The Bridle-Roads of Andalusia.
Change of Weather--Napoleon and his Horses--Departure from Granada--My
Guide, José Garcia--His Domestic Troubles--The Tragedy of the
Umbrella--The Vow against Aguardiente--Crossing the Vega--The Sierra
Nevada--The Baths of Alhama--"Woe is Me, Alhama!"--The Valley of the
River Vélez--Vélez Malaga--The Coast Road--The Fisherman and his
Donkey--Malaga--Summer Scenery--The Story of Don Pedro, without Fear and
without Care--The Field of Monda--A Lonely Venta.
Venta de Villalon, _November_ 20, 1852.
The clouds broke away before I had been two hours in the Alhambra, and the
sunshine fell broad and warm into its courts. They must be roofed with
blue sky, in order to give the full impression of their brightness and
beauty. Mateo procured me a bottle of _vino rancio_, and we drank it
together in the Court of Lions. Six hours had passed away before I knew
it, and I reluctantly prepared to leave. The clouds by this time had
disappeared; the Vega slept in brilliant sunshine, and the peaks of the
Sierra Nevada shone white and cold against the sky.
On reaching the hotel, I found a little man, nicknamed Napoleon, awaiting
me. He was desirous to furnish me with horses, and, having a prophetic
knowledge of the weather, promised me a bright sky as far as Gibraltar. "I
furnish all the señors," said he; "they know me, and never complain of me
or my horses;" but, by way of security, on making the bargain, I
threatened to put up a card in the hotel at Gibraltar, warning all
travellers against him, in case I was not satisfied. My contract was for
two horses and a guide, who were to be ready at sunrise the next morning.
Napoleon was as good as his word; and before I had finished an early cup
of chocolate, there was a little black Andalusian stallion awaiting me.
The _alforjas_, or saddle-bags, of the guide were strengthened by a stock
of cold provisions, the leathern bota hanging beside it was filled with
ripe Granada wine; and now behold me ambling over the Vega, accoutred in a
gay Andalusian jacket, a sash woven by Mateo Ximenes, and one of those
bandboxy sombreros, which I at first thought so ungainly, but now consider
quite picturesque and elegant.
My guide, a short but sinewy and well-knit son of the mountains, named
José Garcia, set off at a canter down the banks of the Darro. "Don't ride
so fast!" cried Napoleon, who watched our setting out, from the door of
the fonda; but José was already out of hearing. This guide is a companion
to my liking. Although he is only twenty-seven, he has been for a number
of years a _correo_, or mail-rider, and a guide for travelling parties.
His olive complexion is made still darker by exposure to the sun and wind,
and his coal-black eyes shine with Southern heat and fire. He has one of
those rare mouths which are born with a broad smile in each corner, and
which seem to laugh even in the midst of grief. We had not been two hours
together, before I knew his history from beginning to end. He had already
been married eight years, and his only trouble was a debt of twenty-four
dollars, which the illness of his wife had caused him. This money was
owing to the pawnbroker, who kept his best clothes in pledge until he
could pay it. "Señor," said he, "if I had ten million dollars, I would
rather give them all away than have a sick wife." He had a brother in
Puerto Principe, Cuba, who sent over money enough to pay the rent of the
house, but he found that children were a great expense. "It is most
astonishing," he said, "how much children can eat. From morning till
night, the bread is never out of their mouths."
José has recently been travelling with some Spaniards, one of whom made
him pay two dollars for an umbrella which was lost on the road. This
umbrella is a thorn in his side. At every venta where we stop, the story
is repeated, and he is not sparing of his maledictions. The ghost of that
umbrella is continually raised, and it will be a long time before he can
shut it. "One reason why I like to travel with foreign Señors," said he to
me, "is, that when I lose anything, they never make me pay for it." "For
all that," I answered, "take care you don't lose my umbrella: it cost
three dollars." Since then, nothing can exceed José's attention to that
article. He is at his wit's end how to secure it best. It appears
sometimes before, sometimes behind him, lashed to the saddle with
innumerable cords; now he sticks it into the alforja, now carries it in
his hand, and I verily believe that he sleeps with it in his arms. Every
evening, as he tells his story to the muleteers, around the kitchen fire,
he always winds up by triumphantly appealing to me with: "Well, Señor,
have I lost _your_ umbrella yet?"
