Skippers of Padron—Caldas de los Reyes—Pontevedra—The Notary
Public—Insane Barber—An Introduction—Gallegan Language—Afternoon
Ride—Vigo—The Stranger—Jews of the Desert—Bay of Vigo—Sudden
Interruption—The Governor.
After a stay of about a fortnight at Saint James, we again mounted our
horses and proceeded in the direction of Vigo. As we did not leave Saint
James till late in the afternoon, we travelled that day no farther than
Padron, a distance of only three leagues. This place is a small port,
situate at the extremity of a firth which communicates with the sea. It
is called, for brevity’s sake, Padron, but its proper appellation is
_Villa del Padron_, or the town of the patron saint; it having been,
according to the legend, the principal residence of Saint James during
his stay in Galicia. By the Romans it was termed Iria Flavia. It is a
flourishing little town, and carries on rather an extensive commerce,
some of its tiny barks occasionally finding their way across the Bay of
Biscay, and even so far as the Thames and London.
There is a curious anecdote connected with the skippers of Padron, which
can scarcely be considered as out of place here, as it relates to the
circulation of the Scriptures. I was one day in the shop of my friend
the bookseller at Saint James, when a stout good-humoured-looking priest
entered. He took up one of my Testaments, and forthwith burst into a
violent fit of laughter. “What is the matter?” demanded the bookseller.
“The sight of this book reminds me of a circumstance,” replied the other.
“About twenty years ago, when the English first took it into their heads
to be very zealous in converting us Spaniards to their own way of
thinking, they distributed a great number of books of this kind amongst
the Spaniards who chanced to be in London; some of them fell into the
hands of certain skippers of Padron, and these good folk, on their return
to Galicia, were observed to have become on a sudden exceedingly
opinionated and fond of dispute. It was scarcely possible to make an
assertion in their hearing without receiving a flat contradiction,
especially when religious subjects were brought on the carpet. {393} ‘It
is false,’ they would say; ‘Saint Paul, in such a chapter and in such a
verse, says exactly the contrary.’ ‘What can you know concerning what
Saint Paul or any other saint has written?’ the priests would ask them.
‘Much more than you think,’ they replied; ‘we are no longer to be kept in
darkness and ignorance respecting these matters:’ and then they would
produce their books and read paragraphs, making such comments that every
person was scandalized; they cared nothing about the Pope, and even spoke
with irreverence of the bones of Saint James. However, the matter was
soon bruited about, and a commission was despatched from our see to
collect the books and burn them. This was effected, and the skippers
were either punished or reprimanded, since which I have heard nothing
more of them. I could not forbear laughing when I saw these books; they
instantly brought to my mind the skippers of Padron and their religious
disputations.”
Our next day’s journey brought us to Pontevedra. As there was no talk of
robbers in these parts, we travelled without any escort and alone. The
road was beautiful and picturesque, though somewhat solitary, especially
after we had left behind us the small town of Caldas. There is more than
one place of this name in Spain: the one of which I am speaking is
distinguished from the rest by being called Caldas de los Reyes, {394} or
the warm baths of the kings. It will not be amiss to observe that the
Spanish _Caldas_ is synonymous with the Moorish _Alhama_, a word of
frequent occurrence both in Spanish and African topography. Caldas
seemed by no means undeserving of its name. It stands on a confluence of
springs, and the place when we arrived was crowded with people who had
come to enjoy the benefit of the waters. In the course of my travels I
have observed that wherever warm springs are found, vestiges of volcanoes
are sure to be nigh; the smooth black precipice, the divided mountain, or
huge rocks standing by themselves on the plain or on the hillside, as if
Titans had been playing at bowls. This last feature occurs near Caldas
de los Reyes, the side of the mountain which overhangs it in the
direction of the south being covered with immense granite stones,
apparently at some ancient period eructed from the bowels of the earth.
From Caldas to Pontevedra the route was hilly and fatiguing, the heat was
intense, and those clouds of flies, which constitute one of the pests of
Galicia, annoyed our horses to such a degree that we were obliged to cut
down branches from the trees to protect their heads and necks from the
tormenting stings of these bloodthirsty insects. Whilst travelling in
Galicia at this period of the year on horseback, it is always advisable
to carry a fine net for the protection of the animal, a sure and
commodious means of defence, which appears, however, to be utterly
unknown in Galicia, where, perhaps, it is more wanted than in any other
part of the world.
