and 
promising what a world c? money he would give him if he arrived sa&. 
As the water grew deeper and began laving the skirts of his coat, he 
tried to work upward on the fellow's shoulders, and puffed and blowed 
as if he were already swimming. The difficulty over, however, he 
seemed to think less of it, and beat the fisherman down to the half of 
bis demand. This produced a new riot, and seot us on our journey in 
a squall. The occurrences of the day^ and all that I saw of these 
people a( Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Malaga, convinced me that the lower 
clanes on the coast of Andalvsia are tlte most quarrelsome, cheating^ 
fAd vindictive rascals in the world. It suggested to me the source of 
« sweeping prejudice which I had formerly felt against all Spaniards ; 
Sof in the colonial seaports^ the Spaniards whom I had met^ and firom 
wh«m I had received ay impressions of the national character, were 



806 SEVILLE. 

all either froni the ports of Andalusia or descendaats of eroigruit&fjNmi 
that section of the Peninsula. 



There was scarce a breath of wind in the bay of Cadiz, and the in^- 
ward and outward bound ressels stood still with flapping sails, or on* 
ly moved with the tide, whilst a boat was seen rowing under the bow 
of each to keep it in the channel. This being the case, we did not 
loose our sail, but the rowers took to their oars to toil over to the city, 
which lies eight miles from Santa Maria. They did not sit still and 
sweep the oar by the more muscular exertion of the arms, shoulders, 
and back ; but rose to each stroke upon their feet, sending the oar 
through the water by the weight of the body, as they let themselves 
fall towards the benches. Our sailors ridicule this clumsy operation ^ 
which they call playing hard tail, from the forcible manner in which 
the breech and bench come in contact. But if this mode of rowing 
be less graceful than ours, it is certainly much less laborious. We 
had not gone far from the beach, ere we came to the outer bar of the 
Guadalcte. Here upon a signal from the master who stood up at the 
helm, the rowers all rested on their oars, and taking off their hats ut* 
tered a short prayer for the souls of the mariners who had ]>een there 
drowned. This done, they crossed themselves, replaced their hats, 
and renewed their rowing, their conversation, and their songs. For* 
merly it was the cnstom to take np alms, to have masses said fbr the 
ransom of such souls of drowned sinners as still continued in purgato^ 
ry. The master of the felucca tc^d me that there had been many, 
very many drowned there. Scarce a year without its victims ; for the 
surf comes in so treacherously, that after rowing over a smooth sea, 
a wave is seen rising behind, at first small, but gradually increasing, 
and driving the boat sideways before it, comes combing over, fills the 
boat and rolls it and the passengers in the quick sands. When I 
looked at the smooth surface of the sea, as it now glided by us in rip- 
ples, I could not help reflecting upon the many miserable men that 
had there sunk never again to rise ; many an unhappy being balanc- 
ing betweensinking and swimming, whom a single one of these useless 
oars and planks that lay at the bottom of our boat would have kept 
Upon the surface — ^nay, whom a thread might have sustained until the 
arrival of succour. 

In about two hours we reached the quay, one of the noisiest places 
in the world, and passed thence to the nearest gate, where numbers of 
custom house and police officers were standing ready to search and 
examine every one who came in'. We got off with a gratuity, not 
smuggled secretly, but openly administered into the hand of the func- 
tionary. This admitted us into the Plaza de Mar ; an open place 
which lies just within the sea gate and which was crowded with sn 
odd collection of people. Here is held a market place fyr the sale of 
ali sorts of provisions ; Iruit, eggs, and vegetables, ice, barley, and 
lemon water; American parrots trying to make themselves heard in 



SEVILLE. Wf 

the uproar ; singing birds in cages or unfledged in the nest, opening 
their yawning mouths to receive the food, offered them on the end H 
a stick — ^poor substitute for the parent's beak. And herCi most strange 
of all, are sold grassJioppers, confined in little traps; to enliven the 
bedchambers of the Cadiz ladies with their evening chirp — unsatis- 
&ctory solace of the single and solitary. In addition to the noises 
sent forth by the venders of all* these commodities and by the commo- 
dities themselves, there was a fearful jabbering in every tpngoe of 
Eun^. Hordes of Frenchmen were seen making their court to the 
pretty serving maids and gypsies who frequent the market, and asking 
for a rendezvous ; Germans, Dutchmen, English, Italians, and even 
turbaned and bearded Moors, with their grave and guttural declamar 
tion, added to the confiision. 



Cadiz is situated at the extremity of a peninsula which makes out 
into the ocean, northwestward from the island of Leon. South of 
this peninsula is the open ocean, stretching away towards the Medi- 
terranean straits, while on the north is a deep bay formed by the 
peninsula itself and the Spanish coast, running in the direction of 
C^ie Saint Vincent. The open bay furnishes a harbor which is not 
always secure, for the northwest winds sometimes bring in a heavy 
and dangerous sea ; but the inner port, ivhere the navy yard is star 
tioned, is at all times safe and commodious. This admirable station 
for the pursuits of commerce attracted the attention of the earliest 
navigators. So long ago as eight centuries before the christian era, 
the Phoenicians, having founded Carthage and pushed their dominions 
beyond the pillars of Hercules, even to Britain, were induced to ea> 
tablish several colonies on the coast of Spain, where the abundance of 
silver and gold attracted them, even more than the fertility of the soil 
and the amenity of the climate. Of these colonies, Gades was the 
principal* Being moreover anxious by every means to strengthen 
their influence over the minds of the wild and warlike Spaniards, 
they erected a magnificent temple to enclose the two famous pillars of 
brass, raised by Hercules, when he came to Spain, about thirteen cen- 
turies before the christian era. The existence and character of these 
pillars, and of the man who reared them, are surrounded by fable and 
mystery. The most probable account of them is, that one Osiris, an 
Egyptian chief, having passed into Spain to rescue that country from 
the tyranny of Geyron, succeeded in conquering and slaying the ty- 
rant in the plain of Tarifa. But he became reconciled to the three 
sons of Geyron, and left them at liberty. In return for this indul- 
gence, they caused him to be assassinated. Osochor Hercules, the 
son of Osiris, as soon as he was able, passed into Spain to avenge his 
Other's death. Having arrived with his army before the walls of Ca- 
diz, he is said to have offered the Geyrons, that since their quarrel 
was a private one, they should spare the blood of their followers and 
decide it by single combat, and he himself would meet the three sing- 



3CP8 SEVILLE. 

ly , until he or they should be slain. The Geyrons gladly accepted the 
challenge, but the force of Hercules prevailed, and the three broth- 
ers were slain. . In conclusion, he pacified Spain, built Cadiz, and 
raised the famous pillars.* They are supposed originally to have had 
some connexion with the patriarchal religion, like the pillar raised 
by Ja(^b ; for we read in holy writ, that after having seen the vision 
the night he slept so uncomfortably in the open air with a stone pil* 
low under his head, the patriarch rose early and ' took the stone he 
had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon 
the top of it.' Doubtless like these pillars were also the famous ones of 
brass, called Jachin and Boaz, erected by Solomon in the temple ^of 
Jerusalem, and described by Josephus and in the book of Kings. 
The word Hercules is conjectured to have been a cognomen added 
by the Phoenicians, to denote a great voyager or conqueror. Hence 
it is that we have so many Hercules ; the Grecian, the Tyrian, and 
the Egyptian, each with his distinctive name of Alcides, Agenor and 
Osochor. From all these wonderful men, who, no doubt, once exis^ 
ed, the Greeks formed a single hero, to whom they have ascribed with 
due amplification the achievements of the whole number. Thus the 
eleven labors of Hercules have been made up ; the slaughter of the 
Geyrons being one of them, for which the life of one man is mani- 
festly inadequate ; hence, for consistency's sake, Hercules was con- 
verted, into a god. Osochor the Lybian, who raised these columns, 
is he from whom the god takes his attributes of the club and the gar- 
ment formed from the skin of a lion ; no unfitting guise for a savage 
chief famed for his courage and prowess. 

Such was the estimation in which this sacred temple was held by the 
Carthaginiank, that Hannibal, when he had taken Saguntum and was 
about to march towards Rome at the head of one hundred thousand 
men, though himself an open scoffer at all religion, would not, from 
respect to his superstitious followers, undertake the expedition with- 
out having first made his vows in the temple of Cadiz. So immense 
were the riches of the temple, that they served to bear the expenses of 
the second Punic war, and may, indeed, have had something to do 
with Hannibal's pious visit. Julius Ciesar, too, though he had made 
Yarro disgorge the sacrilegious plunder of the temple, yet when he 
had gained the battle of Munda, himself took great treasures from it, 
which doubtless helped to pave the way to his assumption of supreme 
power. Among the wonders of the temple were the belt of Teucer, 
and the golden olive tree of Pygmalion. The only statue which was al- 
lowed a place in it, except that of the god, was a colossal image of 
Alexander. It was in the presence of this very image that Ctesar, 
when he came to Spain as Questor, sighed and even wept to recollect, 
that at an age when Alexander had conquered the world, he had yet 
done nothing worthy to be recorded. The priests who offered up 
the sacrifices in the temple of Hercules, were to be chaste, not by 

* They are odierwiae attributed to the Tyrian Hercules, who fibres In the ex- 
pedition of the Argonaut!. 



SEVILLE. 389 

VOW merely, as t)ie Levites of modern Cadiz — but de facto. They 
were further to have their heads shayed, feet bare, and robe tucked 
up. Dogs and flies were piously excluded from the temple of Hercu- 
les at fi4Nne ; and in this more sacred one of Cadiz, the interdiction 
was further extended to both pigs and women. 

It may be asked what remains are there to bear witness to the ex- 
istence of this wonderful tomple and to the past grandeur of Cadiz, 
the city which once sent forth the Carthaginian Hanno to explore and 
cdUttiise Africa. £yen the site of the temple remained a problem in 
modern limes, until the year seventeen hundred and thirty, when its 
ruins were discovered under water near the island of Santi Petiri, in 
consequence of an unusually low tide. This fact, in connexion with 
some accounts concerning the former extent of Cadiz, prove conclu^ 
aively that it has been greatly wasted by the attacks of the sea, which, 
while it abandons the Mediterranean coast of Spain, is daily gaining 
ground on the side of the Atlantic. I had an opportunity of observ* 
ing this for myself; for, while I was at Cadiz, a portion of the beau- 
ti&l wall which surrounds the city had fallen in, in consequence 
of the encroachments of the Sea, and in many other places it was un- 
dermined and in a tottering condition. 



Cadiz also contained many Phosnician, Greek, and Roman inscrip* 
tions and other antiquities. Among them was an odd epitaph, found, 
upon the tomb of some man-hating Cynic, who thought be had fled to 
the end of the earth. It ran, MIeliod<Hrus, a Carthaginian madman, 
ordered me by his will to be put into this sarcophagus, at this farthest 
extremity of the globe, that he might see whether any one more mad 
than himself woi3d come as far as this place to see him !' All these 
memorials of the past vanished in 1597, when Elizabeth sent her favor* 
ite Essex with two hundred ships and fifteen thousand men, including 
aeamen and soldiers, to avenge the insults of the haughty Philip and h^ 
Invincible Armada. Lord Effingham commanded the fleet, accom- 
panied by all the gallant spirits of the day ; Lord Thomas Howard, 
Sir C<Nmier8 Cliflford, Sir George Carew, Sir Francis Vere, and Sir 
Walter Raleigh. The destination of the fleet was not known until after 
it put to sea, and thus it arrived ofi* Cadiz without any intimation. E»« 
sex, when he had prevailed upon the cautious admiral to make the 
altack, was informed that the queen, careful of his life, had ordered 
that he should keep himself in the centre of the fleet. He promised 
to do BO ; but no sooner did he see Sir Walter Raleigh leading boldly 
into the inner harbor, under a dreadful fire from the batteries on either 
aide, than throwing his hat overboard he gave way to his impatience, 
and pressed at once forward into the thickest of the fire. The inner 
harbor was full of ships newly arrived, and laden with bullion and the 
precious commodities of America. These were run on shore by the 
Spanish admiral, the Duke of Medina, and when he saw that the 
headlong valor of the English was about to prove successful, he caus- 



310 SEVILLE. 

ed them to be fired. Leaving this scene of conflagration, Eaaex got 
possession of Puntalis, and no longer ruled by any will bat his own, 
marched with his soldiers along the narrow causeway which leads 
from Leon to Cadiz, and regardless of the batteries that swept hk 
ranks, stormed the city sword in hand. The Spaniards fought as 
usual from house to house, and many of the English were slain ; of 
the Spaniards many more, not less than four thousand, but none in 
cold blood. When the resistance ceased, the town was given orer to 
plunder, and the generals having taken their stations in the town hall, 
the principal inhabitants came to kiss their feet. The priests and 
nuns were dismissed unconditionally ; but the rest of the population 
were compelled to give hostages for the payment of a stipulated ran- 
som. This done, the treasure was embarked, the inhabitants were 
driven from their homes, and the city was delivered to the flames. 
Thus perished Cadiz, and with her the statue of Alexander and every 
trace of present and pristine greatness.* 



Upon the later glories, and still later misfortunes of Cadiz, it is un- 
necessary to enlarge. The commercial prosperity of the city, the 
thousand masts that filled its port, when this was the only corner 
of the Peninsula untrod by the foot of the usurper ; the fearless 
proclamation of the Constitution of the year 1812 by the Spanish 
Cortes, under the very fire of Matagorda ; the later revoiutioD in this 
same island of Leon by Riego and Queiorga, and the very troops who 
were about to depart to replace the cast off fetters of the free Ameri- 
cans ; and finally, the gloomy drama of 1823, are all things of yester- • 
day, in the recollection of every one. But it may not be amiss to take 
a view of Cadiz, as she now presents herself to the attention of the 
the stranger. Her population has been lately set down at sixtytwo 
thousand ; but it is doubtless much lessened since the fall of com- 
merce ; if any opinion may be formed from the number of vacant 
houses, to be seen everywhere. To the standing number of the in- 
habitants, however, must now be added an army of ten thousand 
French, who have their quarters in and about the city. These add 
much to the life and gaiety of the place, in both of which particulars 
it would without them be very deficient. They are the soul of the 
theatres, the public walks, and the coffee houses, where soldiers and 
officers meet as on a neutral ground, captains going with captains, 
lieutenants with their equals, and corporals with corporals, and where 
of whatever grade they are equally conspicuous for correct deport- 
ment and civility. I have often been amused with the conversation 
of the common soldiers and sub-officers. Sometimes they admire the 

* The plunder w said to have amounted to eight millions of ducats, and six mil- 
lions perished with the fleet. The loss by the univeraal conflagration, like the mis- 
ery consequent upon it, id of course inestimable. See Hume. Mariana. James' 
History of Straits, &c. 



SEVILLE. 311 

beauty of a female whom they have jast passed or who is walking hep* 
fore them, speaking critioally of whatever is pleasing an4 lovely in her 
face or figure, and talking, perhaps purposely, in a high whisper, that 
they may be overheard, as if by accident, by the object of their admi- 
ration — ^not BO loud as to embarrass, yet just loud enough to please 
and flatter. Sometimes, too, and much oftener, they talk about the 
prospects of war and gaining glory and advancement ; the corporal 
declaims upon la iaetique miUiaire^ and sighs for quelquepeu de promo* 
Hon, the l^eight of his present ambition being to win the half silver 
epaulette of the sergeant major, or to become a sub-lieutenant and reach 
the first step above the rank of sous officier. Even in their cups and rev- 
elry these lighthearted fellows continue to amuse ; and when some- 
times they sit too long over the hardy wines of Spain, forgetting that 
they have not to deal with the peHts tins of their province, instead of 
passing insults, which among them can never be washed away except 
by blood, instead of pulling out their swords, or belaborio^each other 
with their fists, which they never do, whether drunk or sober, they 
seem, on the contrary, overcome with a rare kindness, and the most 
drunken fellow of the company is taken with the fancy of assisting his 
companions in this their helpless condition. Should a sudden reel of 
this officious assistant, or the twisting of his spur or sabre, bring a 
whole group to the ground, instead of coming to blows they laugh at 
the accident, and fall to hugging and kissing each other. Hardy and 
intrepid upbn the field of battle, the social sentiment is strong in the 
breast of the Frenchman — frank, generous, and loyal, he is a stranger 
to jealousy and suspicion, he is ever ready to give his hand to a friend 
and lay his heart at the feet of the nearest fair one. 

On the Sunday which I passed in Cadiz, I was so fortnnate as to 
witness a military mass, performed for the benefit of the soldiery. At 
the proper hour the general arrived and took his seat, attended by his 
staff, and the veteran colonels of the different regiments, their breasts 
decorated with stars and other insignia. Presently the advancing 
troops are heard, and by and by they enter the church with clang of 
drum and trumpet ; the arches resound to the stern orders of the com- 
mander, and the pavement rattles with their descending muskets. 
The veteran Sapewrs with their bear-skin caps, their long beards, 
white aprons and shouldered axes, march boldly op the steps of the 
altar, and seem, like a presbyterian prayer, ready to take heaven by 
holy violence. The drums are silent ; the din of arras ceases ; not a 
whisper is heard ; and the solemn service commences. At length the 
Host is elevated to the contemplation of the multitude, a bell rings^ 
and the soldiers with uncovered heads and arms reversed, kneel hum- 
bly upon the pavement. At that moment a gently swelling burst of 
music is heard resounding in the dome, dissolving the soul into ten- 
derness, and soothing it with the promise of reconciliation. 

Though no nation and no soldiers are calculated to ingratiate them- 
selves like the French, yet a yoke, whether it be made of wood or iron, 
is always heavy to the wearer. There are many abuses consequent 
upon this military occupation, injurious alike to the nation and the 



312 Seville:. 

«itjr, aiid which.aie likely to oontinue for a long whye^ fortbefe neHf 
masters seem firmly fixed at Cadiz, which they certainly have as good a 
right to, aod, for aught we know, are as likely to keep as the English to 
maintain Gibraltar.* The French government, it seems, openly coun- 
tenances the contraband introduction of goods from Franpe^ with the 
view of giving enlarged outlets to the national industry. Thus whole 
cargoes of flour, provisions, and even fancy goods are landed under the 
pretence of being stores for the army ; for it is one of the stipulations 
in the treaty between the two nations, that a|l stores for the use of the 
auxiliary armies may be introduced from France, free of cbargew The 
government is, doubtless, unwise in encouraging these practices, or ait 
least in employing its military and naval officers in such service ; for 
any slight advantage that may be thus gained by the monopoly of a 
lucrative trade, is more than counterbalanced by the moral injury which 
it produces upon the military character. The best proof of this is 
found in the result. The French ships of war« stationed at Cadiz, 
instead of cruising about to gain that nautical experience which th« 
officers so greatly need, remain almost constantly in port The officers 
pass the greater part of the time in the gaieties of the shore, or employ 
themselves in smuggling valuable goods into Cadiz and the environs ; 
nay, to so shameful an extent is this thing carried, that I have evea 
heard of their going on board an American ship, newly arrived from 
the Havana, to offer their assistance in landing any Spanish cigars that 
the captain might be anxious to send on shore without encountering 
the vexations of the customhouse. This sickly and demoralizing 
contraband, with an occasional arrival from the colonies, and a coasting 
trade, frequently interrupted by the South American pirates, comprise 
the whole commerce of this once flourishing mart. The imp<>verish-' 
ment consequent upon such a decline, in a place entirely destitute of 
agricultural resources, is sufficiently obvious ; and the evil has been 
increased into tenfold misery by the proscription of many patriots — a 
class more numerous and respectable in Cadiz than elsewhere ; — the 
confiscation of their property, and abandonment of their families 
to starvation and ignominy. This misery speaks for itself. Scarce, 
indeed, may one go forth into the streets by day or night, without 
being pursued by crowds of beggars, and not un frequently by women 
decently dressed, who still preserve a semblance of their former ele- 
gance, though begging their daily bread ; or worst of all, seeking a 
market for the charms of a daughter, born like themselves, not merely 
to loveliness and beauty, but likewise to wealth and a good name, and 
the prospect of the happiest connexions. 



The decline of Cadiz is however, so modern a disaster, that it atill 
xontinues to maintain its beauty ; it is indeed, so far as streets and 
houses and general disposition go, the handsomest city in Spain, and 



^Cadiz is now evacuated. 



SEVILLE. 313 

fme of the handsomest in the world. It is entirely sarrounded by a 
fine wall, washed by the waves, within which is a rampart, forming the 
complete circuit of the city and affording a continnoas walk, which 
commands a broad view of the sea without, or of the bay and distant 
land and the narrow isthmus leading to the Isla. Within this rampart 
lies the city, beautifully laid out with abundance of squares, and fine 
streets with side walks, crossing each other at right angles. The 
houses are very beautiful, as well as admirably adapted to the climate. 
They are built in the style which was introduced by the Arabs and is 
now general throughout Spain ; being of two stories, with a square in 
the centre, and a double gallery, supported on columns of marble, run- 
ning round the interior. In summer an awning is spread over the 
area of this square, and being wet from time to time, the place is always 
kept cool. The sun is never permitted to enter this pleasant retreat, 
where the evening tertulia is held ; where the chocolate is served, and 
the lover is admitted to touch his guitar and pour out his paseson in the 
eloquence of song, or to listen to a sweeter melody and catch the spirit 
of wit and merriment from the frolic sallies of some bewitching Gadi- 
tana. The windows on the street reach from the ceiling to the tile 
iloor, so as to leave a free passage for the air. Each has a balcony, 
furnished with a green veranda, through the lattices of which you may 
sometimes catch sight of a fair tenant, sitting amid plants and flowers, 
covering a handkerchief with the elaborate embroidery which the Span- 
ish ladies love, whilst the rose, the geranium, and the lavender encom- 
pass her with perfumes, and the canary which hangs above, pleased 
with a climate kindly as his own, keeps constantly greeting her with 
fats song. 

There are no regular sights at Cadiz in the way of paintings and 
public buildings. The convents and churches are in smaller numbers 
and on a poorer footing than elsewhere ; for they and commerce do not 
aeem to have flourished together. There are, however, several benev- 
olent institutions which do great credit to the public spirit of Cadiz ; 
such are the Almshouse, where several hundreds of poor people are 
maintained at the public expense, doing what they can towards sup- 
porting themselves, and receiving pay for what they -earn over and 
above their own maintenance ; the Academy of San Fernando, where 
the fine arts are gratuitously taught with even greater skill than at 
Madrid. Such also is the Society of Friends of the Country, similar 
to that of Madrid. The patriotic individuals who compose it, have here 
established a garden for the acclimation of valuable foreign plants and 
other productions. Among other things that may be seen in this gar- 
den, is the cochineal bug. The eggs of the female are put in a little 
piece of gauze, and pinned to a leaf of the prickly pear. When hatched, 
they crawl through the apertures of the gauze, and spread themselvefl 
over the plant, which furnishes them with food. When they have 
gained the full growth, and are bloated with blood which furnishes 
Sie dye, they are knocked with a knife from the plant into some liquid 
which destroys life. They are then packed up in their natural state, 
and become a marketable article. Thb bug was for a long while con- 
40 



814 SEVILLE. 

Bidered $be Med of 9omie Mexican plant ; but the agricultural eqoietMMF 
of Cai(Uz, jBeF^llCy and Malaga, are now busily employed in distributing 
them gr.a|U^itou8)y among the cultivators. As the pUnt and insect 
thrive well in this genial climate, and require very little trou)>le and at- 
tention, this mo^ preciops of all dyes, which furnishes the manufactiirer 
with his scarl^ crimson, the landscape painter with his carmine, and 
the frail and palefaced with their rouge, is likely to become both cheap 
and abundant. 

The best view of Cadiz, to give a general idea of its situation and 
appearance, is from the top of the signal tower. Thence the eye takes 
in ^, pro^iect, wbicbi to those but little accustomed to sea scenery, 
must indeed be enchanting. Jf you look eastward, your eye follows 
the narrow causeway leadiog to Leon, takes in the batteries that de- 
fend the inner harbor, and discovers the verdant coast, whitened at 
intervals by many villages. Medina Sidonia, founded by the Phmni- 
cians of Sidon, rears itself in the distance ; and farther yet may be 
faintly seen the .cloud-covered mountains of Ronda. Returning sea* 
ward, you follow th0 lin0 of the bay and poin^ tQ Piferio Real, Santa 
Maria, and Rota, taking in the fleet that floats in the roads, and the 
ships that everywhere cover the sea, where wave succeeds wave in 
dwindled perspective, until far in the west it is seen to blend its blue 
outline with the kindred assure of the sky. 

Nor does Cadiz itself lose anything wh^n thus seen firpm above. Iok 
4tead of the awkward combination c? tile roofe and phimnies, whic^ 
the tops of houses usually c^er, we have here a level surface amoothlf 
plastered, connecting all th<e houses of the safne block, where the laaie 
devil could hop about with much greater convenience and security 
than upon the breakneck roofs of Madrid, and of which sundry devils 
who are not lame, though they deserve to be so, make uqe to pass noe- 
tornaliy from house to house. In overlooking this range of roofe, yon 
can trace the interior courts with the noisy streets and pabli<; places, 
whilst the pleasanter region above is covered io some instances witb 
orange trees and flower pots. Almost every house has its towering 
kiosk, where, in the cool of the evening, the wealthier classes of Qf^i- 
tanos and Gaditanas repair, to enjoy the view and fly kites, for m\dch 
diversion men, women, and children, have an equal bias- ttve^ ti^e 
great Ferdinand caught the kite flying infection, as he would hav^ 
caught the yellow fever, had he made his visit a few ye^s sooner \ ifir 
while the greater Angouleme — Pacificator of Anduja^r-r-WKS debaiicbr 
ing the ^asy virtue of the Trocadero, and buying the privilege of haYiW 
his deeds of arms emblazoned upon the arch reared inhanorqfthe 
little Napoleon, Ferdinand was flying his royal kite uni) smoking h0r 
faaueros puros — indifiefent to the result of a contest, which W^ leei^ 
to decide whether he was to be henceforth the servant of th^ C^ns$it|}^ 
tion or the slave of the clergy. 



^:m 



SEVILLE. 'US 

But let me not forget the Plaza-de-San Antonio, nor, least of all, the 
shady Alameda; for these are the nightly resort of all the fashion and 
beauty of Cadiz. No one who has been there has ever dared to gain- 
say the charms of the Gaditana — none to deny that, of ail the creatures 
in creation, she is the most lovely, the roost enchanting. She is, for 
the most part, tali, slender 'waisted, and delicate ; yet no one who had 
an eye to the healthy fullness of her cheek and other occasional indi- 
cations of embonpoint'—or, to keep to our own tongue, of good condi- 
tion — and to the assured precision and elasticity of hbr step, would 
ever accuse her of leanness or flaccidity. As for her ankle, it is round 
and springy, and is seen to tenfold advantage through the silken net- 
work of her stocking. Her well turned foot, ready at each step to 
abandon its little slipper, is taken up and put down* again naturally, 
and without affectation, yet with an exquisite grace. Her betsqmnia^ 
once a petticoat of mohair, but now a silken gown, is festooned with 
cord and tassels or golden bells, and loaded with lead so as to fit close- 
ly round a form, to which the cliitiate allows the incumbrance of but a 
single additional garment. WhilHt the right hand opens aiid shuts tlie 
fan, or waves it with wondrous volubility in signal of recognition, the 
glossy taper fingers of the left, strung* with gold ahd precious stones, 
4x>nfine the floating sides of the mantillk, and assist in concealing those 
chttrms the btisquinia Blbne is scarce Me to cover. The rich fields of 
the mantilla give a spread and digiiity to the bust, yfet do by no ifa^ns- 
conceal the jet black festooils of her hair, her rbubd and sunny dh^^k, 
her coral lips, and those bla<^ slnd brilliant eyes; now full of animation 
and fire, now reatdy to dissol^ With tenderness, and seeming to be- 
se^eli you to woo arid tbwin her; No where does the material Woihan 
reach the perfection of Cadls^ ; liowhere do^s die attain so rare H' grae^. 
There itf, indeed, a charm id eVery look of the Gaditana, a halmony, a 
ftscination in* each #e]l poised mbVement, that at once stbitite the 
i and br^faks through t%t^' barrier of the most stubboili mbMity'.* 



* It isi a Bttle ri^ltfMie« that ih all ages the females of Cadiz have been ftmotif 
for (heir sini^lar grace and beauty. Under the Roman domhiallon their fame knew 
ao other limits thui those of the empire, throughout which they were noted for theif 
elegance, their gaiety, and their powers of fascination ; nay, the women of pleasure 
reared ther^, w(M allowed to i^nderstand the art of makine a gallant happy, better' 
^bMa any othets in Euh>pe'. If we may believe the Childe, the raee has by no mean* 
degtneratod iof these days of the basquinia and mantilla. 



CHAPTER XVflL 

KINGDOM OF SEVILLE. 

Levanter.— The Tartana and her Compeny. — liCave Cadiz^—Retum and take Hora^« 
—Leon ; Garraca; and the Sacred Salt Pans.— Chiclana and Yegel.— Night Ride 
in the Mountains.— The Nightingale. — ^Morning Ride and Robber Scenes. — ^Fiiat 
View of Gibraltar.— The MSuth of Fire.— Contrast. 

One of my first cares on reaching Cadiz had been to look up a ves- 
sel bound to Gibraltar. For this purpose I was referred to one Sign- 
or Maccaroni, a pains-taking Itdian who kept a petty shop neaor to 
the Plaza de Mar, for the sale of seamen's clothing. As a collateral 
branch of trade, he received the consignment of small crafl, com* 
manded by his countrymen, into whose hands the chief coasting 
trade of Spain is now fallen ; for vessels are no longer able to sail, 
even coastwise, under Spanish colors, from the numbers and boldness 
of the South American pirates. I found in the Signor, a thin-legged, 
meagre-faced little man, snuffed to death, and wasted with the cares of 
business. When he had learned my desire, he told me in modified and 
sweetened Spanbh and in a great hurry, Uiat he had something that 
would suit me exactly ; that there was a tartana which he had just been 
clearing at the custom house, and that if the levanter stopped blowings 
God willing, it should set sail the next morning. We were yet talking 
the matter over, when the skipper of the tartana entered — a stout, 
double fisted, hale old man, with a white weather beaten face, and eyes 
screwed up to a focus from much looking at squalls and levanters. 
We were soon agreed concerning the price, and the skipper, who 
had been reconnoitring the heavens, added that the clouds were ris- 
ing in the west and there was a prospect of wind firom that quarter. 
The clouds, however, rose to little purpose ; they were driven back 
again by the levanter, which continued to blow on, all prognosticap 
tions of the weatherwise to the contrary notwithstanding. This state 
of things continued, day after day, for nearly a week. It is quite bad 
enough to suffer from impatience and disappointment under any cir- 
cumstances, and in a levanter, where mingled languor and irritabili- 
ty comes over the whole creation, the case becomes intolerable. He 
who has been at Cadiz at such a time will never forget his sensations. 
They are well described by Fischer in his interesting letters on 
Spain. ' When the solano blows at Cadiz, the wind comes pregnant 
with suffocating vapors fi-om the Afi'ican desert ; the atmosphere has 
the appearance of bluish vapor, and seems fairly on fire ; and the sun. 