Our bargain is that I shall feed him on the way, and as we travel in the
primitive style of the country, we always sit down together to the same
dish. To his supervision, the olla is often indebted for an additional
flavor, and no "thorough-bred" gentleman could behave at table with more
ease and propriety. He is as moderate as a Bedouin in his wants, and never
touches the burning aguardiente which the muleteers are accustomed to
drink. I asked him the reason of this. "I drink wine. Senor," he replied,
"because that, you know, is like meat and bread; but I have made a vow
never to drink aguardiente again. Two of us got drunk on it, four or five
years ago, in Granada, and we quarrelled. My comrade drew his knife and
stabbed me here, in the left shoulder. I was furious and cut him across
the breast. We both went to the hospital--I for three months and he for
six--and he died in a few days after getting out. It cost my poor father
many a thousand reals; and when I was able to go to work, I vowed before
the Virgin that I would never touch aguardiente again."
For the first league, our road lay over the rich Vega of Granada, but
gradually became wilder and more waste. Passing the long, desert ridge,
known as the "Last Sigh of the Moor," we struck across a region of low
hills. The road was very deep, from the recent rains, and studded, at
short intervals, by rude crosses, erected to persons who had been
murdered. José took a grim delight in giving me the history of each.
Beyond the village of Lamala, which lies with its salt-pans in a basin of
the hills, we ascended the mountain ridge which forms the southern
boundary of the Vega. Granada, nearly twenty miles distant, was still
visible. The Alhambra was dwindled to a speck, and I took my last view of
it and the magnificent landscape which lies spread out before it. The
Sierra Nevada, rising to the height of 13,000 feet above the sea, was
perfectly free from clouds, and the whole range was visible at one
glance. All its chasms were filled with snow, and for nearly half-way down
its sides there was not a speck of any other color. Its summits were
almost wholly devoid of shadow, and their notched and jagged outlines
rested flatly against the sky, like ivory inlaid on a table of
lapis-lazuli.
From these waste hills, we descended into the valley of Cacia, whose
poplar-fringed river had been so swollen by the rains that the _correo_
from Malaga had only succeeded in passing it that morning. We forded it
without accident, and, crossing a loftier and bleaker range, came down
into the valley of the Marchan. High on a cliff over the stream stood
Alhama, my resting-place for the night. The natural warm baths, on account
of which this spot was so beloved by the Moors, are still resorted to in
the summer. They lie in the bosom of a deep and rugged gorge, half a mile
further down the river. The town occupies the crest of a narrow
promontory, bounded, on all sides but one, by tremendous precipices. It is
one of the most picturesque spots imaginable, and reminded me--to continue
the comparison between Syria and Andalusia, which I find so striking--of
the gorge of the Barrada, near Damascus. Alhama is now a poor,
insignificant town, only visited by artists and muleteers. The population
wear long brown cloaks and slouched hats, like the natives of La Mancha.
I found tolerable quarters in a house on the plaza, and took the remaining
hour of daylight to view the town. The people looked at me with curiosity,
and some boys, walking on the edge of the _tajo_, or precipice, threw over
stones that I might see how deep it was. The rock, in some places, quite
overhung the bed of the Marchan, which half-girdles its base. The close
scrutiny to which I was subjected by the crowd in the plaza called to mind
all I had heard of Spanish spies and robbers. At the venta, I was well
treated, but received such an exorbitant bill in the morning that I was
ready to exclaim, with King Boabdil, "Woe is me, Alhama!" On comparing
notes with José, I found that he had been obliged to pay, in addition, for
what he received--a discovery which so exasperated that worthy that he
folded his hands, bowed his head, made three kisses in the air, and cried
out: "I swear before the Virgin that I will never again take a traveller
to that inn."
We left Alhama an hour before daybreak, for we had a rough journey of more
than forty miles before us. The bridle-path was barely visible in the
darkness, but we continued ascending to a height of probably 5,000 feet
above the sea, and thus met the sunrise half-way. Crossing the _llano_ of
Ace faraya, we reached a tremendous natural portal in the mountains, from
whence, as from a door, we looked down on all the country lying between us
and the sea. The valley of the River Vélez, winding among the hills,
pointed out the course of our road. On the left towered over us the barren
Sierra Tejeda, an isolated group of peaks, about 8,000 feet in height. For
miles, the road was a rocky ladder, which we scrambled down on foot,
leading our horses. The vegetation gradually became of a warmer and more
luxuriant cast; the southern slopes were planted with the vine that
produces the famous Malaga raisins, and the orange groves in the sunny
depths of the valleys were as yellow as autumnal beeches, with their
enormous loads of fruit. As the bells of Vélez Malaga were ringing noon,
we emerged from the mountains, near the mouth of the river, and rode into
the town to breakfast.