Pontevedra, upon the whole, is certainly entitled to the appellation of a
magnificent town, some of its public edifices, especially the convents,
being such as are nowhere to be found but in Spain and Italy. It is
surrounded by a wall of hewn stone, and stands at the end of a creek into
which the river Levroz disembogues. It is said to have been founded by a
colony of Greeks, whose captain was no less a personage than Teucer the
Telamonian. It was in former times a place of considerable commerce; and
near its port are to be seen the ruins of a _farol_, or lighthouse, said
to be of great antiquity. The port, however, is at a considerable
distance from the town, and is shallow and incommodious. The whole
country in the neighbourhood of Pontevedra is inconceivably delicious,
abounding with fruits of every description, especially grapes, which in
the proper season are seen hanging from the _parras_ {395} in luscious
luxuriance. An old Andalusian author has said that it produces as many
orange and citron trees as the neighbourhood of Cordova. Its oranges
are, however, by no means good, and cannot compete with those of
Andalusia. The Pontevedrans boast that their land produces two crops
every year, and that whilst they are gathering in one they may be seen
ploughing and sowing another. They may well be proud of their country,
which is certainly a highly favoured spot.
The town itself is in a state of great decay, and, notwithstanding the
magnificence of its public edifices, we found more than the usual amount
of Galician filth and misery. The _posada_ was one of the most wretched
description, and to mend the matter, the hostess was a most intolerable
scold and shrew. Antonio having found fault with the quality of some
provision which she produced, she cursed him most immoderately in the
country language, which was the only one she spoke, and threatened, if he
attempted to breed any disturbance in her house, to turn the horses,
himself, and his master forthwith out of doors. Socrates himself,
however, could not have conducted himself on this occasion with greater
forbearance than Antonio, who shrugged his shoulders, muttered something
in Greek, and then was silent.
“Where does the notary public live?” I demanded. Now the notary public
vended books, and to this personage I was recommended by my friend at
Saint James. A boy conducted me to the house of _Señor_ Garcia, for such
was his name. I found him a brisk, active, talkative little man of
forty. He undertook with great alacrity the sale of my Testaments, and
in a twinkling sold two to a client who was waiting in the office, and
appeared to be from the country. He was an enthusiastic patriot, but of
course in a local sense, for he cared for no other country than
Pontevedra.
“Those fellows of Vigo,” said he, “say their town is a better one than
ours, and that it is more deserving to be the capital of this part of
Galicia. Did you ever hear such folly? I tell you what, friend, I
should not care if Vigo were burnt, and all the fools and rascals within
it. Would you ever think of comparing Vigo with Pontevedra?”
“I don’t know,” I replied; “I have never been at Vigo, but I have heard
say that the bay of Vigo is the finest in the world.”
“Bay! my good sir; bay. Yes, the rascals have a bay, and it is that bay
of theirs which has robbed us of all our commerce. But what needs the
capital of a district with a bay? It is public edifices that it wants,
where the provincial deputies can meet to transact their business; now,
so far from there being a commodious public edifice, there is not a
decent house in all Vigo. Bay! yes, they have a bay, but have they water
fit to drink? Have they a fountain? Yes, they have, and the water is so
brackish that it would burst the stomach of a horse. I hope, my dear
sir, that you have not come all this distance to take the part of such a
gang of pirates as those of Vigo?”
“I am not come to take their part,” I replied; “indeed, I was not aware
that they wanted my assistance in this dispute. I am merely carrying to
them the New Testament, of which they evidently stand in much need, if
they are such knaves and scoundrels as you represent them.”
“Represent them, my dear sir! Does not the matter speak for itself? Do
they not say that their town is better than ours, more fit to be the
capital of a district? _que disparate_! _que briboneria_!” {397}
“Is there a bookseller’s shop at Vigo?” I inquired.
“There was one,” he replied, “kept by an insane barber. I am glad, for
your sake, that it is broken up, and the fellow vanished. He would have
played you one of two tricks; he would either have cut your throat with
his razor, under pretence of shaving you, or have taken your books and
never have accounted to you for the proceeds. Bay! I never could see
what right such an owl’s nest as Vigo has to a bay!”