SEVILLE. 917 

u seen through it, looks large and broken : the sea beoomes calm 
and smoothy the water so warm that the fish come panting to the sui^ 
6ce. The air is close and burning, like the atmosphere of an oven, 
and the birds show their uneasiness in it by flying in a lower region ; 
dogs hide themselves ; cats seem in a rage ; mules gaq> and stagger ; 
fowls become restless ; and pigs roll over in the dust. In man it pro> 
duces tension of the nerves, renders circulation slower, and excites to 
excess and voluptuousness ; the imagination is bewildered ; the senses 
inebriated ; and all abandon themselves to a resistless instinct which 
is excited by solicitation and authorised by example/* 



Everything, however, has its end, and so has a levanter. At length 
the wind b^ame calm in the ni^t, and with the morning sua a 
breeze sprang up firom the west, bringing with it the refireshing air of 
the ocean. Our captain went round, beating up the quarters of his 
passengers, and before the ebb tide began to make at noon, we were 
ail snugly deposited upon the deck of the little tart€ma. She turned 
out to be a vessel of about thirty tons, with one large lateen sail, a 
jib, and jigger, which was planted upon the tafrail and took cajre of 
itself without assistance firom the crew. As for the cabin, it was 
about six feet long with two beggarly births, which serired as benches ; 
one of which was assigned to a female passenger, the other to me. 
A little table constituted the only fiirniture of the cabin, and a color- 
ed print of the Virgin fi'om a picture of Raphael, its only ornament. 
This formed a sort of shrine against the rudder case. As we were 
sailing under the auspices of her ladyship and indeed bore her name, 
the little barque being called the Virgin of Carmel, so soon as I dis« 
covered her presence, I hastened to make my obeisance. Among 
our passengers was a rough spoken, but shrewd and sensible Catalan, 
/who was going to Lisbon, but who not being able to sail direct, firom 
the existing nonintercourse growing out of the fear of constitutional 
contagion, had obtained a passport to return to Catalonia, intending 
to shape his course according to his own fancy, when he should find 
himself in Gibraltar. Beside the female passenger there were seve- 
ral other women who sat in the hold. There was also a Moor of Te- 
tuan. He was a middle sized, well looking man, with a large 
white turban over a red cap ; a pair of big cloth breeches that were 

* This coincides exactly with what we are told in the excellent work of Bowles, 
on the Natural History and Physical Geography of Spain. * £1 viento solano es tan 
peijudicial en Cadiz como en SevUIa, donde trastoma la cabezay endende la sangre 
de modo qae mientras reyma, se ven excesos de todas especias, cuando sopla dies o 
doce dias enCadix causa los mismos desordenes, introduce mnde acrimonia en la 
sanpre, sobre todo en las mugeres, poniendo en tal tension sus Ebras, que algunas Ile- 
gan a padecer el furor uterine, y no cesan los sintomas hasta que los vientos contraries 
discipan sas malinias inflnencias. 

' £o que dice Fischer del « ejemplo publico " se puede interpretar litendmente. 
Yo he i4sto de mis qjos en varios cuidades de Andalucia, que cuando sopla el sola- 
no y ton cuando no sopla, lascalles abiertas no ofrecen sieropre altares, des-dena- 
dos, para los sacrificios de Venus. 



dUiS SEVILLE. 

pot <m wfi(^ a d4»awiiig string 6t saali ; aad a ii«ttf bkMe jitel^t, rftaihe^ 
affile sIc^evM attd covered with- emb^dery. A Ibo^e Aa»eil dif eldth' 
ofM*coa», wilhoHli ea^pe or collar, ebmi^ted hifl" eoBtAme: He iMMf 
trftded many yeaiH t» Spaitf in a petty baiVer ef frutf, dlippei^, arid 
otlkar pfodu«€ion9 of his^bufiti^; and^ke tils' 1aBfda!ge #^IJ, tky«ii(h 
vn^ in ttddifion to the strongly guttural acceiit which its pifop^ to it, 
aflndi wh^eh, doubtless, bad^ its origin fl-om the int«r<tou¥8e #ith' his 
cxmvtiynien during ^e period- of Uieir doitiinatidn'. lie' was ail inti^ 
ligent, liberal fellow enough, and, with the excep^on of his' dress 
which was completely national, he looked' less like an* Arab' or Moor 
than many Spaniards, to be daily met with in Andalusia. Indeed, 
his ancestors were of Granadian origin, and his name of Bueno-Mu- 
hamad-Bueno, as I saw it endorsed on his passport, had certainly as 
isiiell= of fipanieh' in ft as of Arabic^ He seemed t<^ to have « strong 
fiteiiMg ef pride ibr Andaluina, and- boasted it)^th of its luitttritfncfe' 
aoid beauty: He spoke of its mild temperature ;' it^ pleasant sky ; of 
the regularity of the* seasons ;' of the valuable mines contained in its 
mountains; the fertility of the soil, and the variety atid aburidance of 
its productions ; rts eitcellient wheat, delicious fruits, the beauiy and 
perfUmes otitis flowers; and the value of many plants, which how grow 
unknown and ungiEithered upon its mountains'; but above all he 
seemed fo' remember the freshness and abundance of the waters, 
which' trickle* everywhere' down the sidle of its mountains, slaking the 
thirst' of men and animals, and qui<5kening the earth with fertility and 
beaiuty. His countrymen, though now they could scarce procure (he 
privilege of passing like strangers over its soilj had once introduced 
many phmts and trees before unknown, and' which now fbrm its great- 
eiM^ riches; as well as the system' of cultivation, still practised' by the 
Spaniards! Though Muhamad seemed a fkmilitir, amusing fallow, 
he was yet a strict observer of the tenets and prescriptions of his 
faith. After making a sparing meal of some fried fish, which he 
brought with him in a straw pannier, he washed his hands cal^fhlly, 
over the side for the purpose ; and at sundown, turning his back upon 
the west, he bent forward in a reverential posture, aud seemed busied 
in his devotions. 



As soon as the skipper arrived on board, he hastened to remove his 
beaver hat, high heeled boots, and a long blue coat, which, to use a 
sea phrase, sheeted close home to his ankles. These being snugly 
deposited in a chest, were replaced by a broad brimmed tarpaulin, a 
pair of canvass trowsers, which had stiffened to the shape of his- legs, 
and a well worn jacket, that had little to fear either ih>m tar or tal- 
low. This done, the captain hopped upon deck, quite himself again, 
and began bustling about to hoist the boat in and lash it to the deck, 
prepare the sails and rigging for evolutions, and shorten in the oable. 
The remaining time until high water was employed in writing the 
log ; a task which was executed under the direction of the capt^n by 



^cviuj:. 819 



We betoken tjie vi^Um of 00199 politipw) Itecesy** Aa for the Mi^ 
pef J^iBMolf, lAoiigb Ue app^witnce aod eooYerMtiQii would hm 
proa»i9^ i)^t0r tbmgfff h9 could not write a word, Bot eveii his own 
iMune, ihoiigh )Mlia9 end made up of vowels. The 8erJI>e waa nol 
tibe pnly Spai»ii»rd <9f our «»rew ; they were fitsarly aU of tkat natm^ the 
iTievwil itaelf beja^g owoed in Cadiz, tbongb aaUiiig m the property of 
the Genoepe eapM^Ot Nothiug that I had yet aeeo iq Spain funiiabed 
flo Qoswl^le m iUwIra^ieP of her failen ibrtonoB. Here was the pro- 
pe^rff 0* ^' naliioD, which in the Jaet ^^entury claimed the rank of the 
second ^%f9i power in the world, forced to akulk and take reAige nm- 
der the havner off petty Italian state. 

When the ebb began to lyiake, we looked and spread our sails, weigh- 
ed anchor and torniMl to win^dward, until the lighthonse, which atande 
u^pofk thu point of voeks, west of Cadiz, was compleiely under our iee. 
We then bore away to the south, with flowing ^eets, aod when the 
sun ^ank behind the well defined horizon, Cadiz with its enow«white 
dwetfings, its many belvederes and lofty lightrtower, grew low and 
tr^mbJed, as we rose and fell upon the waves, aod seemed ready to 
merge into the ocean* Thus we went quietly forward ; tho wind was 
light, and the sea was covered in every direction with vessels laige and 
email, in(^aecting each other's tracks, as with various intent, ^ough 
with equal assiduity, they sought or abandoned the port, or sloed ftr 
the entrance of the Mediterranean. 



Haring diecnssed the leg <rf a capon and some Seville bread, i 
ed with a bottle of Manzanilla, sent me by a friend, white the captain 
and crew w^re busy with the humbler fare of oil, vinegar, garlic, and 
red herrings, I continued rolled in my cloak and reclining upon the 
deck until a late hour, beguiled by the interesting conversation of the 
Moor and the well sung song of our Italian captain. At last overcome 
with aleep, I sought out my birth below. It was filthy enough, and by 
no means eiuilosively my own ; yet the dash of the water as we cut it 
with our prow, the roll of our little bark, and the flapping of the sails, 
all promoted drowsiness, and soon put me to sleep with the prospect of 
waking the next m<Nrqing at Oibraltar. But this world is one of disap- 
pointment, more especially the watery portion. In truth, it was not 
long after midnight before I was roused by the quickened roll of the 
tartana^ the shifting of sails, rustling of cordage, and noise of feet upon 
deck, as the seamen obeyed the orders of their skipper. The women, 
too, in the hold, as well as my fellow passenger in the cabin, who had 
ate heartily of the provisions the evening before, were now paying the 
customary fc^feit, retching, sighing, and bewailing their fate, in a way 
to inspire the pity of any one but a sailor. Gathering myself up, I pro- 
}e«lad mf head abov^ the companion, when the rayatery waa soon 

* Cans w^ tha hsflge aC the Coaititutioualf. 



a(0 SEVILLE. 

solved by the doleful note of the captain, as he stood at the helm look- 
ing reproachfnlly at the wind, and crying — ' Leoante! kvantef The 
fact was, that though there had been a light western breeze on our 
departure from Cadiz, yet the wind and sea still continued to move out 
of the Mediterranean. Nevertheless, as there is uniformly a strong 
current running into the Straits, I took it for granted that there would 
be nothing to hinder us from proceeding in our bark, which, though 
small, was better adapted to encounter head winds and stormy weather, 
than the decklesa caravels, in which the countryman of our skipper had 
started three centuries before, from nearly the same point, in search of 
a world. The result showed that I had not made due allowance for 
the creeping caution of Mediterranean mariners. For, on returning to 
the deck at sunrise, I found that the skipper had been frightened faick 
by the bigness of the waves. The direction of our prow was changed 
from south to north, the bold head-land of Trafalgar was fading from 
view, and the white dwellings of Cadiz were again rising above the 
horizon, like the marble monuments of a grave-yard. The disappoint- 
ed and unwelcome feeling with which Cadiz now broke upon me, 
excited the comparison. The evening' before I had parted with the 
place in an excellent humor and with the happiest impressions, admir- 
ing its beauty, and exclaiming with the poet— 'Adieu! fair Cadiz! 
yea, a long adieu ! ' — But now, at the :;nration of a dozen hours, I 
was ready to send it to the devil. 



As we beat out of the harbor the night before, so now we had to beat 
in again. Every one on board looked unhappy ; the women had gone 
throoffh their sea sickness to no purpose ; the captain seamed his fore- 
head rato such a fearful frown that the number of wrinkles were doul>- 
led, and even the face of the philosophic Moor had grown longer by a 
fathom. I was no stranger to their feelings ; and when I landed upon 
the wharf, encountered anew the persecutions of the aduaneros, passed 
through the Plaza-de-Mar, and by the shop of the little Italian, who was 
astonished to see me, and assailed me with a volley of irritating que»> 
tions, I really felt miserable. Every one seemed to be pointing at me 
and pitying my disappointment. I felt unwilling to meet the friend 
whose kindness had rendered my stay at Cadiz so agreeable, and of 
whom I had taken leave for at least the half dozenth time. I was 
almost ashamed even to return to the inn, though an innkeeper seldom 
tires of exercising hospitality. 

Determined to encounter robbers, murder, and any other inconven- 
ience, rather than trust again to the uncertainty of the elements, I 
looked up a couple of horses and a guide the next morning, and after 
break&st set out from Cadiz, bag and baggage. Our horses Ivere 
sturdy, active beasts, with long and shaggy manes and tails, an indica- 
tion of having, like their compatriot, Rosinante, the further advantage 
of being horses of all points. I was mounted upon the lighter beast of 
the two, with a large Spanish or rather Moorish saddle, high before 



SEVILLE. Ml 

ittd behiod, wiftb broad itirraps of sheet iron, which, being poialed at the 
eoroera^ setred the additional purpoee of spurd. The bridle was single 
with a heavy curb bit, by means of which one coald bring the horse from a 
gallep back in a twinkling upon bis hannches. A pack saddle beitog ao* 
commodated upon the b^k of the other animal, my trunk was secured 
npoii. it croMwise, and behind it sat the guide, directing his horse, thongh 
a spiiited animal, by means of a hidter. As for my guide and only 
companion in this expedition, he was a stout and fine looking Gallego, 
of about forty years, who had begun by being a porter in Cadiz, wd 
having got together a little money had bought horses and now served 
as a guide to travellers wishing to pass to ^ville or Ronda, Gibraltar 
or Malaga. Though dressed in a jacket and tight breeches and leg- 
gins, after the manner of Andalusia, he still preserved a memento of 
Gallicia in the color of his dress, the favorite green of his native moun- 
tains. He proved to be a faithful, active, sprightly, and well disposed 
felfow, so that I soon felt at home in his company. 



Leaving Matagarda and the notorious Trocadero on the left, together 
with Fort St Louis, built by that sturdy old cruiser Dugay Trouin, we 
came over a Roman causeway to the Isla de Leon, forever memorable 
as the birthplace of the second Constitution. This place, called also 
the city of San Fernando, contains the principal observatory of Spain, 
where the Nautical Almanac and Ephemeris are still calculated and 
published for the benefit of navigators and astronomers. Carraca, too, 
which lies in the neighbourhood and opens upon the bay of Cadiz, was 
once the first arsenal of Spain and the great stronghold $f her naval 
prowess. There was little left to indicate its chatacter and uses. Of 
the eighty ships of the line, which Spain could have sent to sea at the 
dose of the last century, only one was anywhere to be seen. It wae^ 
as my guide told me, one of those brought fi-om Russia in the year ISM, 
to carry out the expediticm destined to reestablish order in America, 
and which chose raUier to turn its attention to the redress of domestic 
g|rievances. As it lay abandoned, without anchor or cable, with a 
single mast standing, and careened against a mud bank, it furnished a 
fit yet monrnfiil emblem of national decline. 

Having passed through a sandy tract, which, like Cadiz, seems a 
sort of neutral ground, in dispute between land and water, and destin* 
ed, if we may Mieve experience, to fall entirely under the dominion of 
the latter, we at length crossed the arm of the sea which insulates the 
Ua^ and trod upon terra firma of a less equivocal character. In look- 
ing back firom this point, many conical heaps of salt, produced by the 
evaporation of sea water, may Ite seen rising like tents upon the even 
snrnce. of the shore. Salt being, as well as tobacco, one of the gov- 
ernmental monopolies, is sold at so high a price to the natives, as even 
to check the use of it to a certain extent. At the same time the people 
of the neighbourhood may see foreigners come and take it away by the 
ship kiad and for a mere song. The Spaniards neither understand nor 



9tt aBVILLE. 

tdn»4 lUrt iNlkNtidMtiistiQm TImij «ve wiUkAg te pajr ^ food liiili 
pfiQ0t|i.8Ov«MWlQRr.for ibeir soasly^ jMtftMrae of iobateo^ M/M«Mil 
itomcff fimm Ibo f«^NH$ifFa; tot tbim ineiniiring o«l of atlt, a proAic^ 
of thw ^wtbimiilteir, by Ui« <|iAKi to Sptniardtv asd by the bvaM to 
tbe EogUab^ ia m GMPpiiMMii subtlety ahogether )mymoA their Dompre* 
heMiei^ Tbe)r» |mbap«i, fiwl sooier cauae of eoaaoi^tiQA ia the fiom 
pannei haatoified ufiofi tborsalt paoa, from wbioh they receive theia anp» 
pl| ; foe here abipa^ ihops^ beats^ ainl coaehea have by bo meaoa the 
(aol^aire apprepriattqii of the Vii|^. What think you of the ^li'iia 
4e Marim SkmHsuim? and what <rf the SaUna Al Dmkismo Nmabr^ 
AJetmf 



Chielana^ thimagb wbich wn Mjit pasaed, is a ppttty, pleaaant plaee^ 
which, in the better* da|a a/ Oadiz^ originated ia the wealth of bN 
merchants, who built summer houses here, their daily retreat from the 
dust and drudgery of the shop and warehouse. Hence its honorary 
surname, Aranjuez of Cadiz. Leaving Chiclana, our road paaaed 
ever a aandy ooantry>.eDveied al intervals with pine fereale and broken 
into hiii and dalei It became still more irregolar, the mountaina big li» 
er» and the ravines deeper^ aa we advanced, gaining greatly, however, 
in fertility. This was espedally the ease at Vegel, where we baked 
to di«e and refresh out horaea, Anviag- the heat of the day. Vegel in 
Me #tf tbe inost.aingttlar places in Spain. It staoda with an impoainf 
Mtiliide. upon the very pinnacle of a prectpilous mountain, whi^ riaes 
lA U^ andden height of neai a thonsand feet above the litde atieam, 
nkh ita eorsesponding valley, by which it ia afaKMl enairaled. IVitik* 
euty riaea ai^ amphitheatre of still higher momntaina, which eveiy where 
bQand the hciiaon and inaolaie tua little spot within a worid of ita 
aw9^ Tbe aituation ia impregnable, and tbia, aa well aa the aingnlar 
fertility of the surrounding coantry, must have rendered h a choaa» 
Md Q? Ibe Moors, an agricukural sad pastwal people, who, while theji 
sought out and fortified the strongest peals to cfceok invaaion and peN 
petuate theif conquest, were ever alive to the natural beautiea of the 
eonatry* It l^ad evidently been an important eity in theii time, jiidg* 
ing from the many remains of towers and defence^ whsah abll ovowtt 
Iheeceat of the hill,, iuid from the now deserted caaee dug into its 
slfAp side, te aid i«i lodging a. redundant! popjaiatMNii The> wholn 
9lope frpm the tower down to the vaUey, thongh vary precipilaaa^ ftamn 
a fominuoua vineyard, which ia reached when the vinea ase io b^ 
pmn04 or the fruh gathered, by zigzag steps and teiraneab An fee 



that valley below, it is a perfect garden, planted witli fieWaof n h a a i 
9pdffroi»ea of orange, the dboaen abode of the nghtingab. 
. While our dipner was preparing, {.was near being araeated is nyr 
jperney, through the igoranoe and stupidity of aeiiatomheanaottaei^ 
who, ip eoiamining my toook for money oroiher articles of eonttabandv 
hnppeaed to fall upon a bundle oi d^|Mitehes, which even CacavocO' 
k^ IpariM, Ud whicb he seem^ determined timt I should eaiiyvt^ 



BEVIUE. 

ttMm. In fatal did f «k^m to hitu tl^tt thtjr wem tm llii ^fe^to^ 
iMntaf the United dttue« and saal^d with tiie 8«tl of the . Aberlcam 
mSuMimr { he had never heani either erf the plaee or kbe indiWdisal. 
BquaUj in vain did 1 ahow kim a dvplieate |Ntteperi froHi the iffinittet 
hf the interior^ ordering all whem it alight eoMerU eeMp me ^wai^ 
In mj jiMrtiey, and headed by a long lialof fitlea <aMd iMinoHury ^ 
tinctiona. All was of no a?ail, and I should certaintf kav« •been alTeeted« 
ttttleai soeie «Nore MnaiUefieraimahouid^iseerve^iMt I Mrahtieilher spy 
nor GonafMraior and aeard i&eoff with the tK>mftikt<o< en at)ek)igy^ had 
I not haeieeed to make use of n noetram, whilAi I eenried hi wf 
poeket, and which at once t^ieted ewetj ^ualm «f the fhnotioliary. 
Relieved of this troohlesome fellow and refrediM by food and repoee> 
we set forward at (bur fhm Vege) end paeaei ai^g the littie etreftm^ 
which is navigable fotr small vesseli aeady to ihe fiMt of the mtj^ntaltti 
When nn turned aside, the itarlbce of the coahiry became brohetii 
rugged, and almost nninliabited. This waa le^peeiaMy the ease in eross^ 
ing a mountain whioh lay in oar way, and lb i^hidh we eaaie an nigiiti»> 
Ml. Hete tagged oaks and e<]Mdly fagged bark %»eea oom{>letely h^MI 
ovr path, and aeemed lo dispose noiMesstoa of alia niggard isolh There 
waa iie#, ae throagheet the jonnUy, ^o road^ ^bot a tarlecv ef diverging 
phtha, ^r #Moh the giftide ehoee iho «noat diteci. Thougti the dMoeaft 
«rtts eomeliniee sb weep ajiti' lotliodie'tftiM the path aeenieil compliiiiy 
^^loMdefbtir feetinediMee^ jMt Mr^hhreea pideed chelrwky elont 
wUhmiiiiice sagateiiy kiid:erichodi'jii»f hhsiiati<ni» But if fhejr wA 
e«¥evhf 4ieifiealtes, they hift ni^ teeiee ^ tbe i^ame. We had ik6# lo lie 
flat^bpeti'tMeadtte^toesikpe the brahdiof •atree; now to lift 4 <iMll 
er v#lng hoth lege oh wO'side «> htbid the eottiaet of a roek. 



Descending this inhospitable mountain, we reached the level country 
Mo^, sfaemittgly llmiie«0d lieh in hAtttral ptodntlieMa) aiid needing 
enly the the eecending vfbtte of man, to become a perfect peradisei 
We found it, hoerev^, but httle eultivaled, and aboidotied to iouale and 
biMfi mates, wtlh, iheMi ted there, the hut ef k bendeman. Of tbehr 
neighboblhood #e ivere always notified at the disMnee of a mile ^ 
more by the mofinff and neighing of tfat horses, who seemed often 
diepeead lentuwder mm the beaten track in searoh of company. My 
Miow, ivho fannd he had to deal with a stranger, was especially wrong 
iMeded iaid ebairnate ; indeed, he required much jirking of the bridle 
Mdfomible persuasten from the sharp eotners of mydttrrops, to curb 
Ma Iteeaiioiianeas and bring him back to a eenee of duty. We paused 
^leefemi ef Mie hntethet lay in o«r vray^ le Kght aeigar or beg a glass 
eff water, tied the guide ttould lake such as werelif hie aequaintance 
inldeattd talk with them in a low tone, inqniringi ka I presumed^ 
whether the road were opdn and free from 'saltHuRrta. Other hott, 
vrhoee lenanta were m fand odhr among the mnleieers, wet« paesed at a 
gallop, to prevent the trunk fitim being discovered and avoid inveat^ 
, which tnight prove irenUeaome. Aa 'we ehot by« we eoold eee 



9M SfiVlLLE. 

«I1 ihftt was going on within ;— Ibe ftggolB ketped up tnd enMekKqf 
in the huge chimney which rose from the centre of the building, the 
women busied with the evening meal, and the swarthy, skin-dad pea- 
sants with neglected beard and shaggy hair, sitting upon the sill, their 
bright eyes gleaming from the reflection of the fire, whereas tftiey could 
only catch an indistinct glance at our figures as we darted through the 
glare of the door way. 

Towards ten o'clock, we began to ascend a second mountain, and 
when near the top halted at an obscure stopping place, where we were 
to pass the night. It was a small cottage built of stones and mud^ and 
thatched with straw. It consisted as usual of a single story, with the 
earth for a floor, and the sooty roof for a ceiling. The chimney rose 
ftom the centre, the side upon which it opened served as a kitchen 
and eating room, the other half of the dwelling was screened off for a 
general bedroom. Opposite was a shed for the horses. Diego, upon 
whom fell all the cares of providing for the journey, hastened to order 
such food as might be found in our humble caravansary. This vras 
not very choice; — some bacon broiieMi before the fire^ and a huge 
earthen basin containing eggs and garlic, floating about in the oil, 
which had served to fry them* A ride of fifty miles, the.mouiHain air 
apd the evening breeze, had prepared me to assist in despaiching this 
pittance. That business disposed of, Diego sought out the stable, 
stretched himself beside his lK»rses and went to sleep to the masic of 
their jaws as they discussed their bfurley ; and 1, before -tbiaving v^Jr 
self on the less inviting bed, prefSred for oie in the adjoining roQiii» 
wandered out to take a draught of the fresh breeze, perfnmied as. it 
was by the thousand aremalic plants that grow wild upon the mounftaina 
of Andalusia. 



There I found an inducement to linger much longer than I had an- 
ticipated. I had been already delighted during the day's ride especiallji 
after sunset and the commencement of twiUght, bv the singing of 
nightingales, which abound in Spain, and particularly in Andalusia* 
On this occasion there were two perched upon neighbonring trees, in 
which were doubtless the nests of the females. They sung alternately 
and evidently waited for each other ; the one only comnieiieing some 
time after the other had finished. Thus they eiereised a d^ree of 
deference and politeness towards each other, not always observed in 
the colloquies of more reasonable creatures. Their prevailing note 
was, as usual, that sweet and swelling strain, which, beginning ki a low 
whistle, passes from rapid quavers to well articulated modulaiions, and 
grows fuller and fuller for a few seconds, until it reaches the pitch of 
force and melody, thence declining to a dose by an equally happy and 
luurmonious gradation. This pleasing contest reminded me of Pliny's 
animated, aiul perhaps rather imaginative, description of this little mu- 
sician ; how the young ones go to school to the old, listen attentivdy 
to their lesson and strive to repe.at it ; how the more experienced song- 



KHLu. aw 

Bg tiMflMdrea §n the fMim of mftmomej, and gnm 
obstioale in the oonlest^ tbe eonqnered; tl lengthy losing his life, and 
rather leaoaneing his respiratkNi thaa his song. I had paased nearly 
two jeam in EorapOy and from living mostly in cities had raisBed hear- 
ing ^is bird until now. A friend had told me in reference to the received 
Opinion of its monrnfnl, melancholy note, ' yoo will find it a lively, spright^ 
ly bird, and its song the joyful ou^Mwriog of a healthy, hearty, happy in- 
dividual.' And so indrnd it proved. I at once became enamoured of 
the litte songster, who has all the vivacity, the fulness of tone, and 
melody^ without any of the confused jumble of our sel^complacent 
bobalink, much of the skill and judgment of the mock-bird, without 
any of his mocking.* When, some months afterwards, having in vain 
sought to steal unseen upon him in the bushes which resounded with 
his melody, I at length caught sight of the n^sty little songster, in a 
cage whidi furnished his coyness with no concealment, I wondered 
wiih the naturalist that so small and mean a body should supply so loud 
a voice ; such a fund of spirit and earnestne88.t On this occasion the 
music of the nightingale fell upon my ear with the charm of novelty ; 
it beguiled me of the repose required for the renewal of our journey ; 
and when I at length found myself in the filthy, and over-tenanted 
lleeping room, and upon the comfortless bed that had been assigned 
me, I thought it was but a poor exchange for the calm stsf-light witb* 
eutv the sweet, breath of the mountain, and the song of the noMiitbr, 
^^'The^neflU mprniag we wefe in motion at an early hour. Several 
QMHitrjIDDen w1h» had. passed the night in the .same cottage, and who 
>v%ti$ going, to Sm Q^que, willingly availed themselves of our com* 
panfb . ]f o¥ur rmi had beep, rough and even dangesoiis the day be? 
fbre, it becamoi still more so this morning,, in crossing, the higbeor 
ranges'of^M>untain8,. which here form a barrier between the. waters <Mf 
the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Precipices towered high around 
us>,iocka were piled on rocks in defiance of symmetry, whilst be- 
Mseen lay ravines of yawning depth, whose horrors were magnified by 
being in^)erfectly seen through the ragged branches of the cork trees. 
As we wound through these mountain defiles, our little party found a 
doubtful pleasure, as usual, in recounting the robber stories by which 
the rocks and trees and occasional crosses were consecrated. 

During ten years that Diego had traveUed this road, he had been 
attacked three times by banditti and robbed twice. Once, when 
be had rode nearly through a narrow pass, and heard himself call- 
ed i;^n by the robbers in ambush with the usual war cry of ' A 
Itsrra, hubnm / ** — ^he had t'jmed his horse short round, and calling to 
those who followed to do the same, hurried away at a gallop. The 
eiasperated marauders jumped at once from the con<^ment and 
taking aim as he fled, greeted him with a volley from their carbines. 
One of the balls took effect in the haunch of his horse, the other in 

''I would not be undentood to give the pain to the nigbtiogale. It belongs uq< 
disputedly to the moeking-bird. 
f Tanti vox tarn parrom corpU9CQlo» tain pertinax 8piiitu««-~Pi'XNT. 



Sit WVILLK. 

M$ 6wti thigh ; 4mi he g(A Hway bfftint of hoof to tho neitott dwol* 
Httg, and in another fbirtnigiit he wafrt|[aiB ib.tiieMddlts. 

Th^year before, he had bci^^Adep^attiie bfttMMi^tto:i%vitte 
atwhioh w« ^ete vttiring, By earbonero^i who had been tnaking «ha»< 
Isoal in the nt^ig hboomg vtcfd^, fotdhad pt^^reA to otoM their oai»» 
paign by bef^ttki^ dl the paths lund taking overy ono who ftmmd 
dtiribg the day. The Gallego had been allowed lb orms the mvine in 
eeouir^y, httd had entered the path beyond, when he hoird a «nMett 
ttifitlkig ih ifae bttdhes, aAd fbotsteps behind him, aeoompuiied by the 
iiMittl saltttaiion. Trusting to his Ibrmer success, he pressed, thn 
flimks 6f bib horse ind ^tni6k (brwatd.' But he hid soifoe galloped « 
fbw Mps, when he fbnnd a Mh^w dif^tly ih his path, pfittting hii 
|un right St his eye, lind seehihigly in the very set of pniMng trigger^ 
There Was no alternative. He stopped his horse, threw himself upon 
the gvoottd; and lay fta« upon his fa6e, iii hopes thOs to deptfecate tto 
irage of the robbers. The goodneso of his home, snd a new jacket and 
l^t with a pair of worked leggings, Whieh he had bouglit the lai« 
time he was In Seville, plead strongly in his fkvor, and he was penrniilA 
ted to go ^way barelegged and hatleM. 

WlVett I thought What a loss this MttSt have been to my^pOorGalle^ 
g6, 1 eiOrald not help fleeting what ^tnalf ihdueenMMstftere wens in 
Spkih tbindn^ry arid econoiHy; In tliat eobntvy thefe 4s delth*^ iriftlr 
nor reason fh tf^e <«f^tnin6riily reifteived adtfge, ' hoii«<sty » the bbsi 
policy.' Anothei* of Mr paf^ty hid l>een ^a^t itt 'the> s44n# sOrtlpe, 

and had beeii'Mdp]^ to his ^hoes and bekten:iMo a^' jelly; 'tbf'lMt^ 
ing ittt^nipted to coneeal a fe>wfeal«i,' which htf iiad>with Mm.* < Mtyi 
they "tied His hitids aiid^'^t ihd- left Mnk' it a dfoiabee'f^Otn'Aie #tMilii 
wifefe he ttiight have died df heat^and'hnngei', hid he net'beeA Mi0W 
M by s^e gokKl Balmaiitetti;' who happened is tie pissed iw sattarHttM 
sotittdef his lartieritation^. •' ^ . !.' ► ' 

WlienVeiikme to the sdene of these Opertltiotel, we WOiftid slowly 
down oniid the rdcks and trunks of trees, MftH we reached the mMdy 
brook which ran at the bottom of the raving | thence we ascended 
again in the saihe order, the Gallego taking the lead. When he had 
got clear of the worst impediments he strtick forward it a gallop, 
leaning his body over the trunk and looking with a hntried glinee 
from side to side, as there occurred an opening in the woods. There 
was a wild excitement in these little risks, which gateayidoe to what- 
ever I saw, and prepared me to appreciate the more qdiet beauties of 
the country, and the security inspired by the neighboui-hood ef Man, 
is we left the region of the mountain an^! descended into the smiling 
valley which receives its torrents. 



After breakfast we left the pretty village of Los Barriers, one of the 
the favorite resorts of the people of Gibraltar, who often fly to the main 
land fi-om the dust and bustle and business of the Rock, in search 
of purer air and a less equivocal verdure. On crossing a hill we 



smriLLa 8lt 



euH wtMmAf in ngM vf die MMHaraieaD. Tiie bay ai fiibwl* 
tar l«]i open* Delate <Qi, Algwiiias nd the laud be^Mid aiiiatoiiiiig 
ftwa]f te Ae ri|^ batid, vhile^ farther on tiM left^ Hk Rock iliolf 
voee miiooiineeted Iran the ocean; at the eKtrennty ef ti^ laag aaiid 
beach, into wUch the mountains gradnaily decline, eeagirl oneTeiy 
nde eoDcept toMafds tbi: Andidnsian coast, with iv^ich it only aeeme 
ttnitM ibr aeme wischievoEaB purpose. The ships in the bay, thoagb 
distiiiet and eonspkiuoaB, seemed mere points^ in the coaapariscm. 