We halted at a queer old inn, more like a Turkish khan than a Christian
hostlery. It was kept by a fat landlady, who made us an olla of kid and
garlic, which, with some coarse bread and the red Malaga wine, soon took
off the sharp edge of our mountain appetites. While I was washing my hands
at a well in the court-yard, the _mozo_ noticed the pilgrim-seal of
Jerusalem, which is stamped indelibly on my left arm. His admiration and
reverence were so great that he called the fat landlady, who, on learning
that it had been made in Jerusalem, and that I had visited the Holy
Sepulchre, summoned her children to see it. "Here, my children!" she said;
"cross yourselves, kneel down, and kiss this holy seal; for, as long as
you live, you may never see the like of it again." Thus I, a Protestant
heretic, became a Catholic shrine. The children knelt and kissed my arm
with touching simplicity; and the seal will henceforth be more sacred to
me than ever.
The remaining twenty miles or more of the road to Malaga follow the line
of the coast, passing headlands crowned by the _atalayas_, or
watch-towers, of the Moors. It is a new road, and practicable for
carriages, so that, for Spain, it may be considered an important
achievement. The late rains have, however, already undermined it in a
number of places. Here, as among the mountains, we met crowds of
muleteers, all of whom greeted me with: "_Vaya usted con Dios,
caballero_!"--("May you go with God, cavalier!") By this time, all my
forgotten Spanish had come back again, and a little experience of the
simple ways of the people made me quite at home among them. In almost
every instance, I was treated precisely as a Spaniard would have been,
and less annoyed by the curiosity of the natives than I have been in
Germany, and even America.
We were still two leagues from Malaga, at sunset, The fishermen along the
coast were hauling in their nets, and we soon began to overtake companies
of them, carrying their fish to the city on donkeys. One stout, strapping
fellow, with flesh as hard and yellow as a sturgeon's, was seated sideways
on a very small donkey, between two immense panniers of fish, As he
trotted before us, shouting, and slapping the flanks of the sturdy little
beast, José and I began to laugh, whereupon the fellow broke out into the
following monologue, addressed to the donkey: "Who laughs at this
_burrico_? Who says he's not fine gold from head to foot? What is it that
he can't do? If there was a mountain ever so high, he would gallop over
it. If there was a river ever so deep, he would swim through it If he
could but speak, I might send him to market alone with the fish, and not a
_chavo_ of the money would he spend on the way home. Who says he can't go
as far as that limping horse? Arrrre, burrico! punate--ar-r-r-r-r-e-e!"
We reached Malaga, at last, our horses sorely fagged. At the Fonda de la
Alameda, a new and very elegant hotel, I found a bath and a good dinner,
both welcome things to a tired traveller. The winter of Malaga is like
spring in other lands and on that account it is much visited by invalids,
especially English. It is a lively commercial town of about 80,000
inhabitants, and, if the present scheme of railroad communication with
Madrid is carried out, must continue to increase in size and importance. A
number of manufacturing establishments have lately been started, and in
this department it bids fair to rival Barcelona. The harbor is small, but
good, and the country around rich in all the productions of temperate and
even tropical climates. The city contains little to interest the tourist.
I visited the Cathedral, an immense unfinished mass, without a particle of
architectural taste outwardly, though the interior has a fine effect from
its large dimensions.
At noon to-day we were again in the saddle, and took the road to the Baths
of Caratraca. The tall factory chimneys of Malaga, vomiting forth streams
of black smoke, marred the serenity of the sky; but the distant view of
the city is very fine. The broad Vega, watered by the Guadaljorce, is rich
and well cultivated, and now rejoices in the verdure of spring. The
meadows are clothed with fresh grass, butter-cups and daisies are in
blossom, and larks sing in the olive-trees. Now and then, we passed a
_casa del campo_, with its front half buried in orange-trees, over which
towered two or three sentinel palms. After two leagues of this delightful
travel, the country became more hilly, and the groups of mountains which
inclosed us assumed the most picturesque and enchanting forms. The soft
haze in which the distant peaks were bathed, the lovely violet shadows
filling up their chasms and gorges, and the fresh meadows, vineyards, and
olive groves below, made the landscape one of the most beautiful I have
seen in Spain.