No person could exhibit greater kindness to another than did the notary
public to myself, as soon as I had convinced him that I had no intention
of siding with the men of Vigo against Pontevedra. It was now six
o’clock in the evening, and he forthwith conducted me to a confectioner’s
shop, where he treated me with an iced cream and a small cup of
chocolate. From hence we walked about the city, the notary showing the
various edifices, especially the Convent of the Jesuits. “See that
front,” said he; “what do you think of it?”
I expressed to him the admiration which I really felt, and by so doing
entirely won the good notary’s heart. “I suppose there is nothing like
that at Vigo?” said I. He looked at me for a moment, winked, gave a
short triumphant chuckle, and then proceeded on his way, walking at a
tremendous rate. The _Señor_ Garcia was dressed in all respects as an
English notary might be; he wore a white hat, brown frock coat, drab
breeches buttoned at the knees, white stockings, and well blacked shoes.
But I never saw an English notary walk so fast: it could scarcely be
called walking; it seemed more like a succession of galvanic leaps and
bounds. I found it impossible to keep up with him. “Where are you
conducting me?” I at last demanded, quite breathless.
“To the house of the cleverest man in Spain,” he replied, “to whom I
intend to introduce you; for you must not think that Pontevedra has
nothing to boast of but its splendid edifices and its beautiful country;
it produces more illustrious minds than any other town in Spain. Did you
ever hear of the grand Tamerlane?”
“Oh yes,” said I; “but he did not come from Pontevedra or its
neighbourhood: he came from the steppes of Tartary, near the river Oxus.”
“I know he did,” replied the notary, “but what I mean to say is, that
when Enrique the Third wanted an ambassador to send to that African, the
only man he could find suited to the enterprise was a knight of
Pontevedra, Don --- by name. {399} Let the men of Vigo contradict that
fact if they can.”
We entered a large portal and ascended a splendid staircase, at the top
of which the notary knocked at a small door. “Who is the gentleman to
whom you are about to introduce me?” demanded I.
“It is the Advocate ---,” replied Garcia; “he is the cleverest man in
Spain, and understands all languages and sciences.”
We were admitted by a respectable-looking female, to all appearance a
housekeeper, who, on being questioned, informed us that the Advocate was
at home, and forthwith conducted us to an immense room, or rather
library, the walls being covered with books, except in two or three
places where hung some fine pictures of the ancient Spanish school.
There was a rich mellow light in the apartment, streaming through a
window of stained glass, which looked to the west. Behind the table sat
the Advocate, on whom I looked with no little interest. His forehead was
high and wrinkled, and there was much gravity on his features, which were
quite Spanish. He was dressed in a long robe, and might be about sixty.
He sat reading behind a large table, and on our entrance half raised
himself, and bowed slightly.
The notary public saluted him most profoundly, and, in an under-voice,
hoped that he might be permitted to introduce a friend of his, an English
gentleman, who was travelling through Galicia.
“I am very glad to see him,” said the Advocate, “but I hope he speaks
Castilian, else we can have but little communication; for, although I can
read both French and Latin, I cannot speak them.”
“He speaks, sir, almost as good Spanish,” said the notary, “as a native
of Pontevedra.”
“The natives of Pontevedra,” I replied, “appear to be better versed in
Gallegan than in Castilian, for the greater part of the conversation
which I hear in the streets is carried on in the former dialect.”
“The last gentleman whom my friend Garcia introduced to me,” said the
Advocate, “was a Portuguese, who spoke little or no Spanish. It is said
that the Gallegan and Portuguese are very similar, but when we attempted
to converse in the two languages, we found it impossible. I understood
little of what he said, whilst my Gallegan was quite unintelligible to
him. Can you understand our country dialect?” he continued.
“Very little of it,” I replied; “which I believe chiefly proceeds from
the peculiar accent and uncouth enunciation of the Gallegans, for their
language is certainly almost entirely composed of Spanish and Portuguese
words.”
“So you are an Englishman,” said the Advocate. “Your countrymen have
committed much damage in times past in these regions, if we may trust our
histories.”
“Yes,” said I, “they sank your galleons, and burnt your finest men-of-war
in Vigo Bay, and, under old Cobham, {401a} levied a contribution of forty
thousand pounds sterling on this very town of Pontevedra.”