Th^ra is rtenelhing singularly formidable in the appearance of the 
Rock^ whether aeen near or fhom a distance. In looking at it from 
the east and wes^, pany peraons have discovered iq in form the rade 
outline of ^ crouched lion. Nor do you need the remembrance of its 
natural and artificial strength, nor yet that the lion is the embism of 
Britain, to help you out with the association. The precipitous bMT 
which rises perpendioulariy more than a thousand foot abese the neu- 
tral ground, ftmushes by no means an unreal resemblance to the head 
of tlukt fierce and irewning animal; the ringed ridge ipay represent 
his mane, while the giadiuil declioe to the south, and the aturupt ter* 
mination in the sea, ul serve to perfect the comparieen. 

Having created the €hiadarranqoe, we rode orer the site of Carteia, 
a city founded by the Phmnicians, connected in fiibalous history witb< 
the name of Hercules, and famous in Roman annals. Having declined 
and become desohite under the ruinous domination of the Goths, its 
materials are said to hare been carried away by the Arabs for the builds 
ing of Algeziras and Gibraltar. Nothing but history and a half forgot 
ten tradition, not even a single habitation--<-nay, not a stone remains to 
proclaim its existence. Could the gallant but unhappy son of Pompey, 
when driven firora the gate of Carteia, have looked forward to this utter 
annihilation, he might have found antple. revenge for his cruel and 
heartless persecution. 

From Carteia we followed the sand of the sea beach, left hard by the 
receding tide, and clattered merrily along. Diego sang for joy, to b» 
so near the end of his journey. With myself the prospect of meeting 
friends, and hearing from others, furnished no inferior motives for ex* 
idlation. We were arrested at a knot of ruinous buildings which forme 
the Spanish barrier, until our passports could be examined, and Diego 
should pay a dollar or two of his little earnings for permission to pass 
hjs majesty's dominiens ; and this he has to do every time he comes to 
oibraharv 



Nothing could be more striking than the contrast which everything 
presented, as I passed the narrow interval which separates Spain from 
Gibraltar. It so happens that the very poorest of the Spanish troops 
are stationed here, and that everything connected with the public ser- 
me denotes more than usual ruin and dilaptdatien. The soldiers on 
duty wer* ragged, their sohaikot o^n stretched out of shape and kept 
iiMs foiling ovv their eyes^by a handkerchief thrust between the fore- 



918 SEVILLE. 

iMtd, until they projected in front, like the setf^ueUdned penlteaM el* 
a low Dutch dwellinff. Some wore shoes Snd gaiters, others hempen 
sandals ; but all had rusty muskets and rustier bayonets, hi this na* 
giected garb, however, you could see a well msde and sinewy^ though 
starved form, a weather beaten ftce, and blaok snd bristly mustabhes, 
which, with the keen eye of the poor soldier, denoted a fond of militAry 
spirit. Besides these troops, groups of beggars, vagrant gypsies, squalid 
unwashed men, and half naked women, paralytic and rickety wrelcheSi 
whom their own want and others' avarice had condemned to ^pe into 
the earth in search of quicksilver, until they were converted mto raon* 
sters of deformity, and fitted to gain their bread by working upon the 
disgust of mankind— *here surround and pester all who pass, cut their 
horrid antics, and seem purposely placed to greet strangers and do the 
honors of the country. 

How different everything within the English lines! I first came to 
a drawbridge of neat construction ; then a guard-house with a snug 
kklge for the person who is charged with the service of watching those 
who enter and depart, and who sits comfortably under cover. Beside 
this man, and to secure him obedience, stood a British soldier, as stiff 
as a statue. His coat, cap, and shoes, all brushed to perfection ; his 
ttowsers, false ruffles, plume, and belts, as white as washing and pipe- 
clay could make them ; and his musket, where not colored, reflecting 
the. sun beams, like a mirror. Though his form was less muscular and 
his eye less martial than those of the poor Spaniard without, he was 
nevertheless bigger and better fed — had been caned into good looks, 
and was ready, by the force of discipline, to do anything and go any- 
where. 

On a nearer approach to the fortress, I paused for a moment to look 
upon its rugged front with a mingled feeling of awe and admiration. 
Here the whole art of defence has been exhausted. The entire face 
and foot of the mountain is covered with defences and bristling with 
cannon. The level ground below, the slopes and ridges, and every 
inequality of surface, have been converted into batteries. Even the 
precipice itself, where nature, having precluded all approach, refuses a 
foothold for a single warrior, is perforated with yawning portholes, sus- 
pended near a thousand feet above, and ready in a moment to be con^ 
verted into mouths of fire. All these cannon pointed at the place 
upon which I stood ; their tompions out, to denote preparation and a 
readiness to be lit up in a moment into one vast blaze, as terrible 
as the thunder of the heavens. Well pleased was I to pass on and 
enter the lines, over which the heavy cannon protrude, until I found 
that their backs were turned upon me and I had got on the right side 
of them. 



AfVer passing through several parallels, where all denoted the most 
perfect state of order and preparation, I came to the neat market re- 
cently erected without the gate, and the general landing place of man* 



SEVILLE. , ' 329 

oF-warVmen and merchant sailors of every nation in Europe, Here 
one may see filthy Jews, big breeched Moors, wily Greeks, iqplttttering 
Dutchmen, and flippant Frenchmen; smooUi-tongued Italians, long 
waisted and red-capped Catalans, and English sailors, with their neat 
tarpaulins and jackets so-blue, reeling shipward and ' damning their 
tarry eyes and toplights, and top-gallant eye-brows.' Here, and as you 
penetrate into the town, all denotes the stir and bustle of commerce, 
an immense business confined within narrow limits. Goods are con« 
stantfy landing and embarking, and carts and wagons passing in every 
direction. The people no longer moved slowly as in Spain, nor loiter- 
ed about the corners; every one had something to do; every one was 
in a hurry. Salutations were abrupt and ceremonies dispensed with. 
* How do,' was the word, without waiting for an answer. Even the 
Spaniards residing here seem to have caught the impetus — instead of 
their long * How are you,' and ' God guard you 1 ' I now heard noth- 
ing from them but a sudden 'Sahtd,* as they were forced against, and 
bounded away from each other in the crowd. The officers of the gar- 
rison, amid all this bustle, seemed the only men of leisure. They sat 
on horseback, dressed in their neat red Moorish jackets, with foraging 
caps covering their faces, often equally red ; their horses drawn up in 
the middle of the street to the obstruction of the drays, or planted at 
the only crossing<place for foot-men. Others monopolized the sidewalk, 
driving the trader into the street, whilst elsewhere a couple, as if mu- 
tually unwilling to sacrifice dignity by coming towards each other, car- 
ried on their conversation for the public benefit firom either side of the 
street— raying very flat things with arms folded or a-kimbo, and in a 
wry pott-honorish tone, as though each were talking through a quire 
of paper. Here was music too, and marching, and ladies, and every- 
thing that can be seen in the whole world, reduced into a narrow com- 
pass. There was much in all this to please, and yet there was much 
that was unpleasing. I now saw again, in the appearance of many of 
the moving multitude, those indications of intemperance to which I 
had been long a stranger — swollen and unwieldy bodies, surmounted 
by fiery faces, mottled with blotches and carbuncles. These putrid 
wretches, as you passed them on the causeway, breathed upon you 
with their burning, brandied breath. Everywhere along the main, 
street, at the corners, and where there were no corners, stood open 
tap rooms — the ready reservoirs of all this intemperance. The well- 
rubbed bottles glistened upon the shelves, with each its silver label, 
while the alternate glasses were surmounted by lemons to make the 

Eoison palatable to beginners. It was long since I had seen anything 
ke this, and it pained me to remember, that had I been transported 
as suddenly into my own country, I might have met with objects equally 
hateful and disgusting. The contrast brought into strong relief, the 
frugal, temperate habits, the sinewy conformation, and manly bearing 
of the Spanish peasantry. Nor could I help reflecting that if dieir 
case called upon us for commiseration, there was also some room far 
admiration and for envy. 
49 



CHAPTER XIX. 

KINGDOM OF SEVILLE. 

Gibraltar.— Earfy Hliltoty.-— Under Saracen Domination.— Under Spaniards and Brft^ 
iBh.-*-S|nnith At!lOtt»ti at Recorei^.— The Late Siege— Advanta,gea to Posae*- 
aora.— The Town.— The Crazy Greek — Amusemento.- The Alameda.— Europa. 
— Moorish Castle and Excavationsw — Elxcursions to the Summit. — St Michael'* 
Cave.— A Ship. 

The Rock of Gibrakar ifi, as hs name imports^ an immense moan«' 
tain of stone, rising abruptly from the sea at the southern extremity of 
Spain and 6f the European Qontinent. It is sepaiiated into two dis- 
tinct sections by a lofty ridge, which, beginning abruptly at the north- 
ern extremity, rises still higher until it has reached an elevation of 
fourteen hundred feet, thence declining gradually and terminating in 
Europa Point, the southern extremity of Europe. The eastern section, 
which looks upon the Mediterranean, is either perfectly perpendicular, 
like die bluff point at the norths which faces the Spanish lines, or else 
so steep and craggy as to be altogeth^ inaccessible^ The western 
i^ont, though interspersed with dangerous precipices, offers some 
padual slopes, Vhich have furnished sites to the town as well as many 
Dsolated dwellings. On this side are the only landing places. This 
formidable spot of ground, which has been the cause of so much 
bloodshed and contention, is yet only three miles long and but seven 
in circumference. It is not quite insulated, being connected with 
the Andalusian coast by a narrow sandy neck of land, which risea 
but a few feet above the level of the sea* On every other side it is 
surrounded by water, and its coasts are so rough and precipitous, thai 
it can only be approached in a very few places. The entire eastern 
half, as we have said, is utterly inaccessible. To the west there is a 
deep bay extending completely over to Algeziras and the correspond- 
ing peninsula, which runs out to form the northern point of the Her« 
culean Straits. This is the harbor of Gibraltar, an unsafe roadstead 
whence vessels are ofbn forced from their anchors and driven higb 
and dry upon the shcnre. 



This place, until the invasion of the Saraoens, was known by the . 
name ox Calpe. Its position in front of the opposite mountain of 
Abyla, and at the opening of that vast sea of unknown waters whieh 
none had ever penetrated, or penetrated to return, awakened at an 



SEVILLE. 8*1 

early period the afttentnn of the ancients. The smangeneM of ile sit^ 
nation with respect to the adjacent eomiuy , the deep, dark ea/re whiek 
is still an object of wonder in modem times, and its total difference 
m form and figure from the other parts of the known wesld:, ibubtless 
aided the imagination of a superstitious age in inventiag the &ble, 
which has connected its origin with the achievements of a deified 
hero of still earlier antiquity. As the story gees, Heacules having 
conquered the Ginms, as we have seen at Cadia, oaased immenee 
stones to be thrown into the mouth of the strait, until a great movn* 
tain rose up on either side in honor of his victory. . These are the ever 
famous pillars of Hercules. This wild fiible was, donhtkss, invented 
after the real pillars erected at Cadix were destri^d or fotgotten, and 
the nepbts tdtra was added, to signify that Galpe and Abyhi were the 
ends of the earth. 



Though Calpe thus early attracted the attention of the Phoeni* 
cians, Carthaginians, and Romans, by whom it was visited and who 
built several cities in its immediate vicinity, there is no acoouat of 
its having been made the site of a settiement, until the time, of the 
Saracenic invasion. This took place in the year 711, when Musa, 
the Heutenant of the Calif in Africa, sent Taric-ben-Zeyad with five 
hundred chosen horsemen to test the possibility of effecting a con* 
quest, to which the distracted state of Spain, the faction of the e^ed 
sons of Witiza, and his owm proximity, so starongty invited him. 

Tarie crossed the strait with his litde force, and, attended by the 
traitorous Count Julian, governor of Gothic Mauritania, overran ^e 
ne^ihbouring coast without resistance ; for the strongholds had gene 
to ruin, or b^n. destroyed to prevent internal treason, by the orders of 
Witiza^ Loaded: with booty, his litile troop returned in triumph to 
Tangiers. The success o# this expedition corroborated the represen- 
tation of Count Julian, and seemed ominous of more important results. 
Taric was again despatched with a numerous fleet. He had already 
gained a name by extending the Mussulman dominion in Africa, 
against the barbarous natives as well as the no longer victorious Yisi* 
goths. The easily aoquired spoil of those who had shared in the first 
eapedition, procured him abundance of ready volunteers, and twelve 
tbeiiaand' veterans of hand and heart were chosen fiK>m the number. 
He now arrived at Algeairas, one of the frontier fortresses belonging 
to the government of Count Julian ; and crossing the bay, disembark- 
ed upon the narrow isthmus which joins Calpe to the oontinent. One 
of his first steps was to fortify the Rock, by constructing a wall to 
prevent aU entrance from the continent, and building a strong castle 
to secure his retreat, should he be defeated by the Goths. This oastlo' 
and part of the wall still remain, and an inscription found on the prin- 
cipal gate fixes the time of its completion at the fourteenth year aft«^ 
the coming of Taric. 

Leaving a garrison in the unfinished fortifiw^ation, Taric ^i'epared 



382 SJBV1U.E. 

to meet the approaching hosts of Theodemir and king Roderick. 
The Saracens were at first dismayed at the namber of their enemies. 
But when they would have fled to their ships, they beheld them in 
flames, fired by the order of Taric himself, who thus gave an exanij[>le 
which has been since followed in another hemisphere. Several batr 
ties paved the way to the final victory of Xerez, as that did to the 
conquest of a whole nation of slaves, who had little to lose by a change 
masters. A new language now pervaded the Peninsula, and cities, 
mountains, and rivers were named anew by the conquerors. Calpe 
received the name of the successful general in commemoration of his 
victory. It was called Gibal-Taric, the Mountain of Taric* It was 
also called Bab-el-Fetah, Ghite of the Entrance, and was looked upon as 
the key to the Peninsula. Hence the symbol of the key, which with 
a castle still constitutes the arms of the fortress. Those of the Sar^* 
cens, who first came with Taric to the conquest, adopted the symbol 
of the key and wore it upon their banners. And hence it is that a 
sculptured key is found in so many places among the ruins of Aiham- 
bra at Granada, where many of the followers of Taric are supposed 
to have settled. 

Gibraltar continued in the hands of the Saracens until the beginning 
of the fourteenth century, when the Christians had already won bacK 
their whole territory except the kingdom of Granada. It then Ml into 
the possession of the king of Castile, who having made an ineffectual 
attempt to take Algeziras, contented himself with the capture of Gib* 
raltar, at that time a place of little importance. When Ferdinand 
entered the town in triumph, a very old Moor, as Father Mariana in* 
forms UBf addressed him in the following words, which give a lively idea 
of what his countrymen must have suffered by the gradual and exter* 
minating march of the christian conquest—' What misery is mine, 
brought upon me by my own sins or by an evil destiny ! My whole 
life have I wandered an unhappy' exile, forced to change my abode at 
every step and make a spectacle of my misfortunes in all the cities of 
Andalusia. Thy great-grandfather, San Fernando, drove me from Se« 
ville. I fixed myself in Xerez. This city was conquered by thy 
grandfather, Don Alonzo, and for a similar reason I was forced to 
move away to Tarifa. Don Sancho, thy father, gained Tarifii ; it was 
lost to me and mine, and I sought a last refuge in Gibraltar. I thoogbt 
that at length, in this extremity of Andalusia, I had also found the end 
ofso many misfortunes. The thought deceived nie; I am forced agaui, 
old as I am, to seek out a new country and a new home. I am imoIv* 
ed to pass into the middle of Africa, that I may see, if by so remote 
an exile it be possible to find shelter for the close of my old age, and 
spend in quiet the little of life that may yet remain to me I' 

Twentyfour years after» the emperor of Morocco sent his son over 
with a large foree» and got possession of Gibraltar, at a moment when 
the Castilian king was employed in quelling a domestic rebellion. Gib> 
raltar now became an important place^ ami was so well fortified as to 
resist a siege, laid by Don Alonzo in person, who was forced to with-* 
draw. He returned again, however, in 1344 and blockaded Algeziras^ 



SEVILLE. 33 

of whiok he al length poweieed himsfilf, though the place was 8toady 
defended bj the Moon, ' who threw/ says Father Mariana, ' balls of 
iron, with great explosion, and no little injury, into the tents of the 
Castilians.' The historian adds, that this was the first occasion on 
which any mention is found of the use of cannon in Europe ; but 
though tins may be true with respect to the Spanish chronicles, yet in 
the Arabic histories translated by Conde, and which bear far greater 
internal e? idence of truth than even the history of Mariana, mention 
is made of the use of cannon by the Saracens in the year 1257, in the 
defence of Neibla, as also in 1324 at the sieses of Baza and Martos, 
and a few years after at the fetal battle of Rio Salado. Algezhras 
being in possession of the Christians, Alonzo marched against Gibral- 
tar ; but the kiof of Granada coming to the assistance of the Afiricans^ 
the siese was raised and a truce maSie between the three kingSk But 
Don Alonzo could not conquer his desire to recover Gibraltar, for he 
knew it might serve at any moment for the introduction of new hordes 
by the emperor of Morocco. He therefore took advantage of some 
dissentions, which subsequently aroee in Africa, to attempt the reduo- 
tion of the fortress. He encamped with a powerful army before the 
place ; but well knowing the impossibility of entering it by force, he 
caused it to be strictly blockaded by sea and land. Famine soon began 
to make havoc within the garrison, and it was already a question of 
surrendering, when a more fearful calamity, the plague, made its ap- 
pearance in the camp of the besiegers. So great was the mortality 
among the Christians, that the chief captains counselled the king to 
raise the siege ; but he could not consent to give up the object of such 
long and earnest desire, when just within his grasp. He determined to 
continue the siege, and became the victim of his perseverance. He 
took the plague and died in the camp. The Castiiians now prepared 
to march homeward with the body of their king. And it is recorded 
that such was the admiration of the Moors for Don Alonzo, on account 
of his generous treatment of the inhabitants of Algeziras many years 
before, that they said when he died, there did not remain his equal in 
the whole world. They were well pleased to be relieved from the press- 
ing wants and dangers of their condition, and suffered the Castiiians to 
bmr away the body of Don Alonzo, without attempting any annoy- 
ance. 

Gibraltar continued in possession of the emperor of Morocco until 
1411, when the king of Granada marched against the place and took 
it by blockade and starvation. A half century afterward, a civil war 
breaking out in Granada, the greater part of the garrison was with- 
drawn to strengthen the party of one of the competitors for the throne. 
Information of the weak state of the place was at once conveyed to 
the governor of Tarifa, by a Mussulman who had embraced Christianity. 
The governor chanced to be Juan de Guzman, Duke of Medina Sido- 
nia, a descendant of Guzman the Good, and son to the brave Count of 
Neibla who >had been drowned some years before in an ineffectual at- 
tempt to possess himself of Gibraltar. Glowing with the desire to 
avenge a fetber's death and add something to the name of Guzman, he 



884 SEVILLE. 

hafltUy assembled an army and appeared befbre tbe fortress* Notwith- 
standing the weak state of the garrison and the nfthyoked for appearance 
of the Christians, the inhabitants fought raliantlj in defence of Iheir 
homes, and only surrendered to the superior force and obstinacy of 
Guzman. 



Gibraltar, thus fiillen into the hands of the proper owners, the pos- 
sessors of the adjacent country, continued for many* centuries to form 
an appendage of the Spanish crown, as of the Spanish territory. 
Charles ¥., aware of its importance,, caused its fortifications to be en- 
larged and modernised, until it was esteemed impregnable. There is 
still a gate standing which bears the arms and inscription of that great 
prince. Gibraltar had been lost to the Granadians in consequence of a 
ciril war and a disputed succession, and under similar circumstances it 
was afterwards lost to Spain. While the Austrian and Bourbon com- 
petitors were struggling, in t7M, for the Spanish crown, the weakened 
garrison, hanng only one hundred and fifty men to manoeuvre one 
hundred guns, was pounced upon and became the prey of a third party. 
The taking of Gibraltar was the consequence of a failure ; for Admiral 
Rook, baring been sent to Barcelona with troops under the command 
of the Prince of Hesse d'Armstadt, had fkiled to effect the object of 
his expedition. Dreading the reflections of a disappointed pabKc, he 
called together a council in which it was determined to attack Gibral- 
lar. On the 21st July the fleet arrived in the bay, and eighteen hun- 
dred English and Dutch were landed upon the beach. The fort/ess 
was summoned to surrender, and, on receiving a refusal, the batteries 
were opened, and the enemy who were scarce in numbers to lend each 
other encouragement, much less cooperation, were driven from their 
guns. The governor was again summoned to surrender, and now, 
conscious of his own weakness and dreading an assault from the intre- 
pidity of the English sailors, who mounted the mole sword in hand, 
he felt that nothing remained but submission. The possession of 
this fortress, to recover which Spain has sacrificed tens of thou« 
sands of men and millions of money, was purchased by the British 
with the trifling loss of sixty killed and two hundred and twenty 
wounded. 



The new dynasty, sensible of the importance of this loss, set at once 
about repairing it. An army was assembled before the fortress, and a 
a heavy cannonade opened. But the British returned baH for 
ball, and the Spaniards, finding that force was hopeless, determined 
to try the effect of stratagem. They came to the desperate resolatk>tf 
of surprising the garrison, even in the presence of the British 
admiral, who was in the bay at the time. On the tfairtyfirst of 
October, fire hundred volunteers made a vo# nefer to retam itive. 



SEVILLE. 9a» 

except as maeten of Gibraltar. To pr^are themaelvoff for a too 
probable death, they began by coofeaaing themselTea and taking the 
•acrament. In the dead of the night, this truly ibrlora ho^ was goi»- 
ducted by a goatherd round the back of the Rock to the aoutb, and 
thence to Saint Michaers Cave, which they reached unperceived. In 
the many conceahnenta of this singular place, they continued all day 
undiscovered. When night had again returned, and all the garrison, 
except the customary guards were buried in sleep, they sallied out and 
scaled the wall of Clutrles V., surprising and cutting to pieces the 
Middle Hill ffuard. Here, by the aid of ladders and ropes, they drew 
up a party of several hundred, which had been ordered to sustain them. 
It had been concerted that these brave soldiers, if they succeeded in the 
preliminary parts of the attack, should be supported by a |>arty of 
French troops, whilst a feint attack was to be made in some other quar* 
ter, to divert the attention of the besieged. They had effected the 
most difficult and dangerous part of the service, with complete suc- 
cess; but some misunderstanding had taken place among the com* 
manding officers, and the intrepid Spaniards were abandoned to their 
late. They and their achievement were sacrificed to some petty point 
of military etiquette. They waited in vain for the feint attack and for 
succour. Meantime the afaurm had been given in the garrison, and a 
body, of British grenadiers marching up to the top of the Rock, fell 
fearfully upon them, killing some, driving others over the precif^cc^ 
and taking the rest prisoners. Such was the fate of this gaUant enter? 
prise, conceived and conducted with equal haidihood, and which 
needed but a little well timed cooperation to have become compfet/sly 
successful. 

The Spaniards, though soon afterwards at peape with England, con^ 
tinned to keep a watchful eye upon the garrison, and seem at vaviofis 
tiroes to have meditated a surprise. At length, in 1736 thc^y assem- 
bled an army of twenty thousand men under the Marquis de Las Tor<* 
res, at Algeziraa, whence they marched round the bay and established 
t))fsmselves in front of Gibraltar. The Spaniards continued gradually 
to advance towards the garrison, answering the remonstrances of the 
Britsh general by saying that they were ont heir master's ground. At 
last when they had almost reached the point of the Rock, the batteries 
qpened upon them and the fire was quickly returned. When under 
the corner of the rock^ the Spaniards commenced a mine, intending to 
blow up the northeast comer of it and thus if possible to destroy at a 
single explosion the garrison and its defences ; filling up the trenches 
and opening in the conAuion a road for the assailants. Some consider" 
t^ idea ridiculousi to attempt even the partial destruction of such a 
mountain. The Spaniards, from their making the attempt, must have 
been of a different opinion. The thing, whether possible or not, was 
never executed ; for the <^peratioBS of the assailants were soon after 
terminated by peace. 

In 1760, Gibraltar had #eU tiigh Mien into the hands of the Span- 
iards, without imy exertion. A conspiracy was formed in the garri- 
son by t#ty regimettto, which had been long on the iftation and stiR 



886 SEVILLE. 

eontmaed without a prospect of relief, to surprise and massacre thd 
officers and all others opposed to their designs. Then to plunder the 
place, secure the military chest, and purchase themselves a retreat 
into Spain by the surrender of the fortress. The number of the con- 
spirators amounted to nearly a thousand, and they might perhaps, 
have executed their purpose, had the plot not have been discovered 
in the course of a grogshop quarrel. Reed, the chief conspirator, 
was condemned and executed. 



But all the efforts made to recover this important fortress become 
insignificant, when compared to the siege which it sustained during 
the great war, set in motion by our struggle for independence. This 
famous siege lasted nearly four years. The Duke de Crillon com- 
manded the allies, assisted by the young Dukes of Artois* and Bour^ 
foon, who had come to learn the art of war in a contest, which occu- 
pied the attention of all Europe. The defence was conducted by the 
brave General Elliot, with equal courage and good conduct. The 
number of rounds firom the allied batteries was sometimes one thou- 
sand a day. The total of rounds on both sides amounted to half a 
million. The loss of life was of course proportionate. All the known 
arts of taking towns were exhausted, and new inventions in the sci- 
ence of destruction date from the siege of Gibraltar.' Among the 
number were the ten floating towers of the allies, which mounted two 
hundred guns, and were so cunningly contrived, that they were both 
ball and bomb proof, and had nothing to fear from any known art of 
annoyance. But they were not provided against possible inventions. 
Ih this emergency the expedient was tried by the British, of heating 
shot in fiimaces and discharging them red hot at these moving for- 
tresses, which were able to approach the walls and place themselves 
in the most anMulable positions. The expedient succeeded ; the shot 
penetrated and fired the wood, and at midnight those floating castles, 
which in the morning had been the terror of the besieged, furnished 
bilge fUneral piles for the destruction of the besiegers. The situation 
of the brave but unfortunate Spaniards, shut up m these seaffirt tow- 
ers, is enough to make the heart bleed. Assailed by balls ofnre from 
the fortress, by flames from within ; surrounded by an adverse ele- 
ment, and their escape cut off by the British flotilla, all that remain- 
ed to them in their extremity, was a choice .of deaths. This terrible 
siege is full of incidents such as this ; and, were they recorded with 
equal genius, it could scarce possess inferior interest to the retreat of 
Xenophon or the campaign of Moscow. 



If Gibraltar ha^ defied the efibrts of the Duke de Crillon backed by 
tvp princes of the blood, it has also resisted the will of NiqmleQn. It 
still continues in possession of the British, and doubtless will so cod- 

'NowChariflfX. 



SEVILLE. 387 

tinue^ if not lost by some such accident or surprise, as have already 
been near to delivering it into the hands of the Spaniards, until Brit^ 
ain shall descend from her factitious greatness to a rank in unisoi^ 
with her natural resources, or Spain recover her proper preponder- 
ance among the nations of the earth. It may be questioned, indeed, 
whether Britain would not be the better for the loss. She is sure of 
an enormous expenditure for the support of four thousand men and for 
the repairs of the works ; while in time of peace she draws no pecu- 
liar advantages from it, as the port is free to every flag, and other na- 
tions enjoy all the benefit of the establishment without paying any 
portion of the expense. The facility which the situation of Gibraltar 
furnishes for the introduction of contraband goods, and the use made 
of it, to smuggle large quantities of British manufactures, are consid- 
ered among the greatest advantages derived from the possession. 
But how enormous must be the value of the goods introduced, to make 
the individual profits equal to the national expense ! Gibraltar is said 
in time of war to command the entrance of the Mediterranean. But 
the command of tiie Mediterranean belongs to the strongest fleet ; for 
the width of the Straits, which varies from ten to twenty miles, ren- 
ders ships regardless of the batteries of both Ceuta and Gibraltar. It 
is rather useful, therefore, as a place of refuge than of annoyance, and 
would, consequently, be more indispensable to some other power 
than Uie one which claims the mastery of the ocean. Indeed, if we 
look back upon the history of the last century, during which Britain 
has possessed Gibraltar, whilst it may be easy to compute the millions 
and tens of millions of the hard earned money of her subjects here ex- 
pended, it would perhaps be difficult to point to a single instance in 
which it has been productive of any commensurate advantage. Here 
is a direct and positive expense encountered with a view to a very re- 
mote and barely possible benefit. 



The present town of Gibraltar is situated on the western side of the 
Rock, beginning just within the lines, which open upon the mole and 
isthmus, and extending a half mile southward* As the level is barely 
wide enough to give room for a single principal street and two or three 
smaller ones, the town has extended itself up the steep acclivity ; so 
that ranges of buildings, reached by flights of steps, are seen tower- 
ing above each other with highly picturesque effect. In the centre of 
the town stands a fine Exchange, erected at the expense of the mer- 
chants. In the upper story is a beautiful room, kept in th6 most per- 
fect order, and provided with a well selected library and with jour- 
nals from all parts of the world. It was truly delightful to me, on 
being introduced by a friend to the privileges of this room, to pass 
from the solemn silence of Spain, and its single gaceta to a complete 
knowledge of all that was passing in the world. The Exchange, with 
the conr^onse and a fastastic church with Moorish columns and 
•lehes, now building, are the only vemarkable edifices of Gibraltar. 
43 



388 SEVILLE. 

The {N-rvate dwellings are by no means what they should be. Thouglr 
in a southern climate, they are built in a northern taste, close and 
snug and compact, instead of being open with courtyards and lofty 
ceilings, and long windows and balconies for the enjoyment of the air^ 

The convent, so called from its having been the abode of monks in 
more Cathohc times, is the residence of the lieutenant governor ; 
for the governorship c^ Gibraltar is one of those sinecure offices given 
in Britain to men whose fortunes are already princely, that they may 
revel and sensualize the better upon the sums wrung from the hands 
of honest industry. General Don, the present lieutenant governor, 
has grown old in the command of Gibraltar, and much of the neatness, 
and exact order and discipline observable throughout the garrison, i» 
attributable to his taste and activity. Ii^ the convent is a smaR 
church fitted up for the use of the garrison. It is the same with the 
chapel of the ancient convent,, and is a Gothic constructions The 
scene presented in this little chapel on Sunday is very characteristic. 
The collection of redcoats, and goldlace, and epaulettes ; the staid 
and humble demeanour of the citizen admitted by peculiar privilege 
into the military sanctuary, and the pert good-as-you-are look of Uff 
pretty daughter ; the unruffled robes, and holyday devotion of the 
regimental chaplain, and the well brushed sergeant officiating as clerk 
below, were all worth seeing, did not one pay dearly for it by the in- 
fliction of a fong sermon from a well bred clergyman of the establish- 
ed church. The music made on these occasions, however, by a chosen 
band selected from all the performers in the garrison, was always ex- 
quisite. 