As we were trotting along through the palmetto thickets, José asked me if
I should not like to hear an Andalusian story. "Nothing would please me
better," I replied. "Ride close beside me, then," said he, "that you may
understand every word of it." I complied, and he gave me the following,
just as I repeat it: "There was once a very rich man, who had thousands of
cattle in the Sierra Nevada, and hundreds of houses in the city. Well:
this man put a plate, with his name on it, on the door of the great house
in which he lived, and the name was this: Don Pedro, without Fear and
without Care. Now, when the King was making his _paséo_, he happened to
ride by this house in his carriage, and saw the plate on the door. 'Read
me the name on that plate!' said he to his officer. Then the officer read
the name: Don Pedro, without Fear and without Care. 'I will see whether
Don Pedro is without Fear and without Care,' said the King. The next day
came a messenger to the house, and, when he saw Don Pedro, said he to him;
'Don Pedro, without Fear and without Care, the King wants you!' 'What does
the King want with me?' said Don Pedro. 'He sends you four questions which
you must answer within four days, or he will have you shot; and the
questions are:--How can the Sierra Nevada be cleared of snow? How can the
sea be made smaller? How many arrobas does the moon weigh? And: How many
leagues from here to the Land of Heavenly Glory?' Then Don Pedro without
Fear and without Care began to sweat from fright, and knew not what he
should do. He called some of his arrieros and loaded twenty mules with
money, and went up into the Sierra Nevada, where his herdsmen tended his
flocks; for, as I said, he had many thousand cattle. 'God keep you, my
master!' said the chief herdsman, who was young, and _buen mozo_, and had
as good a head as ever was set on two shoulders. '_Anda, hombre!_ said Don
Pedro, 'I am a dead man;' and so he told the herdsman all that the King
had said. 'Oh, is that all?' said the knowing mozo. 'I can get you out of
the scrape. Let me go and answer the questions in your name, my master!'
'Ah, you fool! what can you do?' said Don Pedro without Fear and without
Care, throwing himself upon the earth, and ready to die.
"But, nevertheless, the herdsman dressed himself up as a _caballero_, went
down to the city, and, on the fourth day, presented himself at the King's
palace. 'What do you want?' said the officers. 'I am Don Pedro without
Fear and without Care, come to answer the questions which the King sent to
me.' 'Well,' said the King, when he was brought before him, 'let me hear
your answers, or I will have you shot this day.' 'Your Majesty,' said the
herdsman, 'I think I can do it. If you were to set a million of children
to playing among the snow of the Sierra Nevada, they would soon clear it
all away; and if you were to dig a ditch as wide and as deep as all Spain,
you would make the sea that much smaller,' 'But,' said the King, 'that
makes only two questions; there are two more yet,' 'I think I can answer
those, also,' said the herdsman: 'the moon contains four quarters, and
therefore weighs only one arroba; and as for the last question, it is not
even a single league to the Land of Heavenly Glory--for, if your Majesty
were to die after breakfast, you would get there before you had an
appetite for dinner,' 'Well done! said the King; and he then made him
Count, and Marquez, and I don't know how many other titles. In the
meantime, Don Pedro without Fear and without Care had died of his fright;
and, as he left no family, the herdsman took possession of all his
estates, and, until the day of his death, was called Don Pedro without
Fear and without Care."
I write, sitting by the grated window of this lonely inn, looking out on
the meadows of the Guadaljorce. The chain of mountains which rises to the
west of Malaga is purpled by the light of the setting sun, and the houses
and Castle of Carlama hang on its side, in full view. Further to the
right, I see the smoke of Monda, where one of the greatest battles of
antiquity was fought--that which overthrew the sons of Pompey, and gave
the Roman Empire to Cæsar. The mozo of the venta is busy, preparing my kid
and rice, and José is at his elbow, gently suggesting ingredients which
may give the dish a richer flavor. The landscape is softened by the hush
of coming evening; a few birds are still twittering among the bushes, and
the half-moon grows whiter and clearer in mid-heaven. The people about me
are humble, but appear honest and peaceful, and nothing indicates that I
am in the wild _Serrania de Ronda_, the country of robbers,
contrabandistas, and assassins.