“Any foreign power,” interrupted the notary public, “has a clear right to
attack Vigo, but I cannot conceive what plea your countrymen could urge
for distressing Pontevedra, which is a respectable town, and could never
have offended them.”
“_Señor_ Cavalier,” said the Advocate, “I will show you my library. Here
is a curious work, a collection of poems, written mostly in Gallegan, by
the curate of Fruime. {401b} He is our national poet, and we are very
proud of him.”
We stopped upwards of an hour with the Advocate, whose conversation, if
it did not convince me that he was the cleverest man in Spain, was, upon
the whole, highly interesting, and who certainly possessed an extensive
store of general information, though he was by no means the profound
philologist which the notary had represented him to be.
When I was about to depart from Pontevedra in the afternoon of the next
day, the _Señor_ Garcia stood by the side of my horse, and, having
embraced me, thrust a small pamphlet into my hand. “This book,” said he,
“contains a description of Pontevedra. Wherever you go, speak well of
Pontevedra.” I nodded. “Stay,” said he, “my dear friend, I have heard
of your society, and will do my best to further its views. I am quite
disinterested, but if at any future time you should have an opportunity
of speaking in print of _Señor_ Garcia, the notary public of
Pontevedra—you understand me—I wish you would do so.”
“I will,” said I.
It was a pleasant afternoon’s ride from Pontevedra to Vigo, the distance
being only four leagues. As we approached the latter town, the country
became exceedingly mountainous, though scarcely anything could exceed the
beauty of the surrounding scenery. The sides of the hills were for the
most part clothed with luxuriant forests, even to the very summits,
though occasionally a flinty and naked peak would present itself, rising
to the clouds. As the evening came on the route along which we advanced
became very gloomy, the hills and forests enwrapping it in deep shade.
It appeared, however, to be well frequented: numerous cars were creaking
along it, and both horsemen and pedestrians were continually passing us.
The villages were frequent. Vines, supported on _parras_, were growing,
if possible, in still greater abundance than in the neighbourhood of
Pontevedra. Life and activity seemed to pervade everything. The hum of
insects, the cheerful bark of dogs, the rude songs of Galicia, were
blended together in pleasant symphony. So delicious was my ride that I
almost regretted when we entered the gate of Vigo.
The town occupies the lower part of a lofty hill, which, as it ascends,
becomes extremely steep and precipitous, and the top of which is crowned
with a strong fort or castle. It is a small compact place, surrounded
with low walls; the streets are narrow, steep, and winding, and in the
middle of the town is a small square.
There is rather an extensive _faubourg_ extending along the shore of the
bay. We found an excellent _posada_, kept by a man and woman from the
Basque provinces, who were both civil and intelligent. The town seemed
to be crowded, and resounded with noise and merriment. The people were
making a wretched attempt at an illumination, in consequence of some
victory lately gained, or pretended to have been gained, over the forces
of the Pretender. Military uniforms were glancing about in every
direction. To increase the bustle, a troop of Portuguese players had
lately arrived from Oporto, and their first representation was to take
place this evening. “Is the play to be performed in Spanish?” I
demanded. “No,” was the reply; “and on that account every person is so
eager to go, which would not be the case if it were in a language which
they could understand.”
On the morning of the next day I was seated at breakfast in a large
apartment which looked out upon the _Plaza Mayor_, or great square of the
good town of Vigo. The sun was shining very brilliantly, and all around
looked lively and gay. Presently a stranger entered, and, bowing
profoundly, stationed himself at the window, where he remained a
considerable time in silence. He was a man of very remarkable
appearance, of about thirty-five. His features were of perfect symmetry,
and I may almost say of perfect beauty. His hair was the darkest I had
ever seen, glossy and shining; his eyes large, black, and melancholy; but
that which most struck me was his complexion. It might be called olive,
it is true, but it was a livid olive. He was dressed in the very first
style of French fashion. Around his neck was a massive gold chain, while
upon his fingers were large rings, in one of which was set a magnificent
ruby. Who can that man be? thought I—Spaniard or Portuguese; perhaps a
Creole. I asked him an indifferent question in Spanish, to which he
forthwith replied in that language, but his accent convinced me that he
was neither Spaniard nor Portuguese.