The population of Gibraltar ie about twenty thousand, consisting of 
people of all nations, brought together by the fricilities which the place 
possesses for Irade. For, situated as it is at the eirtrance of the Med- 
iterranean, it affords a convenient entrepot, whence valuable cargoes 
may be distributed over the adjacent coasts. There is, also, an ex- 
tensive demand for the subsistence of a large population entirely de-^ 
pendent upon external supplies. Though this mixed society must be 
detestable to the permanent inhabitant, it offers a singular and amus- 
ing study to the mere passer by. Often have I been diverted during 
a lazy hour in gazing from a window of the library upon* the assem- 
bled multitude below. The high handed hauteur of his majesty's 
officer, as he lounges at a corner in utter scorn of the busy crew of 
bargainers ; the supple cit who bows breast low to him in hope of a 
nod of condescension, ere he turns to cheapen the beans or coffee in 
the hands of some still humbler broker ; the less supple bearing of a 
roughknot skipper, accustomed to bang and bully, a little king upon 
his own quarter deck ; the sullen demeanour of the turbaned Moor, 
who sits crosslegged at a shady comer ; all, down to the filthy, slip- 
shod, abject Jew, who wallows anywhere in the dirt, selling slippers 
or oranges, or with a bag over his head or a rope round his neck, 
ready to serve officers, merchants, sailors, or Moors, as a beast of bur- 
den — ^furnish an odd combination. These Jews come from Barbary, 
where they settled in great numbers, at the time of their expulsion. 



SEVILLE. 83^ 

from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. Many of them are traders 
and very rich, living in great state. These assume the European co»> 
tame, and lose every thing of the Jew, but his characteristic physiog- 
nomy ; but the greater number serve in menial offices as kborers, 
filling the same stations in Gibraltar that the Irish do with us. They 
ivear loose bag breeches reaching below the knee, a tunic, and a haik 
or capote of cloth or of bedticking. This garment is very large with 
sleeves and a hood. It is put on like a shirt, without any opening ex- 
cept ibr the head and hands. Their garb is, indeed, much like that of 
the Moors, except that instead of a turban, which in Morocco would 
be taken away from them, head and all, they cover their shaven crowns 
with a close scullcap. They are an ill formed, dii^iisting race, with 
a bent and abject bearing, immense fish eyes, ikid fleshy swollen 
ankles that receive no protection or support from the large slippers 
which they drag after them over the pavement. It is impossible to 
conceive a stronger contrast than is furnished by these poor oppressed 
Israelites add the well turned, gaily dressed mountaineers, w^o come 
for contraband goods from the Sierrania of Ronda. • These noble 
booking fellows are alike free from haughtiness and humiliation. Bred 
among the mountains and passing half of their live» in the saddle, 
with their good carbines beside them, they are accustomed to avenge 
their own wrongs, and own allegiance to none but their village curate 
and the Virgin Mary. «* 



Not the least singular figure to be seen upon change at Gibraltar, 
was an old Greek captain, who made a voyage to America many years 
ago, carrying a cargo of wine, which went to a bad market. On his 
return to Gibraltar with a Flemish account of the proceeds, the poor 
Greek was thrown into prison, whence he only escaped with the loss 
of his reason. He still continues in Gibraltar, wanting both means 
and inclinatioB to get away from the scene of his misfortunes, and 
living rent firee in a little hovel upon the flat roof of the theatre. Nor 
wiH he associate with any creature except with dogs, of which he has 
a whole figaiily. In the night season, while the strumming of the or- 
chestra below, the rant of the players, and the rattle of the castanet, 
come faintly to him, he sits up(Mi his doorsill and holds communion 
with his firiend the moon. And when the noontide heat drives him 
from his hovel, he seeks the shade below, and moves from side to side, 
with the motion of the shadows. Poor fellow ! well do I remember to 
have seen him in my boyish days ; and many a time, when I have been 
filodding the weary road that led to the school of that cross old Scot 

, with dictionary and Julius Cssar hanging heavy at the end 

of my strap, have I come upon the track of the Greek, and followed 
him street afler street, filled with wonder at his outlandish garb and 
the bigness of his breeches. It chanced one hot morning as I was 
•emerging from my lodgings, that he wae sitting in the shade of 
the doorway. The place was private, and' I foand some exonsefbr 



940 SEYlhhE. 

opening a conversation. But I made a bad choice in putting him 
in mind of America ; for he presently grew enraged, swore like a 
trooper at the New York merchants, calling them in no very genteel 
Spanish all the rogues he could think of. He vowed that he would 
go to Greece, fit out a ship, and sink any American he met. Gather- 
ing himself up out of the dirt, he drew his red cap over his brow and 
strode off, followed by his dogs, as if bent on the immediate execu- 
tion of his purpose. He was a fine looking veteran, with a muscular 
frame, a manly face^ and long red mustaches ; upon the whole he 
would 'have made no contemptible figure on the deck of a rover. But 
poor fellow ! his imbecility will defend us firom his revenge ; for he 
will never be able^to tear himself fi'om the society of his faithful dogs- 
nor firom his firievdly hovel on the top of the theatre. 



The diversions of the garrison consist in rambles about the Rock,, 
and in balls, theatres, and operas, oflen performed by distinguished 
Spaniards, who here starve and languish in exile. Pic-nics, where a 
party is formed to go into Spain in carriages and on horseback, and 
make a feast in a cork wood or under the f>oetic shade of an orange 
orchard, furnish also a favorite diversion. There are also many pleas- 
ant excursions on foot and horseback within the circumscribed extent 
of the Rock. Such is that to Catalan Bay, a litUe fishing setUement 
planted upon the shore, immediately under the the overhanging projec- 
tion of the mountain. I chanced to be caught there one day in the 
rain with a couple of my countrymen, and we had an opportunity of 
testing the security of this singular location. Hardly had we taken 
refiige in the tavern and drawn our horses in afier us — for there was 
no stable— when we heard a rumbling noise as if the mountain was 
sliding down upon us, and presently a crash of rafters. We all ran 
outy some with hats, some without them ; and all the huts of Catalan 
Bay poured forth their inmates, boys and girls, men and women ; the 
fishermen left their nets, which they were hanging over their boats 
Upon the beach, and crowded round in the sweetest confusion. The 
fact was, a piece of the Rock had tumbled from above, raced down the 
declivity, and walked through the roof of a house with littie ceremony ; 
but no one was hurt. So we joined the fishermen in thanking God, 
and when the rain abated, took horse and rode home. 



But a far pleasanter promenade is to sally out of Charles Fifth's gale 
at the south in the direction of the Alameda. Here you find the beau- 
tiful parade ground for the exercises of the soldiery, and may, per^ 
chance, be present at a drill. Nothing can exceed the exact precision 
with which the British troops . perform the exercise. The Prussians 
and Austrians, though famous ifor their tactics, can by no means com- 
pare with them. The French pretend to nothing of Ihe kind ; for 



SEVILLE. 841 

Ibey find in the military spirit and native ardor of their conscripta, in 
their inborn aense of honor, and reckless impetaosity, qualities which 
are inconsislent with tliis rataa discipline of the British army, and 
which a long series of the most brilliant victories have proved to be of 
fiur greater valua Among the regiments at Gibraltar was one of High- 
landers. The dress is very absnrd ; the plumed hat, the boskins, and 
especially the tartan filabeg, were never meant to be worn in conjunc- 
tion with a red coat What indeed can be more inconsistent, than to 
bestow upon the breech the supernumerary covering of a coat tail, 
when the legs and thighs are exposed to the rude blast, and denied the 
slightest protection ? As the filabeg descends not so low as the knee, 
when the soldiers jump about or sit carelessly and crosihlegged, it often 
gives rise to the most untoward exposures. And yet, strange to tett^ 
the officers who wear pantaloons on ordinary occasions, always don 
the airy filabeg tor balls and galas, to approach the persons of the fair. 
Experience may have taught them that in this their war-garb they be- 
come irresistible.* 

The din of war, the bustle, marching, and display, connected with 
the garrison, is one of the greatest resources of the stranger in Gibral- 
tar. Twice a day there is the parade of relief, with music morning 
and evening, and frequently between them the trumpets sound ' The 
Roast Beef of Old England,' proclaiming dinner, or on Sunday invite 
to church by the sweet tune of * Hark, the merry Christ church bells,^ 
repeated at every corner. The bands are not so good as those of the 
Spanish or French guards, nor the selections of music at all compara- 
ble ; but the concerts of bugles, playing the merry or mournful airs of 
Scotland, are truly exquisite ; no accordance of instrumento can be 
more perfect, and when heard in the still night, no strains can be more 
harmonious, more heavenly. 

On passing the parade ground you enter the delightful gardens^ 
which in very defiance of nature have risen within a few years upon 
the declivity of the Rock. Much of the soil which supports the trees 
and shrubbery, has been brought from the main land. Though the 
area of the Alameda is small, yet it is in a manner multiplied by the 
winding of the walks up and down the slopes, and by the judicious dis- 
tribution of alleys, steps, light latticed fences, trees, shrubbery, and 
flowers. Towards the commencement of the gradual slope, which 
begins at the foot of the mountain, are two airy pavilions of the most 
exquisite taste and beauty. From the highest you command a charm- 
ing view, rendered still more lovely by the contrasted gloom of the 
overhanging precipice. And first you dwell upon the softened featuree 
of the slope on the left, with the white summer-houses perched upon 
it, embosomed amid shady fig trees, with here and there an orange or 
a stately palm, growing beside the peach and lanced aloe— -4he produc- 

* The ridicule of this dress was rendered more obvious from Ae faet that many oT 
the men thus airily attired were English, and Irish, unused to kilt or tartan. But 
few belonged to that glorious little kingdom which has achieved so much in the sci- 
ences, in literature ai^ in arms — so much for the good of the whole world, and for 
her own glory. 



842 SEVILLE. 

tioiis of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, all harraoniaing in this 
congenial clime. Below, the beds of grass or flowers are enclosed bj 
hedges of geranium, covered in May, when I saw them, with the moot 
beautiful bloraoms, while the walks between are enlivened with moving 
multitudes of men, women, and soldiery, with here and there the head 
and shoulders of a Highlander emerging above the verdure, and gliding 
by with nodding plumes and waving tartans. Still lower is the line 
wall, with Gibraltar on the right and the pretty Rosia on the left, and 
then the sea-green surface of the bay ; the ships, which give it inci* 
dent, coming, going, or at anchor. Where the land again aiternates 
beyond, are seen the white buildings of Algeziras, protected by ver^ 
dant mountains, which stretch southward to form the Straits, seem^ 
ing to meet the African shores, which rise black and gloomy in the 
distance. 

And yet — will it be believed ? — the Alameda, like our oiwn thrice 
beautiful Battery, is but little Irequented except upon a feast day. The 
English avoid it always ; on week days because it is so solitary, and on 
Sundays because it is run down by the commonalty. It would seem, 
indeed, that, though they have the talent to create, they have not the 
taste to enjoy. Occasionally at the evening hour, one may meet a 
Genoese, in her graceless red cloak, a Provencelle duly attended by 
her gallant, or Maiignenia with basquinia and mantilla, or a gracious 
Gaditana« 



Beyond the Alameda stands the cluster of dwellings, called Rosia, 
with its little mole. The Rock in the immediate neighbourhood^ 
though it has again become precipitous, has a little covering of soil, 
produced by the successive growth and decay of vegetable matter. This 
has been planted into gardens and fruit orchards, where the hardy fig* 
tree, fond of a precarious foothold, spreads highest and most luxuriant 
It is said that the Rock is capable of producing all the vegetables ne* 
cessary for the consumption of the garrison. If this be the case, it is 
remarkable that every eligible spot is not brought under cultivation ; 
for Gibraltar will only be retaken by surprise or by starvation. At 
present, the supplies are brought from Spain, Barbary, and even from 
America. Fine fish and a few vegetables are the only food from the 
Rock and its vicinity. In a place like this, where all is preparation 
and watchfulness, it should be an object to live at all times, as much 
as possible, upon domestic resources. 

South of Rosia, and towards Europa, the Rock no longer allows the 
intervention of a level, but throws itself into the most broken and fan- 
tastic shapes, leaving an occasional Thermopylae for the passage of the 
road. Though the surrounding precipices are naked and sterile, there 
aro here a few intervening glens, which are filled with flowers and 
overrun with verdure. These favored spots have been improved as 
country seats by the pretty taste of the English, whose notions of snug- 
ness, comfort, and beauty, in rural residences, we by no means equal 



Seville:. 843 

in Ameriet. The dwellings are sometimes fashioned, in accordance 
with the character of the scenery and out of compliment to the past 
poesessors of the place, into mimic Moorish castles, with terraces, em- 
brasures, and fitmning towers. Elsewhere are snug little cottages, 
nestled closely in a corner, with a grape vine arbour for a portal, and 
more than half overran with honeysuckle and eglantine. 



The ezcorsion to Europa is by far the prettiest on the Rock ; but 
yet there are others, which possess greater interest. Such is the walk 
to the old castle of Taric, which stands midway up^the mountain. 
Much of the structure has been removed designedly, or battered away 
by the balls of besiegers, who have also left their marks upon the re^ 
maining portion. The spiral stairway, or rather path, like that of the 
Oiialda, is crumbling to a ruin, and a fig tree has fastened upon the 
battlement ; enongh, however, remains to form an imposing feature in 
the picture of the Rock, and to give lodgment to a guard of soldiers 
and to the public hangman, who lives here out of sight and out of mind. 
This worthy fanctionary is occasionally called upon to do justice on a 
Spaniard, who, forgetting that he isln a land of law, has appealed, ac** 
cording to the cnstom of his country, to the arbitration of the knife. 

A winding zigzag conducts xon from the Moorish Castle upwards to 
the Excavations. These consist of a passage cut into tl^ solid rock, 
across the north front, for the distance of half a mile, and which com- 
municates by means of spiral stairways through the immense halls with 
other galleries above and below. It is scarce possible to conceive the 
astonishment with which the stranger mast ever visit this singular 
place* He finds himself alone in the very heart of the Rock, with im* 
roense cannon ranged round this devil's den, each with its pile of heavy 
shot beside it, and protruding through port holes which overlook the 
Peninsula. The dim light that enters beside the muzzles of the can- 
non, the black darkness behind you, the solitude, the silence, broken 
only by the prolonged reverberation of every spoken work, all awaken 
the most singular sensations; 

There is, indeed, something exceedingly formidable in the aspect of 
these batteries, whether seen from within or without. As you look 
down through the port-holes upon the neutral ground, you feel as 
though all the pygmies below were in your power, to be destroyed at 
will. And when yoa are below and look upward, you experience on 
the contrary an inward sense of danger and dependence. These bat- 
teries are, however, more formidable in appearance than in reality. A 
shot from so great an elevation may, it is true, be projected within the 
works of the besiegers ; but then it only strikes in one place, where it 
buries itself in the sand — whereas the Devil's Tongue, which forms 
the mole and is upon a level with the Neutral Ground, sweeps an ex- 
tent equal to the range of its cannon, and fairly licks up all before it. 

The excavatk>ns have all been hewn out since the fortress has been 
in the poesession of the British. The labor is certainly one of the most 



844 49EVILLE. 

hirdy and afltonishing of modem times. There is, indeed, much at 
Gibraltar to convey an exalted idea of British power. Here is a nation 
which occupies a mere point upon the map of the world, raised by a 
concurrence of not obvious causes to the rank of a first rate power, and 
occupying all the strongholds of the ocean. By the multiplied industry 
of an inconsiderable population, buying the alliance of greater nations, 
making war and peace at pleasure, and sitting at the helm of European 
policy. Nor is her greatness only physical ; her Newton, her Shaks* 
peare, Milton, Scott, and Byron, stand alone and unrivalled in the 
world, at the head of whatever is excellent. It is a proud thing to be 
able to claim a common origin with this singular people ; and when 
we revert to our own country, where a kinder nature seconds all our 
efforts, and where a boundless territory leaves unlimited room for de- 
velopement; when we remember that we have adopted all the beauties 
of that social system under which Britain has prospered, without any 
of its deformities, and then, with her experience and our own as data, 
attempt to picture the future fortunes of our country, the fancy is i 
ed and bewildered at the splendor of the vision. 



On leaving the Galleries, it is usual to pass out by a different opening 
upon the higher part of the Rock, where you again find yourself in the 
open air, refreshed by the clear breeze and warmed by the rays of the 
sun, which enable you to enjoy a widely extended and delightful view. 
The path now leads to the Signal Tower, where a party is stationed to 
observe the vessels that are passing the Straits, descending the Medi- 
terranean, or entering the harbor. They also watch for daybreak and 
the setting of the sun, which are announced from a small battery near 
the summit. The view from the Signal Tower is wide, varied, and 
commanding ; and as there are fine telescopes there, when tired of 
gazing generally, you can bring near and analyse the objects which 
please you, and thus prolong the interest. The Rock and Town are 
spread out directly below ; the ships anchored in the bay, show noth* 
ing but the decks ; presenting themselves as they are represented in 
the plan of a battle. The coast towards Algeziras, though seen more 
obliquely, displays the rivers which it discharges into the bay with all 
their curves and roeanderings, while towards the straits in the south- 
west, the bright verdure of the Spanish hills, lit up by the sun-beams, 
contrasts most singularly with the forbidding aspect of the African 
shores, which blacken in the distance, overhung by their own shadows. 
The spectacle of the town by day is full of interest ; the crowd of mov* 
ing objects discernable upon the surface of the bay, in the roads of the 
environs, or between the roofs of the houses, ail produce a singular 
effect, beheld from this unwonted position. Man is seen everywhere 
in motion, and seemingly to little purpose. The result of his labors is 
dwindled into insignificance, and yon wonder at the pertinacious vivaci- 
ty of the little animal, as you would at the business air of the ant, toil- 
ing all day to remove a kernel. At such a time the ear kings objects 



SEVILLE. 345 

Maeh nearer than the sight; the clatter of hoofe, the nimbling of 
wheels, the firing of cannon, the mixed sound of music, in different 
and equidistant directions— of drums and fifes, clarionettes, bugles, and 
bagpipes, produce a singular combination. I did not fiul to witness 
this favorite ?iew by night, though at the risk of breaking my neck in 
the descent The outlines of things, of land, and water, and vessels, 
are then alone discoverable — faintly illuminated at intervals by man's 
poor substitute for tho glories of the sun. On the contrary, the con- 
fused bum in which, in the daytime, all individual sounds are dissipated 
and drowned, is now exchanged for the clatter of a single horseman 
returning over the rocky road of the Alameda, the shrill pipe of a fife, 
or the distinct melody of a chorus of bugles. Nay, voices and even 
words are now clearly distinguishable. 

There is, if possible, a still finer prospect firoro the old Tower of St 
Qeorge, which stands upon the highest pinnacle of the Rock. Having 
chosen a pleasant day for the excursion, I toiled to the top and seated 
myself in the shade of the Tower, which has been sorely shattered by 
lightning. The morning was bright, and, in addition to the objects 
discoverable from the Signal Tower, I could now catch an overland 
view of the Atlantic, and of the Afi'ican coast, clearly revealed as it 
stretches away south-eastward fi'om Ceuta. On the other hand, rose 
the Andalosian shore in bold and beautiful perspective, with the Sierra 
Nevada, seen at the distance of more than a hundred miles, pushing 
his snowy head above the surrounding clouds into the region of the 
heavens. Between these opposite coasts of Afirica and Europe, the 
Mediterranean reposed in its basin, slightly rippled by the western 
breeze, and stretching firom beneath my feet interminably eastward, 
until it seemed to blend its bright blue with the kindred azure of the 
sky. 

It was impossible to remain alone on this towering elevation and in 
the presence of such a scene, without the recurrence of the most exalt* 
ed recollections. I was standing upon one of the very pillars of Her- 
cules, left behind by Jason and his worthies in that daring voyage, 
which fable afterwards converted into a search for the Golden Fleece, 
it was through that strait, too, that Hanno and Hamilcar went forth to 
look fbr other worlds. From this eminence might have been traced 
Uie course of the Arab Taric, as he crossed the water. There he dis- 
embarked upon the beach, and there, like Hernan Cortes in the New 
World, he fired his whole fleet to strengthen and give desperation to 
the faltering courage of his followers. And that was the same Mediter- 
ranean, which wafted Hannibal to Spain, Scipio to Afirica, Pompey to 
Macedonia, Cesar to Pharsalia, Mark Anthony to the arms of Cleopsp 
tra, Augustus to Actium, Don Juan de Austria to Sepanto, Bonaparte 
to Aboukir, Nelson to the Nile ! 



The Rock of Gibraltar would be considered a very singular produce 
tion of nature, if it had not St MichaePs Cave, and if it posseiised no 
/ 44 



346 SEVILLE. 

other elaim to attention, this alone would seem to render it reniarkabltf# 
This cave, like other similar ones to be seen at the Rock, is supposed 
to be produced by the undermining and falling away of the loose earth 
and stones below. In process of time, the dripping of the moisture 
and its petrifaction covers the vault with stalactites, some of which, 
getting the start of others, depend lower and lower until they reach the 
corresponding mass of petri&ction, which the dripping water has pro- 
duced immediately below ; these combining, form a perfect column, 
while the space between two of them assumes the figure of an arch. 
The entrance to St Michael's Cave is very small, and being overgrown 
with bushes and brambles, might easily escape the search of a stranger. 
On entering, however, it at once expands into a vast hall, from which 
passages diverge to other halls, deeper and dee[>er into the bowels of 
the earth. The floor, like the vault above, is very irregular. The 
stalactites do not furnish any beautiful shades and veins, such as thej 
exhibit when cut and polished, in consequence of the whole interior 
being blackened by smoke from the torches of visiters. Upon penetrat- 
ing a short distance, the cave assumes a beautiful and highly interesting 
appearance. The little light which streams in at the entrance, is yet 
sufficient to illuminate and define with clearness the outline of caverns, 
columns, and arches, which intervene. Nature seems here in one of 
her eccentricities to have imitated art, producing without any toil but 
thatof time, a combination, which, in the days of enchantment, might 
have seemed the work, and passed for the residence of a fairy. 

The extreme singularity of this place has given rise to many supers 
stitious stories, not only among the ancients, but also among the vulgar 
of our own day. As it has b^n penetrated by the hardy and enterprifr* 
ing to a great distance— -on one occasion by a surgeon of the United 
States navy, who descended by ropes, like Don Quixote in the cave of 
MontesinoB, a depth of five hundred feet — a wild story is current, that 
the cave communicates by a submarine passage with Africa. The sai* 
lors who have visited the Rock and seen the monkeys, which are found 
in no other part of Europe, and are only seen here occasionally and at 
intervals, say that they pass at pleasure by means of the cave to their 
native land. The more cunning go so far as to think that the descend* 
ants of the Andalusian Moors will one day profit by thiscommnnieation f 
«nd, taking the monkeys for guides, pass over to recover the land of 
their long cherished predilection. There is, in truth, something very 
strange in the coming and going of these same monkeys. During 
nearly two months that I passed on the Rock, t saw them but twice id 
my daily rambles. Once while a Levanter was blowing, and again 
just before the setting in of one ; of which, indeed, their appearance 
is considered a certain prognostic. They are supposed to lire at other 
times among the inaccessible precipices of the eastern declivity, where 
there is a scanty store of monkey-grass for their subsistence. When 
a Levanter sets in, the wind drives them from their caves and cran* 
nies, and they take refuge among the western rocks, where they may 
be seen from the Alam^a below, hopping from bush to bush, boxinflr 
each other's ears and cutting the most singular antics. If disturbed 



SEVILLE. 84^ 

by an intrttsive step, they scamper off amain, the young ones jamping 
upon the backs, and putting their arms round the necks of the old, 
where they ding like so many papooses. As they are very innocent 
animals and form a kind of poetical appendage of the Rock, strict or* 
ders have been issued for their special protection. 

While 1 was at the Rock, however, two drunken soldiers one day 
undertook to violate these orders ; one of them was summarily pnnished 
for his disobedience, without the intervention of a court martial. As 
they were rambling about the declivity, below the Signal Tower, they 
happened to come upon the traces of a party of monkeys, and at once 
gave chace. The monkeys, cut off from their upward retreat, ran 
downwards, the soldiers followed and the monkeys ran faster. In this 
way they approached the perpendicular precipice which rises from the 
Alameda. One of the soldiers was able to check his course, and just 
saved himself; the foremost and most impetuous, urged on by a re* 
sistless impetus, passed over the fearful steep, and fell a mangled and 
lifeless corpse upon the walk of the Alameda. The next morning the 
slow and measured tread of many feet beneath my window, the mourn* 
lul sound of the muffled drums, and the shrill and piercing plaint of 
the fife, told me that they were bearing the dead soldier to his tomb. 
Poor fellow ! if he had not died drunk, I certainly should have pitied 
him. 

But to return to the Cavern — to see it in perfection, one should go 
with torches and bluelights, when it is said to assume a marvellous and 
even magic splendor. To have missed this sight, which for some 
trivial reason I neglected, together with the occasion of passing a de- 
lightful day in the most agreeable company, is now a source of no little 
regret 



There was, however, a much finer si^ht than this which I did not 
miss seeing ; a finer sight, indeed, a far prouder exhibition, than any 
which comes within the whole range of nature and of art. This was 
an American ship of the line, which had been long expected at Gib- 
raltar, and which I had been extremely anxious to meet.* She was 
6aid to be, if not the largest, certainly the most efficient and formida- 
ble, as well as most beautiful , ship that ever crossed the ocean. 
Afler much weary expectation, the ship was at length signaled 
from the tower, and climbing to the top of the Rock, I saw her 
coming down before a gentle Levanter, with skysails and studding- 
sails — a perfect cloud of snow-white canvass. By and by the lighter 
sails were drawn in and disposed of. Europa was doubled and lefl 
behind, and the gallant ship stood boldly into the harbor, with yards a 
little braced, sails all filled and asleep, and hull just careened enough 
to improve the beauty of the broadside. As she came closer, and I 
contemplated her from the more favorable position of the line, wall, 
nothing could exceed the beauty of the spectacle. If, as we are told in 

* The U. S. Ship North Carolina, Commodore John Rogers. 



848 SEVILLE 



the Life of GolumbttBf ' nothing seems to have filled themind of the most 
stoical savage with more wonder, than that sublime and beautiful tro- 
phy of human genius, a ship under sail/ what would have been the 
wild ecstasy of the sensitive Anacoona, if instead of the shapeless car- 
avel of the Adelantado, she had first seen this ship, at least twenty 
times as large and a hundred times more perfect. She might not only 
have believed it to have come from Turi, but that the deity himself 
had deigned to come down and visit his children of Xaragua. Even to 
a practised eye the sight was a magnificent one. Instead of the heavy 
poop and other incumbrances, which disfigure European vessels of the 
same class, everything here was smooth and uniform, calculated 'to 
produce an unbroken effect and the most perfect symmetry. So perfect, 
indeed, are the proportions of this vessel, that her size at a distance 
would be undervalued, and though larger in tonnage and throwing a 
greater weight of metal than any ship that ever went to sea, yet her 
appearance is so deceptive, that she might at a distance be taken for 
and approached as a frigate. It was only by comparing the pigmy pro- 
portions of the men who moved up and down the masts or threw the 
lead, with her huge masts and wide spread canvass, that any idea could 
be formed of her size until she entered the road and came near other 
vessels. A British frigate, which had hitherto looked a leviathian, as 
the American crossed her stern, was dwindled into a cock-boat And now 
the wonder became still greater, to see this immense mass, this wooden 
mountain, playing about in the harbor, with the graceful facility of a 
little schooner ; the huge sails changed from side to side, to receive the 
action of the wind with the changing prow, and at last when the an- 
chor was cast, gathered up into plaits and hidden from view, with the 
facility with which a bird would fold its wings. It seemed as if there 
were magic in the whistle of the boatswain.* 

The immense size of the ship did not, however, become completely 
palpable to me until I had reached her in a boat, journeyed up the 
weary side and stood at length upon her deck. The sailors were 
drawn up before the mainmast, looking with silent respect towards the 
hallowed region of the quarter-deck. Upon this spacious parade 
ground, flanked by a double battery, a hundred fine looking soldiers, 
with burnished arms and well brushed attire, were drawn up to sa- 
lute the departure of the commander. A splendid band of music, 

* Though the Carolina carries but one hundred gunf?, on three unifonn decks, they 
are of so heavy a catibre,. thirty twos and fortytwos, that the weight of metal thrown 
at the double broadside is greater than that of any first rate in the British service. It 
is 8,840 pounds. And yet this ship is called a seventyfour ! — ^This is an absurdity. 
What great inconvenience would there be in calling a ship of twentyfour fnuu 
a twentyfour— a ship of fortyfour guns a fort^four — of an hundred an hundred 
gun ship — instead of the present deceptive classification of sloops, frigates, and sev- 
entyfours. Another instance of defective organization in our navy was apparent in 
the humble rank and indefinite title- of the commander of this ship. TluMigfa chief 
of our squadron in the Mediterranean, and, indeed, of the whole navy, he is yet in 
positive rank only a post-captain. There are men in die navy, who entered it long 
after he had attamed his present rank, and who have passed from grade to grade, 
whilst he has remained stationary, until they have now become his equals. Here 
is room for reformation. 



SEVILLE. 349 

dressed in Moorish garb, Mras stationed at the stern, and the officers 
were all collected for the same purpose upon the quarter-deck, in 
irregular groups of noble looking young fellows, the present pride and 
future hope of our country. At length the Herculean form and mar- 
tial figure of the TOteran Commodore was added to the number. Here 
was the master spirit that gave impulse and soul to the machine. A 
thousand eyes were fixed upon him, a thousand hats were raised ; and 
as he passed over the side, the soldiers presented arms and the music 
sent forth a martial melody. I thought I had never seen any array so 
soul inspiring, so imposing ; and when I came, from contemplating the 
whole, to look into the details of this perfect contrivance, this little 
world, this moving city, and to admire the excellent order and arrange- 
ment everywhere observable for health, comfort, and convenience, for 
annoyance and defence ; I could not but feel the folly of that wish 
Sirhich could look back with longing after the refinements of ' the Au- 
gustan age.' The Greeks and Romans may have made nobler build- 
ings and better statues and finer paintings than we do. Yet — to say 
nothing of our improvement in morals, to leave unnoticed a thousand 
rare and useful discoveries, and especially that singular invention of 
our countryman, the proudest production of human ingenuity, by 
which the elements are made to triumph over each other — what, let 
me ask, did the Augustan or any other age, ever produce to compare 
with this noble production, in which art itself is outdone, and science 
altogether exhausted t * 

* The present work odntained originally, a much greater quantity of matter than 
in the form of its publication. It was the intention of the author to publiah the 
whole work under the title of .^ Year in Spain — a good round name; promi8in|r 
nothing, and therefore not likely to conrey disappointment. Finding, however, that his 
hook grew and increased in a manner truly alarmine to an unpractised autlior, and 
knowing that to reduce and generalize would take from the narrative whatever 
merit it might possess, he preferred rather to strike out entirely a sufficient portion to 
reduce it to more moderate dimensions. 

This he accordingly did, though the part omitted at the close chanced to relate to 
the mot^ interesting sectkm of the Peninsula ; whether considered locally, or in the 
light of historic association. He was the more strongly induced to pursue tliis 
course by the consideration that there might aleady be too much ; and because he 
was publishing it at his own risk. For, though not forced to the drudgery of writ- 
ing, as Cervantes has it, ibr dinero9-^not dinners, but wherewithal to buy them — ^he 
has vet neither the means nor the inclination to purchase publicity by any pecuniary 
sacrifice. 



CHAl^ER XX. 

GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

Physical Character of the Peninsula. — Sdl, Climate, and ProductioDS. — ^Early HU- 
tory. — Rise and Overthrow of Gothic Power. — Saracen Domination. — Cooae* 
quences of its Subversion. — Present Population. — Agriculture, Manu&ctures, and 
Commerce. — Arts and Sciences.— Government. — Fmanccs. — ^Military Power. — 
State of Parties and Social Divisions. — Clergy. — Royal Family. — Spanish Char- 
acter. — Its Provincial Peculiarities. — General Characteristics. — National Lan- 
guage. — ^Manners. — Conclusion. 

The Spanish Peninsula, including the two kingdoms of Spain and 
Portugal, is situated between the thirtysixth and fortyfourth degrees 
of north latitude, and between the third degree of east and ninth of 
west longitude, reckoning from the meridian of Greenwich. It stands 
at the southwestern extremity of Europe, and is surrounded on every 
side by the Atlantic ocean and Mediterranean sea, except towards the 
northeast, where it is connected with France for a distance of three 
hundred miles. Here, however, nature has provided an excellent 
national barrier in the Pyrenean mountains. The ancients were used 
to compare the outline of Hispania to the distended hide of a bullock. 
A single glance of the map will show that they must have had a good' 
notion of its geography ; for the resemblance is at once discoverable 
without the aid of fancy. 

But a far more singular trait in the physical character of the Penin- 
sula, is the extent, number, and elevation of its mountains. Spain is, 
indeed, a complete system of mountains. The strong contrast be- 
tween the state of things here and in the level monotonous region of 
France, has stimulated the ingenuity of modern geographers to find 
some other cause for the fact, than the mere caprice of nature. They 
have, therefore, discovered that the Spanish mountains are only the 
termination of that great range, which, taking its rise in Tartary, 
traverses Asia and Europe, leaves a stronghold in Switzerland and a 
few scattering posts in France by the way, to keep up its communi- 
cations with Spain ; where as a last effort, it forms a vast bulwark of 
mountains, which lend each other mutual support in withstanding 
the immense volume of waters, with which the ocean endeavors to 
overwhelm the whole of Europe. Without inquiring why such is the 
case, it is sufficiently evident that there are many chains of moun- 
tains, which take their rise in the Pyrenees and run southward and 
westward, intersecting the whole Peninsula. Such is the Asturian 
and Gallician range ; the range of Guadarrama ; that which AntiUon 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 351 

has called the Iberican ; the Sierra Morena ; and the mountains of 
Granada and Ronda, which skirt the Mediterranean, and which are 
the most elevated of all. ' These/ says Father Mariana, ' press on- 
ward with so much boldness, that they seem to have pretended in va- 
rious places to cross the sea, dry up the strait, and unite themselves 
with Africa.' 

But there is yet a more singular feature in the physiognomy of 
Spain — in its distinctly marked division into two separate regions ; one 
of which has been called the central region, the other the region of 
the coast. Indeed the whole interior of Spain may be considered one 
vast mountain ; for though it consists chiefly of level lands, traversed 
by lofly ridges, yet even the plains rise almost everywhere to an ele- 
vation of two thousand feetabove the sea. If then, on entering Spain, 
and traversing the eastern coast along the Mediterranean, I was sur- 
prised to find the western horizon everywhere bounded by lofty moun- 
tains, how much greater was my astonishment, when, on abandoning 
the sea at Valencia, I toiled up the eminences that lay inland, and in- 
stead of descending the opposite side, saw nothing before me but a 
weary arid plain, over which I continued to wander, without descend- 
ing, for hundreds of leagues, until I at length reached the Sierra 
Morena, thence descending suddenly by the Dispenia-perros, into 
the blissful regions of Andalusia. 

In consequence 6f the extreme dryness of its atmosphere, the rivers 
of the Peninsula are neither so many, nor so great, as to comport with 
the number and elevation of the mountains. The principal are the 
Tagus, the Guadalquivir, the Ebro, the Duero, and the Gnadiana. 
The Tagus, prince •f Spanish rivers and fruitful theme of so much 
poetry, takes its rise in the mountains of Guadarrama, waters the 
'groves and gardens of Aranjuez, half encircles the wormeaten Tole- 
do, and having received the increase of many tributary streams, it at 
length opens into a wide estuary, reflecting the images of Lisboa and 
of Cintra. The Guadalquivir rises between the Morena and the Ne- 
vada ; and being fed by tributaries from either mountain, it flows 
gracefully towards the ocean, bathing the walls of Cordova and Se- 
ville, and scattering fertility over the fairest portions of Andalusia. 
The Ebro has its source in the mountains of Navarre, and takes its 
course between two of the branches of the Pyrenees, until it empties 
into the Mediterranean. This is the only one of the larger rivers that 
holds an eastern course. The Duero begins a mere rivulet north of 
the Guadarrama, swelling gradually until it reaches the spot where 
Numantia once stood, defying the mistress of the world, and yielding 
only in death. The Duero passes through Portugal and reaches the 
ocean at Oporto. El muypladdo Guadiana springs mysteriously into 
being among the classic marshes of Ruidosa, flows forward between 
delightful meadows, the pasture of many flocks and herds ; and 
leaches the ocean in the Gulf of Huelva. These are the principal 
rivers of Spain. They are about upon a par with those of France for 
volume of water, but not so navigable, on account of the great eleva^* 
tkiD of the interior ^ Spain and their consequent descent. This great 



852 , OENERAI. VIEW OF SPAIN. 

descent is doubtless the cause of their being very direct and free from 
windings ; a circumstance that would render their banks extremely 
eligible for the construction of canals. Like the inferior streams, they 
are now, however, of little use except for irrigation. Spain has no 
lalTes of any importance. ' 



The soil of the Peninsula is very different in the central region and the 
region of the coast. The first consists for the most part of dry and moun- 
tainous plains traversed in every direction by mountains still more lofty. 
The region of the coast, though less elevated and sloping gradually 
towards the sea, is broken into a constant succession of mountains and 
vallies, which produce the most agreeable variety, and furnish a hap- 
py contrast with the monotony of the interior. It is everywhere fer- 
tile, or may be easily rendered so by means of irrigation. 

The climate of Spain varies with the face of the country. The 
loflier mountains are a prey to perpetual winter ; the elevated plains 
of the interior are either swept without shelter by the cold blasts of 
the inclement season ; or else burnt up in summer by a powerful sun, 
which plays upon them, unchecked either by clouds m the sky, or 
trees upon its own surface. But the region of the coast enjoys for the 
most part an ever temperate climate ; protected from cold winds by 
the mountains of the interior and fanned during the hot season by re- 
freshing breezes from the sea. The climate of Spain, except in the 
northern provinces, is remarkable for its dryness ; almost every day is 
a fine one, and in making engagements nobody ever thinks of putting 
in a proviso for good weather. A freedom from rain and dampness, 
and a cloudless transparent sky, are blessings that you may always 
count upon. Dryness of climate is, however, excessive in Spain, and 
oflen degenerates into drought. It is recorded in the old chronicles 
of the thiicteenth century, that about the time of the famous battle of 
Navas-de-Tolosa, in which two hundred thousand Saracens werp slain, 
nine whole months passed by without its having once rained in the 
kingdom of Toledo. There is even a tradition mentioned by Mari- 
ana of a drought, which lasted so long that the springs and rivers were 
entirely dried, the vegetation was burnt up and destroyed, and men 
and animals died miserably from thirst, heat, and hunger, until almost 
every living thing was exterminated. It is, perhaps, owing to this ex- 
treme dryness of climate, that in the interior provinces the water is 
often of miserable quality. Though tertians are sometimes found in 
the provinces, where irrigation is used, and malignant fevers occa- 
sionally devastate others but poorly drained and cultivated, yet the 
climate of Spain may upon the whole be considered quite equal, and 
perhaps superior, to any other in Europe. 

The productions of Spain are rich, various, and, indeed, universal. 
The hills and mountains, among which so many small rivers take 
their rise, contain within their bowels all the metals, salts, bitumens, 
and stones, which can in any way conduce to the service and benefit 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 353 

f>f hhw. The mines of gold and siWer which furnished the ancients 
with so much wealth, are, it is true, with the exception of the silver 
mine of Guadalcanal, either exhausted or abandoned as no longer 
worth working, since the discovery of America and the consequent 
depreciation of the precious metals ; but iron of first quality ; le%d, 
tin, copper, quicksilver, and every valuable mineral are found with 
ease in various parts of the Peninsula. Coal and salt are dug in As- 
turias, Arragon, and La Mancha ; precious stones are found in differ- 
ent parts of the kingdom ; and granite, jasper, alabaster, and the most 
beautiful marbles in the world, abound in almost every mountain. 
Wheat of the first quality is produced in most of the provinces, and, 
though some do not supply their own consumption, the deficiency is 
made up by the surplus of others. Wine is raised abundantly all over 
Spain, and of the crops that grow on the coasts large quantities are 
exported to difierent parts of the world. But the best and most gen- 
erous wines are found in the high and arid region of the interior. So 
imperfect, however, is the state of communications in Spain, that 
they will not pay the price of transportation, and are consequently 
consumed and known, only in the section which produces them. The 
other principal productions of Spain are oats, barley, maize, rice, oil, 
honey, and some sugar ; hemp, flax, esparto or sedge, cork, cotton, 
silk, sumach, and barilla. The lofUer mountains are covered with 
forests, which furnish wood to be converted into charcoal, the chief 
file] used in the country, and also abundance of ship timber. These 
and the vallies supply pasture to the various animals which minister to 
the wants of man. 

The horses of Spain have been fiimous in all ages ; the Romans 
irere used to say that they were engendered of the wind.* They are 
supposed to have sprung originally from the Afirican barb, which was 
in turn the ofispring of the Arabian. The Arabs, when in possession 
of Spain stocked it with their finest breeds ; for in their warlike sports 
and chivalrous amusements, the beauty and gracefiil carriage of the 
horse was not less a matter of emulation than the bearing and dexteri* 
ty of the cavalier. The horses now seen in Spain, especially in An- 
dalusia, are evidently of the Arabian stock ; for beauty, grace, and do- 
cility, they are very superior to those of the English breed. They are, 
however, but little used for harness or labor of any kind ; mules and 
asses being found to eat less, labor more, and endure the heats better. 
In addition to homed cattle and hogs, of which great consumption is 
made in ^ain, salted and in the form of bacon, there are immense 
numbers of sheep, so much so that there are a million or two-more 
sheep in the country than there lire human beings. Nor are wild ani- 
mals entirely wanting in Spain ; bears, wolves, wild boars, with hares 
and rabbits in great abundance, are the chief prey of the' hunter. 
Though the feathered tribe avoid the treeless plains of the two Cas* 
tiles, they delight in the more genial region of the coast, and the 

* Martial speaks in many places of Spain, as fiunous for steeds and arms. 

46 



364 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

• 

nightingale sings nowhere more sweetly than upon the mountaiif^ 
and in the vallies of Andalusia. 

Flowert and medicinal plants grow wild on all the mountains, and 
in the night season they load the air with the most delightful aromas. 
But it is in the abundance, variety, and the delicious flavor of its fruits 
that Spain most surpasses all other nations of Europe. In addition to 
all the different varieties common to the temperate climes, the fig, 
pomegranate, orange, lemon, and citron ; the date, plantain^ banana, 
and cheremoya, find a kindly home in some portion of the Peninsula, 
There seems indeed to be no extravagance in the theory of a French- 
man, who has attempted to find in the different sections of Spain, a 
similitude in point of climate and productions to the different quartern 
of the world which lie opposite. Thus he compares Biscay, Asturias, 
and Gallicia, to the neighbouring countries of Europe, and finds them 
similar; Portugal is likened to the corresponding parts of America; 
Andalusia is found to be identical in most respects with the opposite 
coasts of Africa — and Valencia, in point of soil, climate, and genius of 
its inhabitants, has much in common with the genial regions of the East. 
Nor are the riches of Spain confined to the resources of her fertile soil ; 
the Atlantic and Mediterranean, washing an equal extent of coast, vie in 
supplying her inhabitants with a food which requires little labor in the 
harvest, and at the same time place them in ready communication with 
the most distant countries of the earth. Nature seems, indeed^ to have 
exhausted her benignity upon this favored land, and had the gratitude 
of man equalled her genefoeity, Spain would now yidd the precedence 
to no country upon earth.* 



' The original population of Spain is supposed to have been formed bf 
Celts from France, and Moors from Africa. The latter being, howev- 
er, the more warlike, expelled or subjugated the former, and are evei» 
said to have passed into the countries north of the Pyrenees. The 
swarthy complexions, glowing eyes, and impassioned ardent tempera-^ 
ment of the inhabitants of Lauguedoc and Provence, would seem, in-' 
deed, to favor the opinion of a Moorish origin. Be this as it may, 
nothing except fable is known of the history of Spain until six 6r eight 
centuries before the commencement of the christian era, when the at* 
tention of the Phcenicians was directed to this waste countrjf by their 
mosti adventurous voyages. Its extreme fertility, the amenity of it9 
climate, but especially the precious metals, which abounded in it» 
rooantains, awakened their cupidity. The parts of the coast loose 
favorable for commerce, were at once colonized, and cities were btAH 
at Mallacca, Garteia, Qades, and Sidonia. They found in possessioi* 
of the country, a people barbarous yet brave, against whom open ibree 
availed little ; but whom they were able to cajole into ebediencef by 
working upon their superstitions, and by the intervention of religion.^ 

* The matter contained in this chapter has been collected from Antillon, Laborde», 
Pliny, Mariana, CkMide, &c., and from penonal obaervation* 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 35^ 

They carried on an extensive trade with the b^barians, giving thowi 
an idea of new wants, and the desire of gratifying Xhese, stimulated 
industry and aided in developing the resources of the country. Thus 
civilization was introduced into Betica. Among other ^V»t which the 
Spaniards Jearned from the Phcsniciaus, was that of dying the Tyxian 
purple. The dye-stuff was gathered from a small fish, which is still 
found upon the coasts of Andalusia. These colonjies continued to in- 
crease and grow richer until the destruction of Tyre b^ Nebuchadnqz- 
zar, when they changed their allegiance to the Phcenicians of Carthage. 
The proximity of Spain to the new metropolis now gave a stimulus to 
every species of developemeut. Not content with the dominion of the 
coast, the armies of Carthage, under her Hannos and Uamilcars, 
penetrated far into the interior, until by fraud or force the greater part 
of the Peninsula was brought into subjection. 

But the Tyrians and Carthaginians had not been alone in colonizing 
Spain. The Greeks and Trojans had founded several cities, among 
which the most &mous was Saguntuqn. Saguntum grew in wealth 
and riches until it became a great city, claiming dominion over the 
rich tract which is now known as the kingdom of Valencia. As Sa- 
guntum was, however, unable alone to withstand the power of Car- 
thage, she courted the alliance of Rome. It was this alliance that 
brought on the attack of Hannibal, by whom Saguntum was besieged, 
taken, and destroyed with ail its inhabitants ; and this outrage led in 
turn, as was expected, to that desperate struggle between the rival 
^ates, which, after bringing Rome to the very ^ink of destruction, at 
length ended in the demolition of Carthage and the downfal of her 
empire. The conquest of Spain had preceded the destruction of the 
metropolis, and was rendered easy by the hatred which the Spaniards 
bore the Carthaginians for their treachery and avarice, those hateful 
vices of a commercial people ; on the contrary, they had much leas 
aversion to the Romans, whose state of civilization was more analogous 
to their own, and who possessed the winning qualities which belong to 
a nation of free-handed warriors more prone to war than industry. 

Notwithstanding the desperate efforts which the Numantines made 
to maintain tlieir independence, so soon as they discovered that, in aid- 
ing the Romans to drive out the Carthaginians, they had only be^n 
raising up a new set of masters, Spain was soon pacified and brought 
into perfect subjection. Biscay, Gallicia, and Asturias, protected by 
their mountain barriers, continued free for two centuries longer, until 
Augustus himself was forced to pass into Spain and attack them with 
the concentrated power of the whole empire. Spain was now com- 
pletely subdued, and in process of time, civilization completed what 
arms had begun. The nation assumed the language, manners, and 
dress of the conquerors ; and at length, becoming completely identified 
with them, they acceded to all the privileges of Italians, conferred by 
Vespasian upon every Spaniard, and even attained the rare honor of 
furnishing Rome with several emperors. Spain, under the emperors, 
must have been rich and flourishing. She was considered the granary 
of the empire, and the nursery of her armies. The state of the arts 
and sciences in the Province was analogous to that of the Capitap 



356 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

Nay, Rome wu indebted to Spain for manj fine fkbrics and other 
luxuries, a knowledge of which had been perpetuated in the Prorinoe 
of Betica after the downfal of the Carthaginians. Bridges and aqueducts 
were constructed, and causeways open^ to facilitate comniunition be- 
tween the extremities of the Prorince. The population of the country 
grew with the developement of its resources, and is said to have amounted 
to forty millions ; industry gave rise to weahh, and wealth to luxury. The 
Grecian style of architecture was introduced with the other tastes and 
customs of Rome ; and temples and amphitheatres rose on every side,, 
reliered by the tributary ornaments of painting and of statuary. The 
names of Pomponius Mela, of Columella, Silius Italicus, Quintilian, 
Martial, Seneca, and Lucan, embellish this portion of Spanish history. 



In process of time, when the Empire began to decay, a prey to its 
own greatness, this Province, remote from the commotions which shook 
all Italy, still enjoyed perfect repose, under the subordinate sway of its 
gOTemors. Not, however, but that it had suffered something in the civil 
wars of Marius and Sylla, when Sertorius availed himself of the troub- 
led state of the Republic. And still later when Pompey and Cesar 
contended for uniTersal domination, the momentous struggle was more 
than once decided in the battle-fields of the Peninsula. Yet for the 
most part Spain /continued, in all the vicissitudes of the metropolis, to 
enjoy peace. At length, however, in the fifth century, when the Ro- 
man empire ceased to exist after twelve hundred years of greatness^ 
Spain became likewise a victim to the savage hordes which poured 
down from the north and east of Europe. These having overrun Italy 
and France, at length ascended the Pyrenees and looked down upon 
this faTored land. Centuries of peace and prosperity had deprived the 
SpantMs of their warlike character, and thus rendered them an easy 
prey to the savage valor of the Barbarians. Everything gave way b^ 
fore them. They rushed over this deroted country with the fury of a 
deluge, and their traces were marked by equal devastation. The Goths 
seemed rather to take pleasure in destruction than enjoyment; towers 
were demolished, and plantations laid waste, until fiimine followed to 
the degree that they were forced to feed upon the flesh of their slaugh- 
tered victims. A plague was the obvious consequence of these evils, 
and Spain had well nigh become a desert. But the Barbarians did not 
only war against the Romans, but also with each other. The Suevi, 
who had settled in Gallicia, were able to maintain possession of that 
inaccessible province; but the Vandals, who had passed the Sierra 
Morena, and converted the blooming Betica into the blighted Yand*- 
lousift, were either annihilated, forced to yield, or else driren beyond 
the water to struggle with the Romans for a foothold in Africa. The 
kingdom of the Visigoths, with the exception of Gallicia, included all 
Spain and Narbonne Gaul. The feudal system now came to increase 
the horrors of this devoted land ; the new kingdom was split into duke- 
doms and counties, to reward the captains who had been raised to rank 
by their superior ferocity, whilst the meaner soldiers assumed the es- 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 8fi7 

tates of the lUMiians and Sptniards, degrading the proprietors into the 
condition of slavev- Such is the origin of nobilitj. What contrast 
ean be more pitiable than is offered by the late flourishing, and now 
blighted and famished condition of unhappy Spun ? The noble mono- 
ments, dedicated not less to usefulness than beauty, which rose on 
BTcry hand to justify Roman usurpation, are now demolished to destroy 
the recollection of happier destinies. The statues of her benefactors, 
the busts of her own great men, are dashed jQrom their pedestals ; the 
Jialls and temples, which furnished living imitations of the Purest struc- 
tures of Greece, give place to gloomy masses, towering upwards in 
defiance of grace and beauty, fit for the uses of a faith, to which the 
converts had imparted their own ferocity. Devastated fields and smok- 
ing cities now fiynish forth the landscape. 

But violated humanity did not cry in vain for vengeance. The day 
of retribution was at hand. A new power had risen in the East, the 
birthplace of so many religions ; and, urged by the impulse of a novel 
and popular faith, ha[d overrun a part of Asia and Afi'ica, stripping the 
Romans, Vandals and Goths of their possessions in Mauritania. Nor 
did the Saracens pause and rest satisfied at the extremity of Afirica, 
where so narrow a strip of water alone remained between them and 
that beautify land, of which they had received such flattering descrip- 
tions. There was much to call them over ; the disputed succession 
between king Roderick and the sons of Witiza his predecessor ; the 
disaffection of a powerful faction, in fiivor of the exiled princes, with 
Count Julian, son-in-law to Witiza and the Bishop Oppas at their 
head ; the destruction of all the strong places in the kingdom, which 
the last king had ordered, to prevent rebellion ; the degeneracy of the 
Goths, whose sensual life had reduced them to a shameful state of el^ 
feminacy ; the earnest invitation of the oppressed and plundered Jews, 
whose ancestors had come to Spain when Jerusalem was taken by 
Nebuchadnezzar, and in still greater numbers at the time of its tottd 
demolition by Titus, and who now monopolized all the wealth and 
learning of the land ; but above all, the abject condition of the nation 
at large, weary of slavery, and ready and willing to change a state, 
which admitted of no deterioration. These are the motives, which in 
711 induced Musa, the lieutenant of the Caliph in Africa, to send 
Taric over to try his fortunes and test the possibility of a conquest. 

His success stimulated tojzreater exertions. Taric crossed again 
with a more suitable force. The battle of Xerez was fought and won ; 
the power and spirit of the Goths were broken ; none remained to be 
overcome but the degraded Spaniards, who still preserved the language 
and manners of Romans, with but little of the Roman valor* These, 
astonished at the moderation of the new conquerors, who, instead of 
destroying everything, as the Goths had done, sought rather to preserve 
all thinffs inviolate— who allowed the people to move away freely, or to 
remain m the possession of property, privileges, and religion, with the 
condition of paying a certain tax, which was not exorbitant, turned 
gladly to this new and more auspicious allegiance. The Goths and 
some of the clergy took refuge in the mountains of the north ; hence it 



356 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. . 

ss that eveo at present more than three qnartera of the Spaniah nolHli- 
ty are found in Leon, Biscay, Gailicia, and Aeturias; and that prieaU 
also there abound in greater numbers than elsewhere. The aban* 
donment of the conquered country was, however, by no means general 
among the clergy. They remained undisturbed during centuries, until 
the inroads of the barbarous and fanatic Moors towards the close of the 
Mahometan domination. Their bishops continued to exercise their 
apostolic functions, and even to hold councils. The mass of the peo- 
ple remained. Many continued to practise the faith and observe the 
customs of their ancestors ; but more, woo by the indifference of the 
conquerors, who made small endeavours for the conversion of thek soula^ 
readily embraced a religion, which promised much Uias in the next 
world, at the expense of little sacrifice in this. A new language was 
now introduced into Spain; and rivers, mountains, provinces, and 
even the whole Peninsula received new or modified names more eon« 
formable to the genius or caprice of the conquerors. Thus the g^ieral 
appellation of Uispania, which descends from the remotest antiquity, 
was exchanged for that of Andaluz from the province of Vandalusia, 
with which the Saracens first came in contact Most of these names 
have maintained themselves with little variation to the present day. 



The dominion of the Saracens, thus established over the largest and 
fairest portion of the Peninsula, continued to own allegiance for half a 
century to the Caliph of Damascus, in whose name the conquest had 
been made. But the remoteness of the province from the metropolis, 
and the ambition of rival chiefs, gave rise to endless dissensions, until 
some of the most enlightened and patriotic of the Spanish Arabians, 
determined, as the only means of securing their conquest, to erect it 
into an independent empire. Fortunately there yet remained a single 
prince of the unhappy race of Omar, escaped from the cruel massacre 
of all his family, and now wandering a houseless exile among the sava- 
ges of Africa. This exile was. Abderahman. He was now invited to 
pass over into Spain, and place himself at the head of the new empire 
of the West. Obeying the summons, he landed at once in Andalusia, 
attended by a trusty band of those brave 2^netes, who had lent htm 
protection and hospitality. Abderahman, though young and brave 
and sensitive, was yet old in that experience, which is but gained amid 
the trials of adversity. He was soon surrounded by the generous and 
enlightened ; and by their aid succeeded in driving out the Lieutenant 
and those who still owned allegiance to the Caliph. The genius of the 
people and the rare qualities of a brilliant succession of kings, combin- 
ed tO' carry the new empire to the height of developement. 

The Arabians had come from a hot and dry climate, and a land by 
nature arid, but which, by the aid of water, is easily quickened into 
fertility. They found in Spain a country analogous to their own. The 
lands were levelled and irrigation introduced ; where streams were 
convenient they were made use of; and where there were none, water ' 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 869 

was drawn from the bowels of the earth by means of the twria and 
spread over its snriace. Thus the rich lands were rendered more fer- 
tile, and those which had hitherto' been sunburnt and naked, were 
covered with vegetation. Many plants, hitherto unknown in Europe, 
were now acclimated in the low countries of the coast ; cotton, sugar 
the cane, mulberry, and olive were among the number. The popula-* 
tion of the country rose at once to the measure of its means ; and 
there can be little doubt that, in the ninth century, Spain contained 
even more than the forty millions of Inhabitants, attributed to the pros- 
perous period of the Roman domination. We know that the little 
Kingdom of Granada at a later perioVl contained three millions of in- 
habitants, though less than the twentieth of the Peninsula. The arts 
which promote the comfort and convenience of life, as well as those 
which serve to embellish it, were begun and perfected ; the manufac- 
tures of silk, linen, and leather were introduced, and paper was now 
invented to meet the new wants of an improving people. 

The social and intellectual condition of Spain kept pace with its im- 
provement in moral and domestic economy. Chemistry, medicine, 
surgery, mathematics, astronomy, and all the sciences, whether curious 
or useful, were cultivated with a success unknown in any other part of 
Europe. Indeed, the same causes, which are now producing such 
splendid results among ourselves, were acting in Spain with equal en- 
ergy. The ingenious Arabians were thrown into situations where all 
was novel and changing; cut off from their country, their antique 
prejudices destroyed, they no longer were satisfied to plod on in the 
beaten track ; some endeavoured to improve upon what was already 
known ; the more adventurous sallied forth into the unknown region of 
originality. Men of genius associated themselves into academies, as in 
our day. Universities were established for the cultivation of science, 
and libraries for the dissemination of learning. The university of Cor- 
dova opened its halls to the curious of Christendom ; a future Pope 
was among the number of its pupils ; and the royal library, established 
by the benificence of Alhakem, knew no equal in the West. 

Music, too, was cultivated and taught as a science ; but poetry was 
the favorite study of the Spanish Saracens. The ifire, which they had 
brought with them from the East, burned brighter and blazed higher, 
as Spain burst upon them in all her beauty. Their own glorious 
achievements too ; the deeds of their Abderahmans and Almanzors ; 
the gallant feats of that self-devoting chivalry, which had sprung up 
among them, could only be worthily transmitted to us in the exaltation 
of song. Poetry was no rare accomplishment ; even princes and min- 
isters learned to touch the lyre ; and thus, we are told, many of those 
strains, which were first sung upon the banks of the Guril and the 
Guadalquiver, were repeated with admiration in the harems of Persia 
and Arabia. They are still transmitted to us bj the Romance lan- 
guage, forming the theme and substance of many a roundelay. 

But with the arts and sciences, with refinement, and learning, and 
luxury, came also a mitigation from that military spirit and that relig- 
ious e;ithusiasm, which had won them possession of the Peninsula. 



960 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

The broken remnant of the Goths had been allowed to remain in nn« 
disturbed possession of the mountaiDS of the north, when a single 
well directed effort would forever have annihilated them, and whilst 
the war was carried on in France, even to the banks of the Loire. 
Meantime the constitutions and characters of the Goths underwent a 
reform ; they were hardened by the precarious life of the mountains, 
and schooled and tempered by their disastrous reverses. Thus 
fortified, they descended into the plains to contend with the Saracens. 
When they were unfortunate, their fastnesses received them ; when 
victorious, they overran the country, driving off the cattle and inhabit- 
ants, destroying the crops, orchards, and habitations, and giving all 
over to fire and the sword. Thus they gradually gained ground, ex* 
tending their possessions at the expense of their adversaries. That 
fanaticism, which among the Saracens had been quenched by the 
dawn of science, was with them at its height. They were fighting, not 
only for themselves, but also for Christ and for the Virgin. Each of their 
victories was also a victory of the faith. Priests and bishops mingled 
in the thickest of the fight, waving their blood stained swords, or lift- 
ing the bones of a patron saint, as a pledge of victory. To the killed 
was promised a free passport into heaven. Even supernatural interpo- 
sition was not wanting; the bones of Saint James the Apostle had 
been opportunely found at Compostella, where they were said to have 
been buried by his disciples, who had brought them thither in a small 
boat from the extremity of the Mediterranean. And now the priests 
saw their beloved Santiago descending in every doubtful struggle from 
the clouds, overthrowing whole ranks of the infidels with his sword, 
or trampling them under the hoofs of his snow white charger. 

But a succor of greater value if possible than that of Santiago, was 
furnished by the Saracens themselves. Whilst consolidation from in- 
termarriage was taking place among the christian kingdoms, those 
principles of dissolution inherent in all Mahometan despotisms 
from the uncertain order of succession, and which had showed them- 
selves in the East immediately afler the death of the Prophet, began to 
operate in Spain. The brilliant empire of Cordova, a prey to disputed 
succession, was shaken to atoms ; and every ambitious waU^ shutting 
himself up in the stronghold of his command, became a petty king 
and laid claim to a contemptible iudependence. These, in virtue of 
their kingly condition, quarrelled with each other for the demarcation 
of their territory and made war. Such as had the Christians for 
neighbours called in their aid, overcame their adversaries, divided the 
spoil, and became themselves in turn the prey of their aggrandized 
ally. For, though in all these wars the Saracens were scrupulously 
observant of their given faith, it was a tenet and practice of the Chris- 
tians to keep no terms with infidels, but those of expediency. They 
had the best of ghostly counsel to prove that anything wa^ justifiable, 
that would end in the glory of God. 

Though the arrival of numerous hordes of savage and warlike Moors, 
brought a new set of oppressors to the Saracens, and checked for the 
time the ascendency of the Christians; yet these, little by little, at 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 361 

length won back, within the lapse of eight centories, the whole of that 
fair empire which they had lost in a few months, rather by a route than 
a conquest. Every spot became the site of a ranged battle, or of some 
rencontre of contending chivalry. Thus Spain, already rich in classic 
association, was further consecrated by thousands of heroic feats and 
hapless disasters. These were commemorated in ballads by the Sara* 
cens ; and this species of composition being imitated by the Christians, 
became popular throughout Europe, under the name of romance, from 
the Romance language, through which it first became known. 

But the alteration in the moral and economical condition of the Pen- 
insula, produced by this change of masters, calls for sorrow and lamen- 
tation. Intolerance succeeds to toleration; idleness to industry; 
solitude and silence to the stir and turmoil of happy multitudes ; igno- 
rance, listiessness, and superstition to the dawning light of awakened 
science. We see on evej-y side, busy cities made suddenly desolate ; plan- 
tations laid waste and fired ; rugged rocks and hill sides, which had been 
won to fertility by the use of irrigation, now relapsing into their original 
sterility. Vast tracts of desert lands are awarded to those captains, 
who had been foremost to pillage and destroy, or to the churches and 
convents which had aided at a distance with their prayers. Hence- 
forth, the country, peopled under such ill-fated auspices, presents the 
distressing spectacle of wealth and luxury entailed without exertion 
upon the few, at the expense of toil and suffering and self-denial to the 
many. Such, indeed, was the melancholy use made by the conquerors 
of their conquest ; such the deplorable results of the extermination of 
the Saracens, that we are fairly forced to sigh over the triumphs of 
Christianity. 