“I presume I am speaking to an Englishman, sir,” said he, in as good
English as it was possible for one not an Englishman to speak.
_Myself_.—You know me to be an Englishman; but I should find some
difficulty in guessing to what country you belong.
_Stranger_.—May I take a seat?
_Myself_.—A singular question. Have you not as much right to sit in the
public apartment of an inn as myself?
_Stranger_.—I am not certain of that. The people here are not in general
very gratified at seeing me seated by their side.
_Myself_.—Perhaps owing to your political opinions, or to some crime
which it may have been your misfortune to commit.
_Stranger_.—I have no political opinions, and I am not aware that I ever
committed any particular crime. I am hated for my country and my
religion.
_Myself_.—Perhaps I am speaking to a Protestant, like myself?
_Stranger_.—I am no Protestant. If I were, they would be cautious here
of showing their dislike, for I should then have a government and a
consul to protect me. I am a Jew—a Barbary Jew, a subject of
Abderrahman.
_Myself_.—If that be the case, you can scarcely complain of being looked
upon with dislike in this country, since in Barbary the Jews are slaves.
_Stranger_.—In most parts, I grant you, but not where I was born, which
was far up the country, near the deserts. There the Jews are free, and
are feared, and are as valiant men as the Moslems themselves; as able to
tame the steed, or to fire the gun. The Jews of our tribe are not
slaves, and I like not to be treated as a slave either by Christian or
Moor.
_Myself_.—Your history must be a curious one; I would fain hear it.
_Stranger_.—My history I shall tell to no one. I have travelled much, I
have been in commerce, and have thriven. I am at present established in
Portugal, but I love not the people of Catholic countries, and least of
all these of Spain. I have lately experienced the most shameful
injustice in the _Aduana_ of this town, and when I complained, they
laughed at me, and called me Jew. Wherever he turns, the Jew is reviled,
save in your country, and on that account my blood always warms when I
see an Englishman. You are a stranger here. Can I do aught for you?
You may command me.
_Myself_.—I thank you heartily, but I am in need of no assistance.
_Stranger_.—Have you any bills? I will accept them if you have.
_Myself_.—I have no need of assistance; but you may do me a favour by
accepting of a book.
_Stranger_.—I will receive it with thanks. I know what it is. What a
singular people! The same dress, the same look, the same book. Pelham
gave me one in Egypt. Farewell! Your Jesus was a good man, perhaps a
prophet; but . . . farewell!
Well may the people of Pontevedra envy the natives of Vigo their bay,
with which, in many respects, none other in the world can compare. On
every side it is defended by steep and sublime hills, save on the part of
the west, where is the outlet to the Atlantic; but in the midst of this
outlet, up towers a huge rocky wall, or island, which breaks the swell,
and prevents the billows of the western sea from pouring through in full
violence. On either side of this island is a passage, so broad that
navies might pass through at all times in safety. The bay itself is
oblong, running far into the land, and so capacious that a thousand sail
of the line might ride in it uncrowded. The waters are dark, still, and
deep, without quicksands or shallows, so that the proudest man-of-war
might lie within a stone’s throw of the town ramparts without any fear of
injuring her keel.
Of many a strange event, and of many a mighty preparation, has this bay
been the scene. It was here that the bulky dragons of the grand Armada
were mustered; and it was from hence that, fraught with the pomp, power,
and terror of Old Spain, the monster fleet, spreading its enormous sails
to the wind, and bent on the ruin of the Lutheran isle, proudly
steered;—that fleet, to build and man which half the forests of Galicia
had been felled, and all the mariners impressed from the thousand bays
and creeks of the stern Cantabrian shore. It was here that the united
flags of Holland and England triumphed over the pride of Spain and
France; when the burning timbers of exploded war-ships soared above the
tops of the Gallegan hills, and blazing galleons sank with their
treasure-chests whilst drifting in the direction of Sampayo. It was on
the shores of this bay that the English guards first emptied Spanish
_bodegas_, whilst the bombs of Cobham were crushing the roofs of the
castle of Castro, and the _vecinos_ of Pontevedra buried their doubloons
in cellars, and flying posts were conveying to Lugo and Orense the news
of the heretic invasion and the disaster of Vigo. All these events
occurred to my mind as I stood far up the hill, at a short distance from
the fort, surveying the bay.