And here we are led to pause and reflect on the changes which 
time and circumstances bring upon the noblest institutions. Fifteen 
centuries previous to the period of which we speak, Jesus Christ appeared 
in the East, preaching peace upon earth and good will towards men. 
His system is propagated by sufferings, by sorrows, by martyrdom ; 
and thus it wins its way over the whole of Europe. Six hundred years 
after, a new prophet arises in the same land, proclaiming fraternity to 
the faithful, death to all who disbelieve. These two faiths, the one 
promulgated by the endurance of every evil, the other by the keener 
logic of the sword, extend themselves westward over Europe and Africa, 
until we at length see them meet and mingle at the extremities of their 
respective continents. But now how modified and how perverted ! 
Befkold the Christian become warlike ; steel is the only fit covering for 
the followers of the Lamb 1 Nay, the very successors of the apostles 
now lead the van of devastation and carnage ! But how is it with the 
Mahometan ? The spear with which he proved the perfection of his 
creed, is turned into a pruning hook ; his only present desire to enjoy 
in peace, and partially to cultivate the. land, which has thus been en- 
joyed and cultivated by twenty generations of his ancestors. But the 
boon, though small, will not be granted. Phmdered of his property, his 
flons forced into slavery, his daughters consigned to prostitution, he 
dtags out his life, flying fi-om one captured city to another, and at last 
46 



GENERAL VIEW OP SPAIN. 

erotsing the water, he tarns his back upon his country in utter despair^ 
repeating, peradventure, the soliloquy of the old Moor — * Ah ! what a 
hard fate is mitte, brought upon me by my own wickedness or by ao 
insatiate destuiy I I wander a banished man my whole life; forced to 
seek a new country At each step, and to make a spectacle of my mis* 
fortunes in e?ery city ! ' 



Yet the close of the fifteenth century^ the period posterior to the finaf 
extinction of the Saracenic domination, and the reign of Charles I,, 
fifth emperor of that name, is esteemed the most brilliant period of the 
Spanish monarchy. Notwithstanding the perpetual warfare, which 
had prevailed for centuries, the country had continued rich and prosper-^ 
ous, counting twenty millions of inhabitants^ nearly double of the pre»* 
ent day. The spirit of industry and the knowledge of the arts, caught 
by intercourse with the Saracens, and fostered by the commercial en- 
terprise and accumulated capital e(f the Jews, had made great progress- 
among the Christians. Th& Exposed state of the country, too, from 
constant warfare, had forced the inhabitants to congregate in cities for 
mutual protection. This, whilst it diverted their attention from agri- 
culture to manufactures, had also the effect of promoting intelligence 
by free intercourse and interchange of sentiment, and of giving the 
people a knowledge of their rights, whilst it furnished facilities for 
combining for their defence. Property thus found protection in the 
association of the industrious classes, and in their admission to a share 
in the concerns of state. The discovery of another world, at this auspi- 
cious tnoment, carried the power and glory of Spain to still greater ele- 
Tation. Emigration to the colonies drained the country of the worth- 
less and idle, creating markets abroad, where goods were exchanged 
for the precious metals, and these returned to foster industry, 
facilitate circulation, and enrich Spain by new exchanges for the pro- 
ductioDS of other countries. At this period we belwld Spain rich, 
happy, and preponderant, maintaining her proper station among the 
nations of the earth. ' 

But the sad alternation of returning reverses was again at hand. 
Those liberties, which distinguished and formed the just pride of the 
Spaniard of the fifteenth century, were gradually undermined by the 
Crafty Ferdinand and by Charles V., until they were at length ut- 
terly destroyed by Philip II., that bloody bigot ; forerer accursed be his 
memory 1 The people had no longer any voice in the national couih 
cils ; they were no longer solicited to bestow ; but, like poorttaveliers 
beset upon the highway, were commanded to deliver, with death fo^ 
an alternative. The motive to acquire wealth was diminished in pro* 
pertion as the prospect of preserving it grew smaller. This check 
upon improrement was still further increawd by the terrors of th^ In^ 
qoisition. To grow rich, was to be exposed to suspicion of Judaisn^^ 
or some other offence, which might bring the wealth of the individumi 
within the clutches of the Tribunal. Thus beset, the indnstrimn^ 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN- 363 

^ther ceased to be so, or else fled to the colonies^, in the hope of es- 
caping from the evils which awaited them at home ; the rich sought 
to withdraw their capital from productive employment, converting it 
into some form, in which it might be hidden from view and consum- 
«d at pleasure and without molestation. Hence, perhaps, that avidi- 
ty lor the precious metals with which the Spaniards are justly re- 
proached ; and which, though it may have been stimulated by the 
greedy pursuit of them in the new world, is doubtless more owing to 
the facilities which they afibrd for the concealment of wealth. 

To check the prosperity of the Spanish empire, a most efficacious 
expedient had been fallen upon by Ferdinand and Isabella, or rather 
by their priestly advisers, in the expulsion of the Jews. The Moors, 
.too, forcibly christianized and burnt to death for relapsing, in the face 
of solemn stipulations made at the capitulation of Granada, were at 
length, after more than a century oflhe most cruel persecution, driv- 
en forcibly from their homes to starve in Africa, stripped of the little 
wealth which might have purchased them an asylum. Some found 
succor in the very rigor of their necessities, and returned full of fury 
and revenge, to murder and despoil those, whom they would willing- 
ly have enriched by their labor. Thus were enterprise and industry 
proscribed and driven from this devoted land, at a season, too, when 
-everything combined to check domestic developement. Meantime, 
the little all which hud been wrested from these hapless outcasts, was 
lavished with wanton profusion upon courtiers, favorites, and harlots, 
until the use made of the money, thus amassed, revealed the foul mo- 
tive of their plunder and expatriation. A system of corruption bad, 
indeed, taken root in Spain, beginning near the throne and extending 
down to the meanest alcalde or alguazil. Unchecked by publicity, 
unrestrained by popular responsibility, the v^hele machine of state was 
moved by money. Honor and office became the portion of him, who 
could pay most for them. Thjis bribery sanctioned peculation, until 
the vroid justicia, synonymous with one, which is pronounced in our 
language with respect, with reverence with the comforting sense of 
security, became in Spain the dread of the innocent, the scoff of the 
guilty, and associated r with all that is infamous. He who has read Gil 
Blas--and who has not read it? may form a proper notion of Spanish 
justice ; such as it was in the seventeenth century ; such as it is at 
the present day. 

The accession of the Bourbon family brought, indeed, a prospect of 
melioration, quickly overcast by the assimilation of the masters to 
their slaves. Yet did Charles III., in modern times, make a noble ef> 
fort to arrest the national decline. But his son and successor was a 
different man. Charles IV., the most ignobly base, the most worthless 
and vile of all the Spanish kings, abandoned the monarchy to its down- 
ward Tate and to the guidance of the harlot his wife, and the greedy 
wretch her paramour. The feeble tie which bouud the colonies is 
-severed ; from friends they are arrayed as enemies ; and the mother 
country is abandoned to the designs of an ambitious neighbour, to 
civil war, and the quick succession of several separate revolutions. 



364 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

Unhappy Spain ! we behold her now at the bottom of the abjss, her 
only consolation that she can fall no farther. 



The population of Spain, though some have reduced it to eight mil* 
lions, is supposed to be much greater. It has been proved that from 
the manner in which imposts are raised and levies of troops made in 
various parts of the country, the different towns have each been inter* 
ested in making their population as low as possible, in order to furnish 
a quota proportionably small. Hence resulted a very defective enu- 
meration. A different means of obtaining the census has lately been 
adopted, and the population of Spain proves to have been rather more 
than ten millions, at the beginning of this century. The destruction 
of life and property, consequent upon so many revolutions in the last 
twenty years, may have still further reduced the number. The ruined 
and untenanted habitations, which I have everywhere met with in 
Spain, would indicate as much. If Portugal be considered in con- 
junction with Spain, and nature has drawn no line of separation, the 
entire population of the Peninsula may be estimated at near fourteen 
millions, about seventy souls to the square mile. This is much 
less than half the number found upon an equal space in France and 
England ; countries far inferior in fertility of soil, amenity of climate^ 
and all the bounties of nature.* 

And thus we see Spain awakened to civilization under the Phoeni- 
cians and Carthaginians, reaching the pinnacle of prosperity under 
the Romans, when she is supposed to have sustained no fewer than 

* It may, perhaps, aid in explaining the decline of population in Spain to annex 
the following division of the inhabitants, as given by Laborde. The census was 
taken m 1788. There were then in Spain 10,409,879 individuals of both sexes; 
5,204,187 males, and 5,205,692 females. Of the men 3,257,022 were widowers, 
bachelors, and ecclesiastics ; and of the women 8,262,197 were nuns, widows, and 
waiters upon Providence. Apiin, of the whole population 60,240 were secular cler- 
gy ; 49,270 were monks ; and 22,237, uuns. The hermits, beatas, sextons, and sing- 
ers, made an item of about 20,000 more; forming a total of more than 150,000 con- 
nected with religion ; near one and an half per cent, upon the entire population* 
In Catalonia, where the clergy are most numerous, they amounted to near two per 
cent Then there were in Spain 478,716 nobles ; 231,187 of whom were found in 
Biscay and Asturias, which together contained a population of only 655,933. To 
wait upon such of these nobles as do not wait upon themselves and upon others, 
976,090 men servants were required. One hundred thousand beggars were fed at 
the convents of the aforesaid monks and nuns ; and there were 60,000 students, half 
of whom also begged charity. Then, there were upwards of 100,000 individuals 
connected with the administration of government and justice, or with the military 
for the maintenance of despotism. Add to these 100,000 existing as smugglers, nm- 
here, and assassins ; and 80,000 custom and other officers to take these, and often 
having an understanding with them. Having made these and other unprofitable de- 
ductions, there remained 964,571 day laborers ; 917,197 peasants ; 310,739 artisans 
and manufacturers, and 34,839 merchants, to sustain by their productive occupations 
ten millions of inhabitants, many of whom riot in wealth and luxury. As the sum 
total of the present population as given in the last edition of Antillon, corresponds 
with this, we may assume these items as correct at (he present day. 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 365 

forty millionB of people. The dark days of the Gothic domination in- 
terTene, and we see her again under the sway of a lively, industrious, 
and intelligent people, attaining equal prosperity with that which she 
had enjoyed in the best days of the empire. After eight centuries of war 
and carnage, we find her still rich , and industrious, with twenty mil- 
lions of inhabitants. Since then, though generally in the enjoyment 
of peace, and in the presence of iLe progressive prosperity of all Eu- 
rope, she is seen to waste away and decline, though possessing still, as 
ever, all the elements of prosperity, until at length in the nineteenth 
century, the era of unknown improf ements in morals and in arts, she 
is seen to number with difficulty ten millions of unhappy individuals ; 
princes or paupers, oppressors or oppressed. 

Travellers and economists have been much perplexed in accounting 
for this singular declension. Townsend, who is much quoted, ascribes 
it to the expulsion of the Jews and Moors ; to the intestine wars, which 
raged during seven centuries between Moors and Christians ; to the 
contagious fevers, which have at various times desolated the southern 
provinces ; to the emigrations to America, and to the celibacy of so 
many monks and nuns. The expulsion of three millions of Jews and 
Moors was undoubtedly a severe blow to industry and population. As 
much may be said of the Inquisition, with its half million of victims; 
but as for the wars with the Saracens, they left Spain rich, industrious, 
and with twenty millions of people. It is only during three centuries 
of almost uninterrupted peace, that her population declines to the half 
of this number. The contagious fevers to which he alludes are, per- 
haps, a consequence instead of a cause of decay. Emigration is found 
rather to enrich than to impoverish a country, by the return of those 
who go away )x>or and come back wealthy, and by creating outlets 
abroad for profitable exchanges of domestic produce. As for the sup- 
posed, celibacy of the monks and nuns, it is a matter of little moment ; 
if they would but work, there would be plenty ready to supply the de- 
mand for population. 

Indeed, to account for the economical contrast furnished by Spain, 
in the beginning of the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, by the de- 
cline of population, is but a troublesome task, unless we may find a 
solution of the difficulty in the corresponding political one, produced by 
the decline of liberty. The country was not then less split than now, 
into separate states, governed by distinct laws ; taxes were not less im- 
posed unequally ; property was not less unjustly divided ; the roads and 
communications were much more defective. The checks to intelli- 
gence and civilisation were equally great; the Inquisition had already 
prepared its tortures and lit its quemadero. But the Spaniard of that 
day had a voice in the councils of the nation ; something to say when 
it was a question of taking away his property. If wronged, he could 
demand redress of his equals in Cortes, not as an act of grace, but as 
the right of a freeman. A single fact may, I think, serve to make that 
plain, which is otherwise a mystery. The Aragonese of the fifteenth 
century, in swearing allegiance to their king, made this noble proviso. 
^ We, who are each of us as good, and who together can do more than 



366 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

you, promi^ obedience to yoar goverDment, if you maintain our rigbU ; 
but if not — not P — * Y si no— no!' These are words becoming the 
Spaniard and his noble tongue ; hut now, alas ! none dares name his 
Jueros, none U> lisp the pleasant word of liherlad! 

That liberty made Spain, and that despotism has marred her, let no 
Qpe doubt- There is, indeed, a moral force in freedom, which knows 
np ^qu^K ) liook at Holland — ^a sand bank recovered from the sea, a 
uatiou in spite of nature, sending out navies to sweep the ocean of her 
enemies ; at Britain — a mere cluster of sea-washed rocks, giving im- 
pulse and direction to all Europe ; at America — the republic of half a 
century, already taking her station among the mciat prominent powers 
of the earth. And if there is a force in freedom, there is also a with- 
ering power in the touch of despotism. Turn from these happy lands 
to ^aiQ— the very fairest country of Europe — the birthplace of a Gid 
and a Gui^maa — the nation that sent Columbus forth to search for new 
worlds, and Cortes and Pizarro to conquer them. Behold her dwin- 
dled and impoverished, stripped of her possessions, reduced to the mere 
productions of her own soil, and no longer fit even at home to main- 
tain her sovereignty, by turns a prey to the rival cupidity of Gauls and 
Britain^ and openly despoiled by^her own cbiMren ! 



The state of agriculture in Spain is very little in unison with the 
fertility of her soil and the mildness of her climate. A thousand causes 
contribute to this calamity. But the universality of may.oraxgos, or 
entails, and the unequal division of property into immense estates, pro- 
ducing in several instances, in spite of mal-administration, a half mil- 
lion of dollars revenue to a single individual ; and the enormous wealth 
of the clergy, unpurchased by exertion, yet profusely squandered in 
church decorations, in luxurious indulgence, in secret debauchery ; in 
conjunction with the consequent poverty of the peasants, who toil that 
others may enjoy, are sufficient reasons for this unhappy result. Were 
they not, we might find yet others in the hateful privileges of the Mtsta^ 
an association of nobles and rich convents, owning the five millions of 
wandering merinos, which migrate semi-annually from valley to moun- 
tain, and mountain to valley, eating everything as they go, and claiming 
the privilege, from the mere antiquity of the abuse, to pasture their 
flocks freely or at their own prices, on the lands of the cultivator ; in 
that dread of living isolated in an insecure country, which crowds the 
population together in villages, removing the cultivator from the scene 
cf his'labors; in those defective communications, which check pro- 
duction for the want of outlets, and give one province over to fiunine, 
whilst another is suffering from a surfeit, and in the diminution of 
home consumers by the decline of industry. Thus each step in the 
descending gradations of decay leads on to new declensions. 

Low as agriculture has fallen, manufactures, being of less instant 
necessity, are still lower. With the exception of a few expensive es- 
tablishments, which form appendages to the crown and serve to check 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 86T 

{Hrivate indastry, there are few fine commodities wrought in the Penin- 
Mla. Watches, jewelry, lace, and almost eferything requiring taste 
and ingenuity in the production, are brought from abroad. In general, 
each little place, deprived of all facilities for carrying on that internal 
trade and commerce of exchanges, so invaluable to a country, pro- 
duces, advantageously or disadvantageously, as the case may be, the 
few narrow necessaries, which are indispensable to life. If we exclude 
then the establishraents, which are forced into sickly prosperity by roy- 
al protection, a few coarse fabrics of wool, cotton, silk, hemp, flax, 
paper, leather, and iron, compose the productions of Spanish industry. 
Spain is now the exporter of scarcely a single manufactured article. 
And thus we see the country, which in the fifteenth century furnished 
the rest of Europe with fine cloths, silks, and other luxurious commodi- 
ties, now reduced in turn to a like condition of dependence. 

As for the foreign commerce, which once spread itself over two 
oceans and into every sea, it is at present restricted to an occasional 
arrival from Cuba, Porto Rico, or the Philippines, at au uninsurable 
risk, and an exchange of raw commodities, such as silk, wool, wine, 
oil, figs, raisins, almonds, salt, and barilla, for the manufactured 
articles of foreign countries. Even that internal trade and free ex- 
change of domestic productions, which constitute the most valuable 
branch of commerce, are no longer enjoyed without molestation. The 
poverty of communications, from the defective state of roads and utter 
absence of canals, with a single contemptible exception ; the want of 
uniformity in weights, measures, and commercial regulations ; the in- 
security and fluctuating policy proper to despotism; the destructive 
imports levied at every step ; the authorised and systematic vexations 
of mercenary customhouse creatures and police-men — all tend to check, 
and even arrest circulation within, whilst the South American corsairs, 
pushed on by cupidity, interrupt the coasting trade at every headland, 
and force it to seek refuge under a foreign flag. 



If agriculture, commerce, and the arts be in a fallen state, the con- 
dition of science and literature is scarcely better. The fine arts, how- 
ever, forming, as they do, an appendage of a magnificent court, are 
still as well off in Spain as in the other countries of Europe. Sculp- 
tors and painters, not content with studying the noble models contained 
in the royal museums, are still sent to Italy at the public expense, even 
in the face of a national bankruptcy. During my residence in Madrid, 
statues arrived from Rome of Charles IV. and his queen Maria Louisa, 
beautifully executed by Spanish artists. Charles IV. was not less 
noble In person than ignoble in character ; his statue might almost be 
taken for that of Washington, whom he greatly resembled. Whoever, 
therefore, may chance to see this marble image, will have something 
to qualify his detestation of the original. To be thus cheated into ad- 
miration were almost enough to make one quarrel with statuary. As 
for literature, it may not merely be said to be dying in Spain, but ac- 



3« GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

tually dead. The illostrious race of writers ia poetry, in romance, in Um 
drama, which arose there, before freedom of thought and speech and 
publicity were lost with her other liberties, and ere the decline of in* 
dustry and wealth had produced universal stagnation, is now extinct. 
A single li? ing poet alone remains, or is known to fame. Yriarte, 
whose fables are equal to those of ^sop or La Fontaine, will long be 
read with equal profit and pleasure. Her Lope de Vega, her Oalderon, 
Qongora, Garcilaso, Quevedo, her Aiemano, are only known to Spain 
traditionally, or to the curious few through a scarce collection of an^^ 
tique tomes. Hardly any of these authors are reprinted at the present 
day ; and were it not for fear of a tumult among the Spaniards, nothing 
would prevent the censor from proscribing their beloved champion Don 
Quixote. Indeed, the art of printing might be lost in Spain, but for 
the publication of a single semi-weekly gaceta and a half dozen of 
diarios.* 

Science is in an equally unhappy condition, though the seventeen 
splendidly endowed universities of Spain might well serve to stock the 
world with sages. That of Salamanca still boasts its sixty professors ; 
its twenty fine colleges : its voluminous library ; but its fame has fled 
forever, and of its fifteen thousand students, which once flocked to 
gather wisdom in its halls, from England, France, and every country 
of Europe, a thousand poor Spaniards and Irishmen now alone remain 
to be bewildered and mystified. Laborde tells us that medicine is 
taught in the different universities of Spain by professors who confine 
themselves to verbal explanations, except at Salamanca and Valencia, 
where alone are medical libraries and anatomical preparations. All 
who apply are freely admitted as students of medicine, without any 
previous examination. They continue to follow the courses for four 
years, taking down the lectures from the dictation of the professors. 
Tet these manuscripts, crude as they are, form the main resource of 

* I do not feel qualified to speak of literature, with which I am little acquainted, 
the more bo that I am not eritieaUy acquainted even with m v own ; nor would I will- 
ingly indulge in those patriotic partialities, which it is equally honorable to feel and 
unbecoming to express. Yet can I say that, with the exception oi the Quixote, 
which is a book by itself, and from which I have derived more amuaement dian from 
any other, I have looked in vain amoDg the Spanbh authors which have been recom- 
mended to me, as I had before done among the French, for any counterparts of 
Shakspeare, Byron, Milton, Young, Thompson, Cowper, Campbell, Moore, Scott, 
Sterne, Irving, and the thousand worthies which have so illustrated our own 
language. 

And I would fain believe that this is not mere partiality for a native tongue. A 
German friend, not less frank than intelligent, who is familiar with all the prevailing 
languages of Europe, and by no means superficially read in their literature, thus 
writes to me from Amsterdam. — * You make me a compliment on my English writ- 
ing ; I thank you for the compliment and forgive the jest, provided you forgive my 
presumption. I am not used to write in this language. It is true I read it much and 
with delight. If I were not afraid lest I should forget the Spanish and Italian— the 
French is an every day tongue with ua here, and is out of the question — I would 
read nothing else. Let Calderon be what he may ; to me he is not a shade of Bjrron. 
I have but begun Mariana ; but I do not think he will afibrd me the pleasure which 
Gibbon did, and which Hume now does. I like the few Italians I have read much 
better. But they neither suit my taste and feelings like Byron. I think I never 
read an author, who so spoke to my heart and soul as Byron. I oould have wept 
when I found that Don Juan was not ended.' 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 909 

the student in those uniFenities, which hare no medieal library. The 
parchaae of books, in Spain either dear or altogether deficient, b out of 
the question. The stndents are nerer examined during the course, 
nor eren at its termination ; nor is any notice taken of irregular at- 
tendance. Indeed, Laborde tells us that many of them are so misera- 
bly poor, as to be obliged to spend much of their time in dancing 
attendance about the doors of the conrents and hospitals, to share in 
the gratuitous distribution of soup and puchero. After the expiration 
of this noviciate, two years more are spent in acquiring the practice of 
the profession. For this purpose they enter the service of a physician, 
accompanying him in his daily rounds to visit his patients ; and thus 
learn the art of feeling a pulse, looking very wise, examining the 
tongue, &c. Reader ( do you not see Oil Bias clinging to the skirts 
of Sangrado? This education is now finished, and, after a character^ 
istic examination, the degree ip given and the doctor is complete. 
But he is not admitted until he receives a license firom the Protomedi- 
cate, or medical tribunal, after the fashion of the Mesta. He now un- 
dergoes a second examination on the theory of medicine, and is re- 
quired during three days to physic an unhappy patient in one4>f the 
public hospitals ; which, whether right or wrong, he takes care to do 
according to the method of the examiner. Lastly, and here is the 
only stumbling block, he is forced to pay near fifty dollars, ere he be 
turned loose upon the community. 

From the nature of their education, the excessive number of the 
ntedicosy and their miserable emoluments ; as well as fi-om the quali- 
ties required for success, which are rather impudence and self suffi- 
ciency, than intelligence and skill, the medical profession in Spain is 
on the worst possible footing. With, doubtless, many honorable ex- 
ceptions in the larger cities, the theory of Sangrado still prevails 
among the whole race of physicians, surgeons, and their first cousins 
the barbers. Indeed, how can it be otherwise, when professional ad- 
vancement does not depend upon the public confidence, purchased 
by yeara of patient assiduity; but on the intrigue of a moment, and 
the welltimed administration of a bribe. That this is the case gen- 
erally throughout Spain I feel entitled to assert. The surgeons and 
physicians are not selected at pleasure by every family, but appointed 
by the aytmtamienio, municipdity of each town, now chosen firom the 
inhabitaBts by the king, according to the standard of loyalty. The 
individual, thus selected to take charge of the public health, receives 
a fixed salary firom the ayuntamiento, taken firom the duties raised on 
the consumption of the town and usually firom the tax upon brandy. 
In return for this compensation, he is bound to attend all the inhabi- 
tants of the place, without further gratuity. The only check upon the 
man, therefore, is the dread of removal ; but as medico in Spain is a 
manner of fixture, this is merely imaginary ; and the main depNsnd- 
«nce falls at last upon his goodness of heart and accidental capacity.* 

* How (ar the aytmfaimmfo* mty be guided by coDfldenOouf consideratioDs in 
4belr choiee may be gathered from the lSk>wing inddent. Whilst hi Madrid, Don 
47 



a79 G£N£RAL VIEW Of SPAIN. 

And now we oome to the csiuse of all these consequences, add ia 
the moral of our story. The Spanish government, down to the last 
accounts, was an unlimited monarchy, all power and authority residing 
ostensibly in the individual person of the king, who is not supposed 
to know any restrictions, but those of his own will, and that of the 
faction, which has restored him to the nominal possession of supreme 
power. This mighty individua.1 communicates his behests through 
the medium of five secretaries of state. He is also assisted in his de- 
liberations by a corps of worthies, appointed by himself and denomin- 
ated the council of state. The council of Castile assists in affiiirs of 
state and in the administration of justice. In the provinces are also 
various high tribunals, such aa the chanceries of Valladolid and Grap 
nada, the council of Navarre, and the royal audiences of Caceres, 
Seville, Valencia, Barcelona, Palma in Majorca, Zaragoza, Oviedo, 
and CkNTunia. In other districts and in smaller places, the adminia- 
tration of the laws and .dispensation of justice belong to the governors, 
corregidores pjid alcaldes. The civil and criminal jurisprudence of Spain 
are contained chiefly in a code of laws of Gothic origin called 8ieU 
PartidaSf which Alonzo the Sage caused to be ccwapiled in the vul- 
gar tongue ; and in a second code entitled Novisima RecapUadon^ 
which contains those since established, or that from time to time stiU 
emanate from the throne. The laws of Spain may be very g«od, but 
the great number of courts and appeals, with the consequent protraC" 
tion of suits ; the multiplicity of judges, advocates and escrihanos^ 
who all must feed upon the litigant ; but above all the cbicaDery and 

Valentin, my worthy host, who usually cave me hia company every morning, ac" 
companying my chocolate with his eigarulo, chanced to mention one day in Decern" 
ber, that the JDiario had adyertised that the place of medico was vacant in a neigh- 
boring viUage; and that a friend of his, a learned doctor and an Old GastiNan, had 
seat to ask nia aid in applying for the office. He bad sent his pretensions, too, and 
puttinf( his eigariUo in the vacant porthole of hia upper teeth, Don Valentin drew 
out a sheet ofpaper, covered everywhere, except on the wide margin to the left, 
with neat writing of a curious antique character. Here was set forth the Ufe of the 
applicant ; hia personal saeriiices for tiie cause of the altar and the throne ; his great 
mflrits and acquiremeata; the treatises that he had written, and the eurea that he 
had made, in roite alike of malady and mortality. As Don Valentin was going t» 
the village in the afternoon, I thought there might be something learned by accom- 
panying nim. So, when he had taken dinner, we donned our cloaks, and followed 
by the nameaake of the British minister, the good dog PIto, away we went on our 
eramd. A walk of eight milea brought us among the ruined habiftaiions «f the vU* 
lage ; where we were not long iu finding the secretary of the ayuntamitnia^ 
He was a stout, well conditioned little man, in velvet breeches and doublet, and set 
with much majesty behind several ranges of manuscripts, listening to a eroup of 
puaoints. When the room was vacant, and none remained but a picture ot me Crti- 
cifizion, yielding Uie post of honor to another of Fernando Septimo, the sacretery,. 
Don Valentin, and myself ; Don Valentin opened the object of his misaion, and pr»* 
sented the credentials and ^retensiona of his friend. He said much of the merits of 

ity, naming the sum that he was willfaig ta 
efice. This, however, he did after he IM 

„- .,e, to withdraw, for fear of ahockia^ official 

chastity. The matter was not yet settled when I left Madrid; but there was n» 

doubt that the right to purge and bleed the good people of , would be knoek^ 

ed down to the highest bidder 



QINSRAL VIEW OP gPAIN. 871 

mercenary villanj, and also the power of these last, so swerve and vi- 
tiate them, that justice in Spain is no longer justice. It is, indeed, as 
likely to afflict the injured as the aggressor and the.g^lty ; more so, 
perhaps, if trusting to the justice of his cause, the' former should ne» 
gleet the use of bribery. The office of eseriband, a species of notary^ 
ship, is peculiar to Spain ; €k>d be praised for iti According to La* 
horde, he exercises the functions of secretary, s<rficitor, notifier, and 
registrar, and is the only medium of conlmunication between the 
client and his judge. In any given suit, all the writings on both sides 
are collected together by the same escribano into a volume, of which 
he retains possession, loaning it from timfe to time to the opposite at* 
tornies. He also registers the orders and eentenees of the court, and 
notifies the parties concerned of each step in the suit, by reading the 
decrees, without, however, allowing them to he copied. He only can 
receive the declarations of the parties, take the testimony of witnesses, 
putting what questions he thinks proper, and recording the answers as 
he pleases, without the interposition, and often in the absence of the 
judge. The union of such important functions gives ample room for 
dishonesty, and this is still farther increased by a vicious regulation, 
which obliges the defendant in every case to choose the escribano of his 
adversary. If, in conjunction with these facts, it be remembered that 
the escribanos are very numerous and very needy, and that the exam- 
ple of peculation is furnished them by the higher functionaries, and 
impunity thus secured, it will not seem strange, that they are so noto- 
riously intriguing, dishonest, and open to bribery, throughout the 
whole of Spain. Upon the whole, therefore, it would, perhaps, be 
better for Spain, if she were without government, without law, and if 
each individual were left the guardian of his own rights and safety. 
He might lose a little protection ; but would be sure to escape from a 
great deal of plunder.* 



The revenue of Spain arises from a variety of duties and taxes, 
which are levied with little uniformity. The principal sources of it are 
the imposts collected at the maritime customhouses, and at those of 

* Siicb at 11il« go? eminent is, the Spaniards, at least a majority of them, are con- 
tent to endure it, fluod other nations have no right to quarrel with their choice. They 
will best promote the ioterests of Spain and their ow), by cultivating a good under- 
standing with the existing despotism, and by contenting themselves with recommen- 
ding measures in accordance with their own more liberal views. Such has been 
the policy of the United States, and it is a pleasing reflection, that oor relations with 
this country are at present in a good and improving condition. They cannot fail stiU 
to improve, whilst mey are entrusted to our present minister, His Excellency Alex- 
ander H. Everett ; a gentleman not less distinguished for his skill and intelligence 
as a statesman and economist and his accomplishments as a scholar, than fdr that 
perfect good breeding, which consists in simplicity of manners, equally remote from 
awkwardness and afiectation. The writer has avoid^^ any allusion to individuals ; 
yet public men are public property ; and at a time when abuse and vilification are 
ushered in without apology, none may be necessary for commending a distinguished 
snd meritorious individual. 



972 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

the interior for entenng cities ; these are deoominated Radas Qmerm^ 
ks. Also the Estaucosy or government monopolies of tobacco, salt, 
lead, powder, playing cards, and sealed paper. In the two CastUes is 
the Servido tie nUlUanes ; an impost upon wine, oil, meat, vinegar, and 
candles. The Alcabida is a percentage levied upon every sale of lands, 
estates, and furniture. In Arragon, instead of the hateful Alcabala, 
which offers such an insuperable bar to every species of circulation, a 
single contribution is paid, which is equally divided throughout that 
kingdom. Navarre and the neighbouring provinces are relieved from 
many of these vexations by peculiar privileges of great antiquity. It is 
not, however, the respect of government for ancient usages, unless 
when it be a question of legitimacy, which protects the Navarrese from 
injurious innovation ; but rather their proximity to France^ and the 
consequent necessity of conciliation. The sale of the bulls of papal paiw 
don and indulgence produces an immense revenue in Spain, half of 
which has been conceded to the crown. The principal ia the Bull of 
Cruzade, which is issued on the supposition of a perpetual war with 
the Infidels, from Spain's holding the fortress of Ceuta in Africa. The 
possession of this buU, which the mass of Spaniards take care to buy, 
as a necessary step to presenting themselves for communion and absolu- . 
tion, concedes the right of eating milk, eggs, and butter during Lent ; 
these articles, if eaten without the bull, involve the fearful incurrence 
oi mortal sin. The Flesh Bull, which is of higher price, authorizes 
the purchaser to eat meat during Lent, except in Passion Week. The 
Defunct Bull is bought for the ^nefit of the deceased ; and is of such 
a nature, that if the name of any dead man be entered upon it, a ple- 
nary indulgence is thereby conveyed to hb soul, if it be suffering in 
purgatory. 

Another branch of revenue is the Excusado or right conceded by 
the Church of appropriating in each parish the tithes of the finest farm, 
as the privilege of the crown. Also the Noveno decimal, or the ninth 
part of the tithes collected everywhere by the ecclesiastics, and three 
and a half per cent, on such natural productions as pay no disme. The 
military orders of Santiago, Alcantara, Calatrava, and Montesa, which 
were originally established like the Knights of Malta, to fight the 
Infidels, and which have immense revenues connected with them, are 
now in the gifl of the king. The lottery, which has offices in every 
town in Spain, is very profitable. Yet all these vicious imposts, which 
foster vice, beget misery, and offer innumerable impediments to enter* 
prise and industry, go for the most part to feed the hosts of officers em- 
ployed in collecting them, and who are ever happy to wink at firaud 
when it may promote their individual interests. But thirty millions 
reach the treasury ; and these, instead of being employed in objects of 
public utility ; in endeavors to restore agriculture from its fidlen con- 
dition ; to awaken industry ; to open anew the channels of commerce ; 
are squandered for the most part in the profusion and display of a 
court, whose splendor reaches an excess, only equalled by the opposite 
extreme of national poverty. The sums due for loans are got rid of 
by dishonorable compromise ; the debts of hon(w, to those who have 



OBNERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 373 

Bpenl tlieir hTesand shed their blood freelj in the struggle for indepen* 
deuce, are cruelly canceUed ; and yet while this is doing the royal 
family abates nothing of its extraragance ; nor does it the less main- 
tain and annually visit its five inagnificent palaces. 

One fact may serve to give an idea of the miserable condition of 
Spanish finances, and of tibe little confidence attached to the most sol* 
emn obligations of government The loan subscribed in France, under 
the sanction of its king and for the payment of which the quicksilver 
mine of Aimaden is solemnly pledged, was at between forty and fifty per 
cent, discoant, during ray stay in Spain, although the interest of five or 
six per cent, has been invariably paid. The determination of govern- 
ment to observe its fiadth in thb solitary instance, seems, indeed, worthy 
of more favorable consideration. For we are told in a late QmstitU' 
Uonnel that the timely arrival of the frigate Pearl at Cadiz, with a 
million of dollars, had relieved government of the necessity of appro- 
priating the sinking fund to the payment of the French rents. Such is 
the hap-hazard existence of Spain ; bankrupt in fortune and in fame, 
the government is only enabled to stagger on from day to day, under 
its load of debt and dishonor, by the support of the clergy, who mete 
out their mcHiey at the expense of the roost ruinous concessions. Al- 
ready do they demand the Inquisition ; the Council of Castile is in 
their favor ; the king alone still clings to his remnant of power. But 
he may yield ; for those who ask favors of the poor with money in their 
band, seldom meet with a refusal. 



Notwithstanding the decayed state of the finances in Spain, or 
rather as an important cause of this decay, she has still a very formida- 
ble standing army. It consists of a splendid royal guard of twenty- 
five thousand men ; and of troops of the line and provincial militia, 
under r^ular discipline, to the amount of fiftyfive thousand ; making 
a total of eighty thousand men. This force is regularly paid at pres- 
ent ; but with such precarious finances, the army is rather a danger 
than a safeguard to the existing despotism. Especially, if it be consid- 
ered that liberal opinions and generous sentiments are ever first to gain 
ground among men, removed at once from home and its prejudices, 
and brought together in great numbers, with leisure and convenience 
for the discussion of every question. The moral courage and con- 
stancy of the Spaniard, not less than his physical force, his capacity to 
endure fiitigue, and patient subordination, combine in fitting him for 
the military life. But the vicious practice of taking the officers exclu- 
sively from among the nobles, who are not the most worthy and literally 
noble in Spain, instead of allowing them to rise by merit from the low- 
est rank»— a system to which France is indebted for a Soult, a Berna- 
dotte, a Ney, a Murat, and a Massena — ^is a complete impediment to 
military excellence. 

The navy of Spain, like much of her greatness, exists only in recol- 
lections of the past. In 1705 it consisted of eighty ships of the line 



374 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

and three hundred smaller vessels ; with twenty thousand mechanies 
in the dock yards, sixtyfour thousand seamen, and sixteen thousand 
marines. Bat succeeding wars, consequent upon the French Revolu* 
tion, reduced it to half this force, and Trafalgar gave the death blow. 
Spain may now be said to have no navy ; nor can this arm of power be 
restored, until the primary step be taken of creating a commercial ma- 
rine. As for the modern men-of-war of this nation, the few stragglers 
that remain, flying across the ocean, and abandoning their convoys 
to the contemptible armaments of South America, serve not so much 
for defence as for dishonor. 

The famous royalist volunteers amount to the number of three hun* 
dred and fifty thousand. They consist of the refuse of the population » 
principally in the towns and cities, and are moved entirely by the cler- 
gy, for the sake of religion or of money ; their maintenance costing 
annually near twelve millions of dollars. The royalist volunteers are 
better armed, better clothed, and better disciplined than militia usually 
are« Their fidelity to the cause of the church, for, notwithstanding 
their denomination, they are her exclusive body guard, is, I think, less 
doubtful than has been generally supposed. Not to take into consider- 
ation that spirit*of fanaticism, which moves a majority of them, they 
have as individuals rendered themselves obnoxious to justice by the 
commission of many crimes, impunity for which, as well as for others 
yet uncommitted, they can only secure by the maintenance of their de- 
votion ; as a body they have outraged the whole liberal party, and stirred 
up the deadly hate of individual families, by thousands of assassinations, 
perpetrated at the instigation of the clergy. Their only hope of profit, 
therefore, their only chance for security, are found in perpetuating the 
present condition of affairs. With these means, then, Spain would 
make a desperate war of resistance ; especially, if we consider the 
universal aversion to foreign interference. And, despite the pow- 
erfiil party of liberals, should the good natured people of Britain take 
compassion upon Spain, and send her a ready made constitution bol- 
stered by bayonets, they would be likely to meet small reward for their 
generosity. 



It remains for us to endeavor to form some further notion of the 
state of parties in Spain, andof the general character and customs of the 
people. With this view the whole nation may be divided into the classes 
of nobility, inhabitants of cities, peasantry, and clergy. The nobility 
are very numerous in Spain, composing near a twentieth of the whole 
population. Their order originated at the time of the Gothic inroad, 
when the whole of the Roman population were degraded into the con- 
dition of slaves, and the feudal system was fastened upon the Peninsula. 
The Groths were a red haired and fair complexioned race ; and hence 
and from their rarity, the high estimation in which these are held 
throughout Spain, as a proof of gentle blood and Scandinavian origin. 
The invasion of the Saracens broke down these distinctions, and drore 



GfiNIUtAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 375 

the wlwle arjstociacy iato the mouotains of the North. This is the 
reason why of near half a million of nobles that are found in Spain, a 
whole moiety belong to the small provinces of Biscay and Asturias ; 
where every third man is a noble, though often only a servant, a shoe 
black, or a waterman ; witness the Yizcayano, so testy on the score of 
nobility, who had well nigh split the head and helmet of Don Quixote. 
When the tide of conquest began to flow back, and these mountains 
poured forth their regenerated and hardened inhabitants, some nobles 
of the old stock became distinguished for their prowess as commanders 
andpartizans ; these received the waste lands, as they were recovered, 
together with the sovereignty of towns and villages. Thus, the great- 
er part of Spain was parcelled out among the captains, who took part 
in the conquest, and who lived and ruled, each in his territory, with 
the state and power of a petty prince, owning themselves little inferior 
to the king, who was looked upon as no better than the first noble. 
When not engaged in war with the Infidels, they had contentions and 
disputes among each other upon territorial questions, or for personal 
precedence ; particularly during the minority of a king, when the 
mfiBt powerful pretended to the regency, and made war for the pos- 
session of his person. 

Though the privileges of the nobility are still important in the pre- 
sent day, yet their power has been weakened and their influence de- 
stroyed, by following the court, where they live luxuriously, and, not* 
withstanding the immense incomes of many, are oilen embarrassed and 
poor. They do not live upon their estates, and not one in a hundred 
has any other than his city residence. A castled nobility and a coun- 
try gentry are equally unknown in Spain ; thus the dignity and wealth 
of the order are completely frittered away and lost in the superior 
splendors of the throne of which they have become the mere satellites ; 
whibt the country is deprived of the good, which they might do by 
living on their estates and improving them and the condition of the 
peasantry, in return for so much evil, resulting from the unequal di- 
vision of property. Their present efieminate and motiveless life entire^ 
ly incapacitates them, too, for the career of arms, which they consider 
akme worthy of their condition. Many of the nobles are attached to 
the existing despotism, from the consideration that a change might 
deprive them of the property and privileges, which they enjoy to the 
injury of the whole nation ; others, who have less to lose, and whose 
better education and knowledge of what is passing in other countries, 
have opened their eyes to the unh£q>py condition of their own, are 
ready and anxious for a revolution. Upon the whole, the Spanish 
nobility, though without any fixed principles or peculiar pohcy, may, 
when taken coUectively, be considered as belonging to the liberal 
party. 

To this party belong also the inhabitants of cities, especially on the 
seacoast^ where a communication with strangers has favored the pro- 
pagation of intelligence and awakened the people to a sense of their 
rights. This forms, however, the least pleasing portion of the Span- 
ish natioii. They have adopted much of the costume and manners of 



3t6 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

forei^ countries and many of their vices, whilst they retain few at 
the nobler features, belonging to the character of the peasantry. 
They have the pride, the vainglorious and boastful disposition attribute 
ed to the Spaniard, with little of that sense of honor, that obstinate 
courage and unshaken probity, which form his distinguishing charac- 
teristics. 

The peasantry, including the inhabitants of the smaller towns and 
villages, on the contrary, still maintain much of the national character. 
Their courage, their vindictive spirit, their impatience of control, 
their hatred of foreigners and foreign interference, were all equally 
conspicuous in the late war of independence. Their devotion to the 
faith of their fathers, and their blind obedience to its priests, showed 
themselves at the same time, and still more in the late struggle be- 
tween the constitution and the clergy, when the latter by their assist- 
ance would, doubtless, have triumphed eventually, even though un- 
agisted by the French. That this would probably have been the 
case, we may infer from the revolution which has been lately wrought 
in Portugal against the constitutional party backed by the power of 
Britain ; though that kingdom, from her maritime situation, and her 
long and intimate intercourse ^ith free countries, might have been 
supposed more ready for liberal institutions than Spain. It is this 
blind devotion to their faith and its ministers, as yet but little troubled 
with doubts, that bHngs the Snanish peasantry, the most numerous 
and personally respectable cla8«n>f the nation, into the party of the ser^ 
viles, and that gives to this party its present preponderance. 



But the clergy is the great and dominant body in Spain, which 
moves everything at will, and gives impulse even to the machine of 
state. The earliest Spaniards are said to have adored one only Qod, 
to whon^^ey erected no temples and of whom they formed no images ; 
but whcfflrthey assembled to adore in the open air, at the season of 
the full moon. The natives, who have been ever of a devout and 
superstitious character, doubtless adopted successively the religion of 
the Phcenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans. These, however, were 
all abandoned for Christianity, which spread itself over Spain, in the 
earliest ages of the church. The Spaniards claim, indeed, to have 
been first converted by Saint James, the Apostle, and no Arragonese 
dares to doubt that Zaragoza has been blessed by the incarnate pres- 
ence of the Virgin. Be this as it may, Christianity prevailed through- 
out Spain long before the coming of the Barbarians of the North, who 
were either christianized by the way or else converted soon after their 
arrival. The religion thus established was not driven away by the 
Arabs. The conquered country still preserved its clergy and even 
its bishops ; but as the customs, manners, and language of the Chri»- 
tians assimilated themselves to those of the Arabs, their religion like- 
wise became tainted with the dogmas of Mahomet. At length when 
the savage Moors of the Almohadian sect overran the country of the 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 977 

SaraceBS, all traces of Christianity disappeared* As, howeTer, it was 
l^radually won back by the Christians, their religion recovered the as- 
cendency and became exclusive. The clergy,, too, who had not mere- 
ly aided the warricN's with their prayers, bat had taken an active part 
in every battle, now shared in the spoil and received lands, and even 
the sovereignty of towns and villages. This was the origin of ihe 
secular clergy in Spain and of its rich endowment The regulars 
were introduced long after, as an appendage of that dark and self-de- 
nying devotion of the middle ages, which led the gloomy and ascetic 
to retire to cares and solitudes, there to pass their lives in prayerful 
exercises and undisturbed meditation. By and by, individuais of thb 
taste and turn of mind, united themselves in communities, to enjoy 
the godly conversation of each other and spend their time in a uni- 
formity of pursuits. Presently, women began to follow the example 
wid form similar associations ; nor were the pious and the penitent 
«k>w in bestowing benefactions upon these holy recluses. Those who 
bad been guilty of many erimes, too, when tortured by remorse or 
touched by a deathbed repentance, now endowed convents upon the 
most magnificent scale, to receive their bodies after dissolution, with 
the stipulation that prayers might be offered and perpetual masses said 
so withdraw their souls from merited perdition. Thus, those oom- 
flsanities, which had been first instituted as asyhims for self-torture 
and maceration, were converted into the desirable abodes of imtask- 
ed enjoyment and sensual gratification. 

It is a painftil task to speak of the morals of the Spanish clergy. In 
a country like ours, where the clerical career leads neither lo riches 
nor honors, and where religion reposes upon its own respectability, I 
^nn well believe that the Roman church, venerable on so many ac- 
oonnts, may folly sustain the purity of its office and be meritorious in 
proportion to the extent of its sacrifices. But in Spain, where a rich 
wid never failing endowment holds oat to indolence the prospect of 
wealth, unpurclMsed by labor ; where the hope of civil as well as re- 
ligions preferment furnishes a lure to ambition, there is surely abun- 
dant room for unw<Mrthy inducements. There is, indeed, much rear 
son to fear that utter infidelity is by no means uncommon ; for in a 
church, which lays claim to infallibility and requires a blind belief in 
every 4ogiina, the ttansiticm from Christianity to positive atheism is 
not so wide ; fbr to disbelieve in part — and there are doubtless, some 
doctrines repugnaat to reason — is to disbelieve altogether. And what 
is the consequence of imbibing skeptical opinions 7 Does the unbe- 
liever proclaim his infidelity and forswear his faith? By no means. 
He continues to fill the sacerdotal functions ; for death would follow 
the discdosure, and, once a priest, always a priest. There are how- 
^ever^ uadovbtedly, many individuals, who devote themselves to the 
eliareh from the purest motives. A young man enters Upon the du- 
ties of his office, for instance, with the most exalted seal and piety. 
He is led as a curate into the most intimate intercourse with his par- 
ishoners, and, as the females are most at home, especially with them. 
The confessional, too, reveals the secret workings of hearts made finr 
48 



378 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

love ^d full of amiability. Nay, perhaps the acknowledgment at 
sinful indulgence shows the weakness of the individual, whilst a de^ 
tail of the idleviating prelimaries, not less than the close contact of 
the lovely penitent, create a fever of the blood, and beset the confir 
dant of these dangerous secrets with irresistible temptation. Alas I 
though a minister of God, he is yet a man ; a Spaniard too, by nature 
of an ardent and ungovernable temperament. How difficult to resist 
temptation^ when an authorised intimacy lends facility to intercourse ? 

If the secular clergy be of impure morals in Spain , there is mucii 
reason to fear that the regulars are still more so. The monks go freeFf 
into the world, and are also employed as confessors, though they are 
disliked for their filthiness and want of that urbanity, which is only 
acquired by the intercourse of society. The nuns, to be sure, pass 
their lives in perpetual seclusion. A few, perhaps, enter their prison^ 
house from a sense of devotion ; but, immured forever, after a short 
noviciate, devotion may sometimes die, ere worldly longing be extinct* 
What conscientious obligations can they feel, who have become in- 
mates of nunneries from prudential considerations, in a land where the 
establishipent of females is checked by the decline of population, or 
who have been enticed by parental solicitation, or encaged by parental 
cruelty % As for the convent walls and bolts and bars, they are but 
slight impediments, when it is question of confining the passions. 
Though there may be few cases of monastic derilection on record, equally 
atrocious with that of the Capuchin of Carthagena, who, when he had 
gained the reputation of a saint, in the convent of nuns to which he 
was confessor^ made use of his influence to persuade the sisters indi- 
vidually, to the number of thirteen — the remaining four of the flock 
being old and ugly — that the Saviour had appeared to him in th9 mass, 
and granted dispensation of their vows of chastity in his favor, as a re* 
ward for their devotion, and that they might be completely associated 
with him in love; yet the manner in which this horrible sacrilege and 
debauchery was punished by the Inquisition, with only five years im- 
prisonment in a convent of his order, would show small abhorrence for 
the enormity. It seems, indeed, that it is not enough that the convents 
in Spain should be, as they undoubtedly are , the abode of waning 
charms and wasted powers of misery, misfortune, and unavailing re- 
gret ; there can be little doubt that, if not so universally defiled as in 
former times, they are yet the frequent scene of sensual indulgence— of 
abortions, infanticides, and the many unnatural vices which result fimn 
the frustration of nature. 

With all this, however, the immense number of the ecclesiasties in 
Spain, amounting to about one and a half per uxd. on the whole popu- 
lation, and their corresponding wealth, give them great importance.* 
Indeed, if the nobility of Spain, who are three times as numerotUy 
and with possessions infinitely more extensive, have no influence in the 
conduct of public affairs, the clergy on the contrary, may be said ta 

* There are in Spain, besides servants, sextons, and singers, attached to the reli- 
giotts establishments, 60,000 seculars, 50,000 monks, and near 80,000 nuns. 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 3W 

"direct eyerything at will. They are the best ecbnoiniBts in Spain. 
Their estates are usually kept in good order, and, though they have 
been despoiled on every band during the late wets, they are already 
nble to administer from time to time to the necessities of state. They 
have a still greater source of consequence and consideration, in the 
power which they exercise upon the minds of the people, through the 
medium of religion. Superstition has ever been a characteristic of the 
Spaniards, and their present exclusive faith, so long fostered by the 
Inquisition, has a sway, which, until the late convulsions of the Penin- 
sula, may be said to have been universal. The skeptic spirit of the 
French Revolution has extended to Spain, in a partial degree, and ir* 
religion has gained some ground among the inhabitants of cities, who, 
as might be expected, pass from their late extreme of bigotry and su- 
perstition , to the opposite one of utter infidelity. Even in Madrid, 
however, the curates still go round every Lent among their parishioners 
to see that they have confessed and received communion, which they 
ascertain by meaus of printed checks, which are given by the ecclesi- 
astic, who administers the sacrament. This practice is said in modern 
times to have given rise to a very soaiidaloMS c(tstom. Prostitutes and 
poor women are in the habit of goitt^ round to a number of vchuvclies 
«nd chapels, to confess and take the sacrament, and receive the^or* 
responding checks, which they afterwards sell to those ^ho, whilst they 
are nnwiliing to resort to the confessional, are yet unwilling to incur 
the displeasure of the clergy. But the great stronghold of the church 
is the peasantry and lower orders, who form the mass of the nation. 
Their influence over these, they endeavour to maintain by the exterior 
display of virtue and humility, and by the exercise of charity, returning 
to the poor a portion of what they have originally plundered from them, 
by the operation of injurious privileges. With a similar view, the cu- 
rates mingle much among their fk>cks, taking an interest in all their 
concerns, and giving good advice, when it is not their interest to give 
bad. This frequent and familiar intercourse makes them great adepts 
in the art of pleasing, and it is especially by means of it, that they are 
able to move the minds of the females, and through them, of the whole 
community. The confessional is, however, the great engine of their 
pow^r. Through this, they become acquainted, not only with what n 
passing in the world, but also in men's minds ; it shows them, not only 
all that has been done, but also all that is meditated. 

Hentee then that strong control, which the clergy exercise over all 
the eoncenis of state, from the operation of an obvious principle, the 
tbuttdatioii of liberty in countries where property is duly divided, that 
tltose who willingly contribute to the expenses of government, will have 
an authority over its councils, and from the sovereign influence which 
they exercise over the minds of the majority. I have been credibly 
informed, that the interest which the Spanish clergy take in politics is 
so direct, that they even have individuals of their body, charged with 
particular branches of the public service. They receive and despatek 
couriers, and are often informed by new&papers and by the correspoi^ 
dence which they maintain with the whole world, of intelligence, yet 



8W GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

unknown lo (he ? uihle goTerntnent. The cbnrch in Spain fommr u»* 
deed, a Bpeeiea of free-maaoDry, actiog in secret and effecting the most 
in^Kvtant results, foy that perfect unity of will and sentioient^ which 
sfiffingB from a oommuaity of interests and from spiritual subjectm. 
Their ignorAnce, chough true of the body collectively, does by no 
means apply to those orafry indiriduals who direct their concerns, and 
who, though unheard and unseen, are perhiips as well informed of the 
condition of the world and of the general policy of its different nations^ 
as the CJayv aad Cannings, whose political craft excites such merited 
admiration. We are not, th^^fore, when we see a decree of the Spaiv- 
iah goTentment breathing a spirit of bigoted intolerance, to ascribe it 
to this or that minister ; but rather to some unseen bishop, or father 
abbot behind the curtain. Nor are we grefitly to pity the people of 
j9pain that they are subjected to a rezatious tutelage, which can only 
hare its foundatioa in the a^esion of the majority. 



From these causes, then, and not from the sovereign will of a single 
individual, originate those persecuting decrees and apostolic denuncia* 
4ioas, which have brought on FerdinuHl the appellation of bloody bigot, 
and all the hard names in the calendar of abuse. There is much rei^ 
SOB to believe, on the contrary, that he cares little ibr religion, aad 
though by way of flattering the clergy and the nation, he may once 
Inre made a petticoat for de Virgin Mary, yet if the truth were knowa^ 
he would doubtless be wtiltng to do less for her ladyship than for any 
living Maoola or Andaluza. The character of the present king is, in- 
deed^ littk known in foreign ootmtries, where, from the mere fact of 
his being called El Rty Absohtte^ ererythiflg u supposed to emanate 
frttm his individual will. His character is not, in fact, so much a com* 
pound of Tines, as nude up of a few virtues and many weaknesses. 
He is ready to receive the meanest subject of his kingdom, and is said 
to b^ frank, good humored, accessible, courteous, and kingly,^ in an 
Unusual degree. He will listen attentively to those who appeal lo hin^ 
appaaar convinced of the justice of what they ask, aad promise coropli* 
■noe, without ever returning to think of the matter. Facility is his 
gwat ibable, aod yet is he occasionally subject to irritability and a dia> 
position to be wrongheaded and have his own way, to the no small ii^ 
oonvenience of those who undertake to direct him. The &nlts of 
Ferdinand are partly natural, partly the effect of educaiien. Instead 
of being trained up and nurtured with the caie necessary to At him finr 
the high station lo which he was born, his youth was not only neg^ieQ^ 
ed, but even purposely perverted. 

CkMloy, whose views were of the most ambitious kind, Utok great 

• * - - ^y^ 

coufteaaa^ 
lef 



pains to debase the character and understanding of Ferdinand. 
ihis view, and partly perhaps to get rid of his own oastoff cour 
km not oidy abandoned him witbrart restraint to the ruling pas 
his family, but even threw temptation in his way, well luiowi 

: effect of tboee eaily indulgeqees, whioh sap the moralasid 



OENKBAL V1£W OF SPAIN. 381 

plijiiQil eoergife of yoolih. Thna a lifb of ttointenrapted seiwiMlittf 
bM deadened erery naiily and geneioiie seolimenl. The paraon of 
the kiag wa« noble and prepoaaeeaing in his yootb, when be is said to 
bafie b^n the most graceful hoieeoian of bis kingdom. In 1608. to 
waa the idol of every heart in the nation. Had he but prored woHhf 
of this devolad h>yalty, Spain wonld pteaent na with a different specter 
«le. Biien now^ though bia figure has been bent. by long indulgeno^^ 
and hi9 features engraven with heavinesa and sensuality, yet is his ap>> 
pearaoce atill rather pteaaiog than oth^rwiaa. There is about him a 
look of blunt good bunoir and rough jollity, which gives a fiat denial 
to the oruehy aaeribed to bin. He is said to have a leaning towarda 
Ubaralismr-Aveak, perhaps, in propcNrtion to the inefficiency of Ua 
character, yet rendered probable by the fact, that he ia now more dor 
Seated by the ruling party, and acting under much more realrainty than 
m the most boisterous period of the Constitution. 

The heir of Ferdinand, and his probable suoeeaaDr, is his brother Don 
Curbs. This is a very diffinrent man. Of a cruel disposition and iim^ 
temperament, he either is, or pretends to be, a very great fanatic 
Hence be is the idd of the clergy, who have made nioie tlnn one atr 
tempt to raise him to the throne by popular conspiracies, and who wait 
with impatience f<» the death of the incumbent I once heard a priest, 
in boasting his qualifications, say, that he would make such another 
king as Philip II. Should this prove true, Spain has before her a 
bteased futurity. His title will be Cark>B duinto, and he must be 
ekber very good or very bad^ in order to avoid inaignifieanee. As for 
his figure it is worse than contemptible, with a &oe strongly expressive 
of malice, cowardice, and irritability. 

Don Francisco is the third brother ; a little fiit good«natUDsd loefcr 
ing man, with a red blotch upon his face. He ia said to be intelligent^ 
paints with the skill of a master, and is a great cheaS-player. As his 
legitimacy was first acknowledged by the Coitea, he is Apposed 4e 
have a leaning towards the abolished system. He does not resemble 
either of his brothers, and there can be little doubt that each had a 
separate father, among the host whom the old queen adniitted to bur 
fiiviMrs-— favors, however, they can hardly be called, if we consider either 
her iU^^ka or her facility. Notwithstanding the shameful, or rather 
shameless manner, in which she attempted at Sayonne to ijMuiidale 
the legilimacy of Ferdinand, there can be little doubt, fh)m has rasem* 
hiance to Cbartes IV., that he, alone of the iWee, is the real soo^of his 
father. 

The whole house may be considered a very degenerate race-**pardy 
pertopa from the nature ef their education and the habits of the court; 

Ctly from such constant intermarriage with the same families. It has 
n mneh the ftahion with them of late, to lake wives from the house 
of Braganaa, from conformity of language and manners, or perhaps 
wkh the polkioai view of reannexing that fine strip of the Peninsula to 
the Spaniafa monarchy. Ferdinand took to wife two sisters in succes- 
sion, one or both of whom died in childbed. Bon Carlos took a third 
r, lor whom Ferdinand, in his penchant for the family, is -said to 






t83 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

hate cherished an incestaous inclination — and an nncle of the royal 
brothers, Don Sebastian, a fourth, the present titular Princess of Beyra. 
Thus this princess is, at the same time, aunt and sistei^in-law to Fer- 
dinand by marriage. She is his niece by blood, for the queennnother 
of Portugal is his sister, and yet her son is his cousin. It was, perhaps, 
to check the deterioriation, resulting from this monsCrdus stale of 
things, that Ferdinand sought his last wife in Saxony. The poor 
princess, fated to become the wife of Ferdinand, arrired in Spain 
young, gay, sprightly, and fascinating. A picture of her, which hangs 
in the palace, represents a perfect Hebe. She was met upon the fnm- 
tier by the escort, appointed to receive her, separated froqi h^ female 
friends and confidants, stripped of all that could remind Iter of home, 
even to her apparel, and given over to the care and conversition of a 
bevy of ugly old ladies. She soon abandoned her soul to the priests 
and friars, by whom it was beset, and is now pining away, a prey lo 
fanaticism and melancholy. Poor woman 1 she is never seen to smile ; 
her only present occupation to play her part in the ceremonial of the 
court, and pray, and write poetry. In all her deprivations, too, what 
comfort and consolation may. she find in the society of Ferdinand, the 
man of three wives and a thousand concubines t 



Though it has been the chief design of this work to convey i 
notion of Spanish character and manners, through the medium of nar- 
rative, yet it may not be amiss here to enumerate the peculiarities of 
the different provinces, and the leading traits which are common to 
the whole nation. Our remarks will apply chiefly to the common peo- 
ple, as it is only among them that the national peculiarities may be 
discovered. It has been by no means uncommon to describe this na* 
tion collectively, and to say, for instance — ' The Spaniard is short and 
thin, with an olive complexion. He is grave and dignified, and has 
the graces. His dress is black, with a low and slouched hat, and an 
ample cloak, under which he carries a very long sword, which he 
handles with great dexterity.' Yet nothing can be more calculated to 
convey false impressions. What, indeed, can be more different than 
the costume of the different provinces? Contrast the red cap and kmg 
panuk>on of the Catalan, with the airy briagaf and pendent blanket M 
the neighbouring Valencian, the close suit and jaunty attire of the 
Andalusian, with the trunk-hose and leathern cuirass of the Leone8,or 
the sheepskin garments of the Manchego. Yet if their dress be differ- 
ent, their constitutions and characters are equally various. All these 
variations doubtless originate in the opposite origin of those who have 
at different periods conquered and colonized separate portions of the 
Peninsula— people from Scythia, Scandinavia, Greece, Afirica, and 
Arabia. Variety of climate, too, in a country of mountains and tallies, 
has doubtless done something. But that these striking distinctions 
should be maintained in face of each other, during so many centuries, 
can only be accounted for by the poverty of intiemal eommonicatioiis 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 888 

in Spain, checking intercourse between the prorinces, and by th^ 
deep-rooted prejudices of ali^ for what they call — * Our ancient cu»- 
loms' — 'Nuestros antiguos eostumbrtsJ Indeed, in phisiognomy, in 
dress, in manners, and often in language— ^in everything, in short, bu4 
in those prejudices, and that unity of faith, which has been brought 
about by the Inquisition, each province of the Peninsula is distinct 
from every other. 

Though the Spaniards are generally esteemed below the middle 
size, yet in Catalonia, Arragon, Biscay, and some parts of Andalusia, 
the inhabitants more frequently rise above the standard stature. They 
are generally famed for vigor and activity, and are almost always kept 
lean by their temperance, whilst their bodies are dried and hardened 
by the ardent energy of the sun. For the same reason, their com- 
plexions are generally tawney, or of an olive cast. Their hair is 
usually dark and crisp ; eyes very black, heavy and languid on ordi- 
nary occasions, but in moments of excitement, piercing and full of 
fire. Their teeth, when not destroyed by the use of paper cigars, are 
white and regular. Though their features, like their characters, are 
often of an exaggerated cast, yet on the whole, if we except some sec- 
tions, where the treacherous disposition of the inhabitants imparts a 
scowling and vindictive look to the physiognomy, the general expres- 
sion of their countenances is grave and dignified habitually and on 
serious occasions ; in moments of festivity, lively, animated, and pleas- 
ing. 