“What are you doing there, Cavalier?” roared several voices. “Stay,
_Carracho_! if you attempt to run we will shoot you!” I looked round and
saw three or four fellows in dirty uniforms, to all appearance soldiers,
just above me, on a winding path, which led up the hill. Their muskets
were pointed at me. “What am I doing? Nothing, as you see,” said I,
“save looking at the bay; and as for running, this is by no means ground
for a course.” “You are our prisoner,” said they, “and you must come
with us to the fort.” “I was just thinking of going there,” I replied,
“before you thus kindly invited me. The fort is the very spot I was
desirous of seeing.” I thereupon climbed up to the place where they
stood, when they instantly surrounded me, and with this escort I was
marched into the fort, which might have been a strong place in its time,
but was now rather ruinous. “You are suspected of being a spy,” said the
corporal, who walked in front. “Indeed?” said I. “Yes,” replied the
corporal, “and several spies have lately been taken and shot.”
Upon one of the parapets of the fort stood a young man, dressed as a
subaltern officer, and to this personage I was introduced. “We have been
watching you this half-hour,” said he, “as you were taking observations.”
“Then you gave yourselves much useless trouble,” said I. “I am an
Englishman, and was merely looking at the bay. Have the kindness now to
show me the fort.” . . .
After some conversation, he said, “I wish to be civil to people of your
nation; you may therefore consider yourself at liberty.” I bowed, made
my exit, and proceeded down the hill. Just before I entered the town,
however, the corporal, who had followed me unperceived, tapped me on the
shoulder. “You must go with me to the governor,” said he. “With all my
heart,” I replied. The governor was shaving when we were shown up to
him. He was in his shirt-sleeves, and held a razor in his hand. He
looked very ill-natured, which was perhaps owing to his being thus
interrupted in his toilet. He asked me two or three questions, and on
learning that I had a passport, and was the bearer of a letter to the
English consul, he told me that I was at liberty to depart. So I bowed
to the governor of the town, as I had done to the governor of the fort,
and making my exit, proceeded to my inn.
At Vigo I accomplished but little in the way of distribution, and, after
a sojourn of a few days, I returned in the direction of Saint James.
APPENDIX.
THE JEWS IN LISBON.
_Chap. v. p._ 67.
In the early editions this chapter ended as follows:—
I found them a vile, infamous rabble, about two hundred in number. With
a few exceptions, they consist of _escapados_ from the Barbary shore,
from Tetuan, from Tangier, but principally from Mogadore; fellows who
have fled to a foreign land from the punishment due to their misdeeds.
Their manner of life in Lisbon is worthy of such a goodly assemblage of
_amis réunis_. The generality of them pretend to work in gold and
silver, and keep small peddling shops; they, however, principally depend
for their livelihood on an extensive traffic in stolen goods which they
carry on. It is said that there is honour among thieves, but this is
certainly not the case with the Jews of Lisbon, for they are so greedy
and avaricious, that they are constantly quarrelling about their
ill-gotten gain, the result being that they frequently ruin each other.
Their mutual jealousy is truly extraordinary. If one, by cheating and
roguery, gains a _cruzado_ in the presence of another, the latter
instantly says, “I cry halves,” and if the first refuse he is instantly
threatened with an information. The manner in which they cheat each
other has, with all its infamy, occasionally something extremely droll
and ludicrous. I was one day in the shop of a _Swiri_, or Jew of
Mogadore, when a Jew from Gibraltar entered, with a Portuguese female,
who held in her hand a mantle, richly embroidered with gold.
_Gibraltar Jew_ (speaking in broken Arabic).—Good day, O _Swiri_; God has
favoured me this day; here is a bargain by which we shall both gain. I
have bought this mantle of the woman almost for nothing, for it is
stolen; but I am poor, as you know, I have not a _cruzado_; pay her
therefore the price, that we may then forthwith sell the mantle and
divide the gain.
_Swiri_.—Willingly, brother of Gibraltar; I will pay the woman for the
mantle; it does not appear a bad one.
Thereupon he flung two _cruzados_ to the woman, who forthwith left the
shop.
_Gibraltar Jew_.—Thanks, brother _Swiri_; this is very kind of you. Now
let us go and sell the mantle, the gold alone is well worth a _moidore_.