The distinguishing characteristics of the different provinces of 
Spain, according to Uie general acceptation, confirmed by my own 
experience, as far as it went, are as follow. The Asturians and Gal- 
licians are civil, industrious, and of unshaken honesty. Grround down 
at h(Hne by the exclusive pretensions of the nobility and clergy, they 
are forced to seek employment abroad, at Madrid, Lisbon, Seville and 
Cadiz, where they fill the stations of servants, porters, bootblacks, and 
water-carriers. When, however, they have collected a few hundred 
dollars by dint of perseverance and industry, they return like the Au- 
vergnats and Savoyards, to close their days in their native mountains, 
where their little competency enables them to marry and rear up a 
new race of servants and watermen. The Portuguese are reputed as 
bigoted, as idle, and more boastful than the Castilians. I have often 
seen their pomposity ridiculed upon the Spanish stage. Though the 
Andalusian of some sections, and especially of the seaport towns, has 
the reputation of being treacherous, vindictive, and bloodthirsty, yet 
this is not generally true of the people of the Four Kingdoms. The 
Andalusian is boastfiil and yet brave, very extravagant in his conver- 
sation and forever dealing in superlatives. He hates the ungratefiil 
toil of cultivation, which goes rather to enrich the proprietor than him* 
self; but loves to be on horseback, and never wearies with journey- 
ing. Hence, his dress is ever that of a horseman, and none makes a 
finer figure in the saddle. The Mercians are listless, lazy, and prone 
to suspicion. They make no advances in the arts that embellish life, 
and will not even pursue agriculture, except to the extent necessary 



8B4 GENiaUL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

for mere existence. The lower claseea are very treai^heious^ er^r 
ready to drive the knife into the back of an unsuspecting ettemy. 
The Valencian is intelligent, industrious, active, affable, and Ibnd of 
pleasure ; he is also light, frivcrfous, vindictive, and insincere. He has 
a very bad name throughout Spain, and I, at least,. 6001 the reception 
I received on entering the kingdom, have no right to think it unmer* 
ited. We know that the bravos and assassins, kept in the pay of the 
great in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, or hired for the occa* 
sion of momentary revenge by the guilty or the aggrieved, were al- 
most all from the kingdom of Valencia. Peyron says that the tawh 
biers and mountebanks of Spain are from the same kingdom* The 
Catalan is famous for his persevering and indefritigable industry. He 
is active and laborious, and has a love of liberty, not common to the 
other provinces, and which has oflen led him to revolt I found hiaa 
wanting in the courtesy general to the Spaniard, and with an abrupt 
and vulgar bluntness bordering on brutality. The Arragonese, Nar* 
varese, and Biscayans are'famous for their industry, love of liberty, and 
spirit of independence. The Arragonese are also charged with vain 
glory, pride, and arrogance. The Biscayans are said to possess the 
•ame foibles, and to be filled with foolish notions of that nobility of 
blood, which every third man is heir to. With the sunny locks and 
red complexions of the Goths, they have ako inherited their irritable 
and impetuous disposition, their frankness, their social fedings^ and 
hearty animation. The Gastilians are generally esteemed for their 
uprightness, strength of mind, and sdtdity of character. Like their 
neighbours of Arragon, they are haughty^ and like the Portuguese, 
idle ; they are also the most profoundly grave, the most obstinateij 
taciturn, the most blindly attached to their ancient customs, of aU the 
people of the Peninsula. But though they speak little, and deal little 
in professions of friendship, yet are they often friendly, unaffeel* 
edly kind ; and are even notoriously honest, and of unshaken fidelity. 



Such are some of the traits of the Spaniard, as he exhibits himself 
in the different provinces. Though no people can be so difficult to 
characterize collectively, yet are there also some qualities common to 
the whole nation. Among them, a blind and excessive bigotry may 
be considered universal ; and gravity, though not found everywhere, 
is yet pretty general. But under this covering, even in Castile, where 
gravity is at the gravest, there is often found a force of feeling, a fond 
of animation and hidden fo'e. If the Castiiian awakes to anger, the 
cloak of apathy falls ; he is headlong, forious, frantic ; it is the awak- 
ening of the lion ; if only to be pleased, the latent gaiety of his dis- 
position shows itself in keen sallies, biting repartees, or pithy prov- 
erbs, borrowed, like Sancho's, from the national abundance ; or made, 
like a few of his, for the occasion. Sometimes, he gives way to 
mirth ; wild, half crazy, and obstreperous. A disposition to speak aad 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 885 

write in a bombastic style is not a rare foible in Spain, and is doubt- 
less promoted by the noble and sonorous character of the language.* 
Neither is a disposition to have a high idea of himself and of his na- 
tion at all uncommon with ,the Spaniard. No bad quality this, how- 
ever, if pride be a protection from meanness, and sel^respect, the be- 
ginning of respectability. That the Spaniard is passionate, there can 
be no doubt ; the fire of his eye, the impetuosity of his words and 
actions, when excited, all testify to the truth of the accusation. But 
it is the ardor of the climate, and the heating nature of the aliments, 
which, in this dry region, derive their chief nourishment from the sun, 
that help to make him so. The stranger, if disposed to quarrel with this 
generous ebullition, without which there can be neither greatness nor 
glory, may, perhaps, find some apology for the Spaniard in the quickened 
fervor of his own feelings. And this is the cause, why the Spaniard is 
sometimes vindictive and cruel. He loves fervently and hates with fiiry ; 
his devotion is only equalled by his revenge. The history of our own 
time might go to prove that he is savage in war, and merciless in the 
moment of victory. But in order to appreciate the conduct of the 
Spaniards in their war of indepeifdence, we should think of their situ- 
ation ; the poverty of their resources ; the absence of all organization, 
at a time when they were beset by the organized energies of Europe. 
We should consider these things, before we blame them for skulking 
behind trees and rocks to destroy their enemies singly, or for throw- 
ing them headlong into wells, when they were drinking unsuspecting 
ly at the curbstone. But above all we should think of their wrongs ; 
we should remember that they were struggling for liberty. The 
French themselves, who took an unwilling part in this unholy war, 
are first to praise the character of their enemies ; and if there are 
many cases of coldblooded cruelty on record, there are also not a fow 
of the most generous devotion to save individual Frenchmen from 
popular fury.t If we accuse the Spaniards of a love of crime, a pro- 
pensity to plunder rather than to labor, and adduce the hordes of 
banditti, ivhich have infested Spain for centuries ; though no one can 
dispute the fact, yet some and much mitigation may be found in the 
lawless state of a country, where innocence and patriotism are often 
more obnoxious to justtda — I will not call it justice— than crime. 

Indolence is one of the greatest reproaches orthe Spanish character. 
But this is no more true of the Catalan, the Biscayan, the Gallego, than 
it is of the Briton, or the Dutchman. It may only be said to prevail in 
the central provinces, where enterprise has no outlet and where industry 

* This proDeDMB to hyperbole and grandiloquism, the Spoiard may doubtleae 
«we to the Eastern people, who so long held poeaesaion of the Peninsula. Much of 
Chat Strang^ peculiarity, there so discoverable, derived from the Moorish origin of 
its population ; much also from the dominion of the Saracens. Those of the French 
who had made in succession the campaigns of Egypt and Spain, ibund many things 
ta oomnon in Uie two countries. The castanet, the guitar, the ringing of seguidUlaa 
^nd dancing of fandangos are among the number. 

t See the interesting Memoirs oTBocca. 
49 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

i» wilkom a ■M>tMre. There agricuknre is the only resource^ and what iiw 
ducemeot* isthere for the unhappy boor to toil that others may eai» or to 
labor, thttt bia betleis may enjoy. Hence, and hence only, that sapine 
iadedenoie^. whieb is so striking a characteristic of the Castilian. To 
say, as is ofien said,: that it is £e pride of the Spaniard thai keeps him 
from mcaiiBl toijy i» a mere absurdity. When was ever pride proof 
against porevty fi If iit be a question of eiiduring fatigue, journeying 
without lest, witliou% food, and yet without a murmur, from morning 
till night — there is none to equal your Spaniard. This remarkable cap 
paeity of the SfHUdiards to endure fatigue, proceeds, doubtless, from the 
spare and sondried^ yet vigorous and athletic character of their bodies, 
and from the teiapeii whioh the physical constitution imparts to the 
mind. To tbis^ and: to their dauntless bravery is it owing, that they 
make, when disciplined^ such noble soldiers ; nor is it a litUe remarka* 
ble that they have possessed the same characteristics since the remotest 
times. 

Mariana gives the following description of the original SpaniardSr 
' Gross, and destitute of br^edSog and politeness^ were our savage foie* 
fathers ; their disposition warlike and unquiet, rather of wild beasts 
than men. They were given to false religions and the worship of thekr 
Gods. Such was their obstinacy in keeping secrets, that even the most 
horrible torments had no power to shake them. In war their suste- 
nanae was coar^ and simple; their common drink water, and seldoai 
wine. The lightness and activity of their bodies was wonderful, and 
ibBf were by nature capable of enduring hunger and fatigue. ' Pla« 
tarob, in his life of Sertoriua^ that great hero, who gained sndi asceo^ 
danay over the Spaniards by his p^rsonal^ superiority^ and by wwking 
iipen^ their superstitions, that from a houseless eule m the canse d[ 
If arius^ he became master of nearly all Spain, and wem nigh to founding 
aa independent empire*;«-4ells us that ' Metellns did not know which 
wsjT to turfr himself, having to do with a man of ondaunted boldness, 
who was eontinuaily harrassing him^ and yet could not be brought to a 
pitched battle ; for by the swiftness an^ dexterity of hie Spanish s^ 
diery» Sertorius was able to change his station and east hia army into 
eveiy kind o^ form* Thus, though Metellus had. great experienee' ia 
oonduetiog heavy armed legions, when drawn up in diie order int» a 
standkig phakox, to encounter the enemy hand in hand, and ovespower 
him by fatoe ; yet be was not able to climb up steep hilJs^ and lo^ bar 
eontinuaily upon the pursuit of a swifl enemy ; no« ceiiUbe like them 
endufe hunger, nor live exposed to the weather, withottt» file et cev^ 
ering.' 

The unbroken obstinacy of the Spaniards in siegoeaad in^ wass of 
MMtance is notorious. Witness Sagnntum and Astapa, where the 
townsmen, rather than depart with their lives, or sue for greater mercy, 
burnt their houses,, brought together and fired their valuables in tJiie 

Subiio squares, then mounted the funeral pile. Witness N«nmmti% 
raving the concentrated efforts of Roman power, triumphiiig repeat^ 
edly over the armies of the Republic, and twice compelling her generalsF 
to sue for peaoe^ nor yet yielding, until Rome treasonably broke her 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

treatj, and resorted to an infraction of that law of the itepuUic, mMch 
required ten years to expire, before a re*«leeitioa 4N> ilie loeiisillaie. 
Scipio Africanas oould aione sabdne Numantia. He '«ras»se«t on this 
perilous errand, and gained new ifnmorulity by meriting -the suvnatnie 
of NumantinuB. We are told that when the hesieged beoame sorely 
straitened, they sent ambassadors to Scipio to sue for that |Maoe, whioh 
had been more than once granted. They asked for an honorable ca- 
pitulation, speaking with submission, and yet with, a certaiBiioUeDess. 
Scipio marfelled much that the hearts of this people were not broken 
by such bitter adversity, and that, when all hope w^ loBt^ they still 
were mindful of their dignity. Notwithstanding hie ladmiration, how^ 
ever, he replied that there was no room for treaty and that it only re- 
mained for them to yield. When this news was brought to the 
Numantines, they slew the ambassadors and determined to resist to the 
last Having made themselves furiously drank with a beverage distilled 
from wheat, they rushed out and slew thousands of Komans, until they 
were overpowered and destroyed, or eke driven back into the dty. 
The remainder now resolved to sally forth on herseback and cat them- 
selves an escape; but the women, who, although wilHng lo share tiie 
common fate, were yet unwilling to be left abandoned, discovered their 
purpose and baffled it, by cutting the hamstrings of their horses. To 
die was now the only refuge of the Numantines ; the women and chil- 
dren were slain, by their husbands and fathers ; and these in turn des- 
patched each other, fighting in single combat, tlie conqueror and 
conquered being thrown by the enrvrvors upon die same funeral ptte.*^- 
Such was the iate of Nunmntia ! But there is little need to wander 
back to such remote antiquity for proofo of Spanish valor. BeMd 
Cortes burning his ships, leading his five hundred followers apinst a 
mighty empire, and seising its emperor in bis own city l-^Pizarro 
overcoming Peru with but h^f as many companions I Watch tfae49pan- 
lards burning to death, in their floating castles under the batteries of 
Gibraltar ; — ^men and women vietng to leave their bodies in the trench^ 
es of Zarragoza ! See them in our own time eating rats and oarrion 
rather than give up the fortresses of Callao and Ulloa! 

That the Spaniards, as a people, are ignorant, supremely ignorant, h 
ie impossible to dissemble ; but this comes from the state of educatiail, 
altogether in the hands of the clergy, who exert themselves to mi^tain 
that ignonnoe to which they are indebted for their power. From aN 
that I saw of the Spaniards, I formed the most favorable notion of their 
genias and capacity ; their untutored mother wit and native sagacity 
are as notorious as Sancho Panza. And, to say nothing of the great 
names in every department of excellence which embellish her history, 
is it not enough for Spain to have produced a Cervantes 1 

Temperance is, and ever has been, a distinguishing oharactertstic of 
the Spaniard. Sparing and unmindful in his diet, his aversion to 
drunkenness amounts to detestation. Mention is said to be found in 
Strabo of a Spaniard, who threw himself into the fire, because some 
one had called him a drunkard ; a whimsical iBxtravagance, the re- 
counting of which^ whether true or false, speaks volumes in favor of 



\ 



988 GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN/ 

SpaDish aobriety. If it be a noble quality , tdo, to maiBtain silence at 
every extremity, wben it might injure others or be unworthy to speak, 
what credit is there not due to the Spaniard for that depth of secrecy 
of which he has given so many brilliant examples ? * To prove the ex- 
tijeme of Spanish probity, the firmness of Spanish faith, it may be suffi- 
cient to adduce a. single instance, incidentally mentioned by Voltaire* 
^hen war broke out between France and Spain in 1684, the Spanish 
king endeavored to aeize all the French property in his kingdom ; for 
which purpose he invited the factors to share the spoil with him ; but 
not one Spaniard would betray his French correspondent ! that loyalty 
to their kings and attachment to the existing state of things, which in 
our day have been carried too far by the Spaniards, are on the whole 
advantageous qualities, and would prove powerful engines in the handa 
of a well disposed prince. When they are prepared for good and 
wholesome institutions, their constant character will secure them per- 
petuity. That the Spaniard, should be devout and pious, that he should 
give himself, heart and soul, to that faith, which he believes the only 
true one, — is it not subject of commendation ? If then we compare 
the virtues and vices of the Spanish character, where may we find 
a people more worthy of admiration 1 



Among the general characteristics of the Spanish people, their lan- 
guage may not be improperly numbered. For, though the Limousin 
or Proven9al, the old l^guage of the troubadour, is the popular 
tongue of Catalonia and Valencia, whilst in Biscay, Alava, and Guipiia- 
coaihey have the Basque, a harsh and peculiar dialect, which has 
existed since the earliest times, even before the coming of the Romans, 
yet the Castilian is now so widely difiused over the Peninsula, that it 
has received the general appellation of the Spanish language. And 
here, it may not be apiiss to say something of its origin. 

How far the language of the original Spaniards may have been mod- 
ified during the Phcenician domination is now unknown. It is certain, 
however, that the complete conquest and final identification which took 
place under the Romans, had the efiect to supplant a rude language, 
inadequate to express the objects and ideas which belong to a condition of 
refinement. This change might, perhaps, have been facilitated by the 
previous existence of several dialects, resulting from the various, origin 
of its population. Be it as it may, the Latin language was universdly 
adopted in the Peninsula, with the customs and manners of the m^ 
tropolis, Biscay alone still retaining its barbarous and characteristic 
dialect 

When the Northern barbarians overran the whole of Europe, and 
pushed their way beyond the barrier of the Pyrenees, the Peninsula 

* The late FreDch papers give an interestiDg account of the ezecation and obsli* 
nate sUence of Jeps de L'E^uig, a fierce robber, set on to rebellion by the clergj 
and Carlists. 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 389 

became the reaidence of two distinct nations, speaking distinct lan- 
guages. But the Barbarians being far inferior in numbers to the con- 
quered people, and of inferior civilization, naturally adopted a language, 
which whilst it was that of the majority, furnished them with names 
for things with which they now first became acquainted, and which 
was far better adapted to express the sentiments arising in a more 
civilized condition. This, however, was not effected without modifi* 
cation. The construction of the Latin underwent a few changes ; the 
verbs still maintained their conjugations with little variation ; but the 
declension of nouns was now effected more simply by annexing prepo- 
sitions, instead of altering their terminations. A large addition of du- 
plicates was made to the catalogue of the nouns, and a more natural 
and easy arrangement was introduced in the structure of sentences. 
Thus modified, the language now received the name of Romance, to 
distinguish it from the pure Latin, which continued in general use 
among the learned until the reign of Don Alonso, the Sage, who first 
caused the laws to be written in the vulgar tongue. That the Latin 
should have suffered less modification in Spain than in Italy will not 
seem strange, if it be considered that the greater contiguity of Italy to 
the land of the Barbarians, would naturally invite more numerous settle- 
ments than the remoter regions of the Peninsula. 

The invasion of the Saracens had well nigh extinguished the noblest 
language of Christendom. They came in far greater numbers than 
the Goths, and wherever they established their domination, the Arab 
became the prevailing tongue. Happily the exiled Romance still pre- 
served itself in the mountains of Asturias, together with the christian 
&ith, the bones of her saints, and that spark of patriotism which was 
to win back the whole of the Peninsula. The cities, mountains, aud 
rivers of Spain, received almost everywhere Arabian names ; they are 
still preserved, and the Romance likewise borrowed, with many un- 
known things, a number of new nouns, which may still be readily dis- 
covered by their guttural pronunciation. To these several sources, 
then, is Spain indebted for the many synonymous words, and such as 
have narrow shades of distinction, which give such richness and variety 
to her language. 

The Castilian language, starting as it did from the Latin, began by 
being a highly cultivated tongue. It has been gradually simplified and 
improved by popular usage, and by the great men wiio have written in 
it, from the old romanciers down to Cervantes and Calderon ; and in 
later times by the labors of the learned society, to whose care the na- 
tional language is especially entrusted. This society has produced a 
dictionary and grammar, of which it may be said as the greatest possi- 
ble praise, that they are worthy of their subject. There everything is 
defined by invariable rules, which are in all things conformable to 
reason. The pronunciation of the Spanish is rendered very easy, by 
reason that every word is spoken precisely as it is spelt. Some letters 
do, indeed, take a different sound in particular situations ; but the ex- 
ceptions are uniform and invariable. The proper and approved pro- 
nunciation is that of the Castiles. In Andalusia, it is soft and sweet ; 



itOe GENERAL VIEW OF SPJdV. 

but sKghtly different from the standard in boom partienianr, espeoiaHy 
in the sound of c, preceding an € or i; in Andaloda it is {Nronoonoed 
as 5 ; in Castile as th^ and any 4»tfaer sound is esteemed ilboininsble. 
Thus Cena would be Sena in Andalusia, and Thena im Castile. As, 
however, Andalusia 'has been foremost in eolonizHig the New World, 
it has given its peculiar pronunciation te these extensiye regions, and 
roust eventually carry the day by force ef numbers ; thus rendering ac- 
ceptable and polite, that which is now rejected as barbarous and pro- 
vincial. 

In its present state, the Spanish language is dovbdess the most ex- 
cellent of all. Like the Italian, full of vowels, it lends kself with ease 
to the uses of poetry, and furnishes the most graoefol garb <e a happy 
idea. In what other language, indeed, •coold plays, which have been 
admired during centuries, hsve been written in verse and enaeted in 
a single day ? Yet was this more than once done by Lope de Vega. 
Though in the hands of the unskilful, the Spanish ifoMn its very lioli- 
ness is apt to degenerate into bombast,— witness Ferdinand's decrees 



and Bolivar's proclamations, in which a pvnv idea is often seen smoth- 
ered to death under a load of heavy words-*-yet what can be more 
noble than Spanish prose, such as we read in t^ periods of Jovillanost 
As a spoken tongue, the Spanish is unequalled ; for whilst its graoefol 
inflexions and sonorous cadences please the ear, even of one miio does 
not understand them, the mind is delighted and self*love flattered and 
gratified by a thousand happy proverbs and complimentary expressions, 
which have grown into use among a witty and courteous pe^jple. In 
the pulpit the Spanish is dignifi^ and solemn, requiring but a little 
skill and feeling to enkindle into eloqueace; at the bead of an army it 
is prolonged, powerful, and commanding ; in ordinary discourse it is 
expressive, sprightly, and amusing; from an enraged voice, its gutturals 
are deeply expressive of hatred and detestation ; as the language of a 
lover, as the vehicle of passion, the Spanish has an earnest eloquence, 
an irresistible force of feeling ; in the mouth of women it is sweet, 
captivating, and fraught with persuasion. 



In his manners, the Spaniard is dignified, yet foil of courtesy, lie 
is not fond of exercising hospitality, because he is poor, and because 
the Inquisition, and its present substitute, the Police, have rendered 
him suspicious ; for the same reason he is backward in intruding his 
presence and imparting his opinions ; whence he has been called unso- 
cial. He is equally free from the doltish dulnessof the Dut<^man, 
the sneer and satire of the Englishman, and the hollow-hearted 'Com- 
placency of the degenerate Italian. Contempt for petty inconvearience^ 
and superiority to trivial and unbecoming impatience, are common 
qualities in Spain. And so is that personal dignity, equally remote 
from haughtiness and humiliation, which enables the blanketed savage 
of our wilds, to carry his head high in the midst of the civifized and 
the luxurious, though contemned and pitied for his poveity. The 



0£NfiRAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 391 

humUest peuant^ the meaneBt muleteer haa, in fact^ a certaio air of 
independence^ a aenae of inferiority to no man^ which breaks down the 
banriei of bctilkHi» distinction, and makes one hel himself in the pree- 
enee of an equal. Notwithstanding the immense distinction of classes 
in Spain^I havenowhere seen more equality in the ordinary intercourse 
of li&. The gieat seem lo forget their greatness, and the poor their 
povcortji. Of &e two the peasant has the nobler and more princely 
bearing. 

But if the Spaniard ia courteous in general, he is especially so in his 
iBteseourse. with the other sex. It is then that he waves both dignity 
and independence, and owns himself inferior. There is, indeed, a 
Iramility, a devotedness, in Spanish gallantry, of which we have no 
idea— A ha pies de usied Sauara! accompanied by a bow and bearing 
of corresponding humility is but the prelude to a long series of the 
most devoted courtesies. Woman here, even in the lowest stations, is 
never subjected to the menial drudgery of France and Switzerland; 
but seems born <mlv to embellish life. Ignorant of all that pertains to 
learning and book lore, she is yet a deep-read adept in the art of pleas- 
ing» Ever ready and most happy in conversation, she dances and does 
everything with a native grace, unattainable by mere cultivation, touch-* 
es her guitar as if by a gift, and sings with the eloquence that passion 
only can inspire. The Spanish woman is, indeed, a most fascinating 
creature.* Her coraplesuon is usually a mellow olive, often russet, 
rarely rosy, and never artificially so. Her skin smooth and ricb^-*-fibce 
round, fuU, and well proportioned, with eyes large, black, brilliant, and 
speaking, a small mouth, and teeth white and regular. As for her shape,, 
without descending to pAiticniars, which might lead to extravaganse, it 
is suffbient to say that it is beautifully— nay exquisitely formed, and of 
such perfect flexibility, that when she moves, every gesture becomes a 
grace and every step a study. Her habitual expression is one of sad- 
ness and melancholy ; but when she meets an acquaintance and makes 
an effort to please, opening her full-orbed and enkindling eyes, and 
parting hes rich lips to make room for the contrasting peatl of her 
teeth, or to give passage to some honied word, the heart must be more 
than adamant that can withstand her blandishments. Nor is the Span- 
ish woman only beautiftil ; she is not changeftil in her loves, though 
fond and passionate and peremptory. She is capable of the greatest 
sellHiavetieA, aa4 history has recorded acts of heroism in her honor, 
wfaaoh ace without example. If, indeed, Joan of Arc be taken from 
the rankS'of humanity, and aoeeimted either more or less than a woman, 
where may we find eqnalb ftur Isabel Danak)e,,I>onia Maria de Pacheco, 
andt the Maid of Zaragoza. 

* The. SpsDiflk women are More easy ta characteriae than the men ; for they are 
much more uniform in dress, manners, and appearance ; perhaps, because the difier- 
ent nations, who have conquered' the Peninsula, may have brought no women with 
them ; for, though wvll enotirh at home, diey are but poor companions upon a 
BiHrdii Tktr vaadav abed not, howeveiv rappose thiv the portrait of every woman in 
SiahK Thea0^amtDbsfiMindthere».afl weUaaiaotfaai eouatriet. 



392 CENTRAL VIEW OP dPAlK. 

There is, however — ^let us show the whole truth — one female Tirtaei 
which, though it may belong to many in Spain, is yet not universal—^ 
and this is chastity. It is no longer there, as in the days of Roderick 
de Bivar and his good Ximena. Alas ! the Spanish dame of our day 
is often no better than she should be — no better than Donia Julia. I 
know not whence this decline of morals, if not from the poverty of 
the country ; which, whilst it checks marriages and the creation of 
families, cannot check the passions enkindled by an ardent clime. I 
am led to fear that, though positive prostitution be less common in 
Spain than in other countries, there is little regard for the vows of 
matrimony, even in the villages ; where, if at all, one looks for virtue. 
Though conflicting loves and connubial jealousies often lead to deadly 
strife among the common people, very frequently to the destruction of 
the female, yet in the cities husbands have become more gentle, and 
the duels so common a century or two since are now entirely unknown. 
The mantiila, too, borrowed from the Saracens as an appendage of 
Oriental jealousy, instead of concealing the face, now lends a new 
charm to loveliness. The aunt and the mother still totter at the heels 
of virginity with watchful eyes ; but the wife has no longer occasion to 
hoodwink her duenia, ere she receive the caresses of her cartego. 

In conversation, too, the freedom of the Spanish women is carried 
to such an extent, that matters are often discussed among them with- 
out any sense of indelicacy, that in my own country would not be even 
adverted to, and equivoques uttered, that are sometimes anything but 
equivocal. Yet, though these liberties of speech are so freely indulged 
in, there are others esteemed more venial among us, that are not there 
tolerated even upon the stage. Thus, with their ardent temperaments, 
ready to take fire at the slightest contact, a kiss is ever considered the 
sure foretaste of the greatest favors. But if females in Spain are not 
all that they ought to be, let us not blame them too severely. ' Woman 
is born there, as everywhere, with that strong desire to please which 
constitutes the chief attraction and loveliness of the sex, and which ia 
in fact but another name for amiability. It is to please the Mahome- 
tan taste of the Spaniard that she leads a sedentary life and grows 
fleshy, and it is also for his gratification that she consents to be frail. 
And hence, wherever woman is vile, there is too much reason to fear 
that man is also worthless. 

But let me not assume the vileness of Spanish women, nor infer the 
worthlesness of the men. Let roe rather from the many beantifol 
qualities of the one deduce the excellence of the other. With all the 
foibles of these fair Spaniards, they are indeed not merely interesting^ 
but in many things good and praiseworthy. Their easy, artless, un- 
studied manners, their graceful utterance of their native tongue ; their 
lively conversation, full of tact and pointed with esprieglerie ; their 
sweet persuasion ; their attention to the courtesies of life ; to whatever 
soothes pain or imparts pleasure ; but especially their unaffected amia- 
bility, their tenderness and truth, render them at once attractive and 
admiraUe. Their faults are few, and grow out of the evils which af« 



GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 



flict their country; a better Btate of things will not fail to mend them ; 
their good qualities are many, and are altogether their own. 



It has been our endeavour here to convey a succinct view of Spain 
and of her inhabitants. From what has been stated, it appears that 
the adhesion of the people to a state of things, which has reduced 
their country, from a proud and becoming preeminence to its present 
unworthy condijtion, can only be accounted for by their poverty and 
ignorance, and by the strong influence of the clergy, who move them 
with the double lever of wealth and religion. The best chance that 
Spain could have had for quiet regeneration, would have been, per- 
haps, under the enlightened despotism of such a king as Joseph ; a 
prince whose sagacity would have led to the redress of grievances, 
whilst his goodness of heart would have tempered the evils resulting 
from sudden innovation. But Joseph was a usurper and a stranger, 
and the national dignity would have been shocked by growing better 
onder his auspices. Joseph has been supplanted by Ferdinand ; the 
constitution, too, has had its day, and some other means must be look- 
ed to now, to e^Bct the business of regeneration. Happily they are 
not wanting. There is in Spain a party of men, who have been 
awakened to a sense of their rights during the struggles of the present 
century, and who have known what it is to taste the pleasures of un- 
restrained liberty in speech and action. The representations of these 
men — nay, the very persecutions which they suffer, must add new 
numbers to the list of liberals, until they shall cease to be a minority. 
And thus that ecclesiastical influence, which has crushed Spain during 
ae many centuries, must gradnaliy go down. It is already declining; 
the monks are much decreased by the destruction of their convents, 
and the partial alienation of their estates ; the i^Ue will soon cease to 
^efer a life, which, from being peaceful, has become precarious. 
The el^gy has lost much popularity since the last revolution; for the 
peoi^e do not find that their condition has been much improved by the 
downed of the constitution. The dime, which is a debt of con- 
aeienee «nd mw therefere serve as a measure of the popular love, is 
now dwindled into a twentieth. The progresnve improvement of the 
<wtiole vorld, and that spirit of liberty which is shaking old Europe 
to the centre, mnst also be felt in Spain. The influence of free, hap- 
py, end enlightened France, now at last completely mistress of her 
destimeB^ will not be arrested by excisemen, nor by soldiery. The 
Pyrenees will offer but a feeble barrier to arrest the passage of thought 
luad senlanent. The Spaniards will soon begin to compare oomii- 
4io«i8 esid ask themselves, why are Frenchman happy and we raisera- 
Me f Are they more generous, more valiant, more loyal, more perse- 
vering, more patriotic? They are not. Then why should they be 
reepeeted and powerful, whilst we are become the scoff of the whole 
world 7 It is because they have no clergy, owning the best of Ijhe 
50 



aM GENERAL VIEW OF SPAIN. 

soil, and passing their lives in untasked ^njoyment ; beeaue thejT 
have no noblea and lordly proprietors dividing the coiintrj nmtmg 
themselves, and living by the labor of the industrious ; because each 
cultivator tills his little field, nor fears to improve it, since he know» 
that it will descend thus improved to the children of his own body ; 
because all men are born to the strictest eqiiality ; because justice is 
there administered with more certainty and expedition than in any 
other country ; and because they have a government not for jdunder 
but protection. And now, the next question is,, how did France ar- 
rive at these results, and what course must that nation follow that 
would imitate her example ? It was the Revolution I Methinks I see 
Spain, as this magic word^everberates through the land, shaking off 
her long lethargy and preparing for the struggle. 

She now discovers that the clergy, in so long controlling and direct- 
ing her in this world, under the plea of securing her happiness in the 
next, did but cajole her with the view to promote their own temporal 
interests. The blind devotion of so many centuries is at once con* 
verted into the most dreadful detestation ; and Spain seeks to expiate 
her past bigotry by present infidelity, and by ungovernable rage 
against religion, its rites, its altars, and its ministers. And if France, 
the land of good humor, gentleness, and ujbanity, was converted by a 
sense of long sustained injury into a nation of monsters, what will be- 
come of Spain, where the passions burn with tenfold ardor, and where 
man has long groaned under tenfold oppression? 

It would seem that there is much chance of a revolution in Spain at 
some future day, and that when it arrives it is likely to be terrible. 
But when it shall have passed, with a fearful, yet regenerating hand, 
over this ill-fated country, removing the abused institutions and un- 
just privileges which have borne so long and so hardly upon her, and 
she shall have passed, as France has done, through the various ordeals 
of spurious liberty and military despotism, intelligence may have a 
chance to creep in, and the people may at length turn their attenticm 
to the en^yment of life and the developement of their resources. Na- 
ture has been most kind to Spain. Her bowels teem with every val- 
uable production, her surface is everywhere spread with fertility ; a 
kindly sun shines always forth in furtherance of the universal benig- 
nitjr ; her almost insular situation at the extremity of Europe releases 
her from the dangers of aggression ; and whilst the ocean opens on 
one hand a convenient high road to the most distant nations of the 
earth, the Mediterranean on the other facilitates her communications 
with the rich countries that enclose it. Her coasts, too, indented with 
finer ports than are elsewhere seen, and her waters, not deformed by 
those fearfiil storms, which cover more northern seas with wrecks and 
ruin ; all, in connexion with her internal wealth, furnish the hq>pieat 
adaptation to commercial pursuits. Thus, whilst her native riches and 
fertility make trade unnecessary to Spain, her situation enables her 
to pursue it with unequalled advantage. Surely where Ood has been 
thus good, man will not always remain ungrateful. 



coehhal view or spain. MS 

Ib takmg hrnvt of flpuD^ mtj wt aol thm inddfe a kope» Uhu, 
thoogh her fctnritr looks liimlMUi«, onmow, ud ftdl of erS fao- 
bodingiy UiepreieDtoentQrjHiayyetieo her fdelytliioarh tlieilorai 
•ad leave lier^ it die deeenree to be, riehy refpeeted^ uA happjf 



THS ■!!». 



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APR 2 5 1967