But I am poor, and have nothing to eat; give me, therefore, the half of
that sum and keep the mantle; I shall be content.
_Swiri_.—May Allah blot out your name, you thief! What mean you by
asking me for money? I bought the mantle of the woman and paid for it.
I know nothing of you. Go out of my doors, dog of a Nazarene; if not, I
will pay you with a kick.
The dispute was referred to one of the _sabios_, or priests; but the
_sabio_, who was also from Mogadore, at once took the part of the
_Swiri_, and decided that the other should have nothing. Whereupon the
Gibraltar Jew cursed the _sabio_, his father, mother, and all his family.
The _sabio_ replied, “I put you in _nduis_,”—a kind of purgatory or hell.
“I put you in seven _nduis_,” retorted the incensed Jew, over whom,
however, superstitious fear speedily prevailed; he faltered, became pale,
and dropping his voice, retreated, trembling in every limb.
The Jews have two synagogues in Lisbon, both are small; one is, however,
tolerably well furnished, it has its reading-desk, and in the middle
there is a rather handsome chandelier; the other is little better than a
sty, filthy to a degree, without ornament of any kind. The congregation
of this last are thieves to a man; no Jew of the slightest respectability
ever enters it.
How well do superstition and crime go hand in hand! These wretched
beings break the eternal commandments of their Maker without scruple; but
they will not partake of the beast of the uncloven foot, and the fish
which has no scales. They pay no regard to the denunciations of holy
prophets against the children of sin, but they quake at the sound of a
dark cabalistic word pronounced by one perhaps their equal or superior in
villainy; as if God would delegate the exercise of his power to the
workers of iniquity.
I was one day sauntering along the _Caesodré_, when a Jew, with whom I
had previously exchanged a word or two, came up and addressed me.
_Jew_.—The blessing of God upon you, brother; I know you to be a wise and
powerful man, and I have conceived much regard for you; it is on that
account that I wish to put you in the way of gaining much money. Come
with me, and I will conduct you to a place where there are forty chests
of tea. It is a _sereka_, and the thieves are willing to dispose of it
for a trifle; for there is search being made, and they are in much fear.
I can raise one-half of what they demand, do you supply the other, we
will then divide it, each shall go his own way and dispose of his
portion.
_Myself_.—Wherefore, O son of Arbat, do you propose this to me, who am a
stranger? Surely you are mad. Have you not your own people about you
whom you know, and in whom you can confide?
_Jew_.—It is because I know our people here that I do not confide in
them; we are in the _galoot_ of sin. Were I to confide in my brethren
there would be a dispute, and perhaps they would rob me, and few of them
have any money. Were I to apply to the _sabio_ he might consent, but
when I ask for my portion he would put me in _ndui_. You I do not fear;
you are good, and would do me no harm, unless I attempted to deceive you,
and that I dare not do, for I know you are powerful. Come with me,
master, for I wish to gain something, that I may return to Arbat, where I
have children. . . .
Such are Jews in Lisbon.
* * * * *
END OF VOL. I.
* * * * *
* * * * *
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
Footnotes
{0a} “Om Frands Gonzales, og Rodrik Cid,
End siunges i Sierra Murene!”
_Krönike Riim_. By Severin Grundtvig. Copenhagen, 1829.
{0b} See Burke’s _History of Spain_, vol. i. p. 182, and vol. ii. pp.
87–95, 105.
{0c} He reigned July—September, 1506.
{0d} Known as _los fueros_. See Duncan, _The English in Spain_, p. 163.
{0e} Graydon was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, who, finding himself
unemployed at Gibraltar in 1835, undertook the distribution of the
Scriptures, and continued the work until 1840.
{0f} William Harris Rule, a Wesleyan minister, was born at Penryn,
Cornwall, in November, 1802, educated at first for an artist, was called
to the ministry in 1826, and proceeded as a Wesleyan missionary to Malta,
making afterwards many voyages to the West Indies, until he was ordered
to Gibraltar, where he arrived in February, 1832. See Rule, _Mission to
Gibraltar and Spain_ (1844); _Recollections of my Life and Work_ (1886).
{0g} Of Mr. Lyon I can learn nothing of any interest.
{0h} Don Luis de Usoz y Rio was born at Madrid of noble parents in May,
1805. A pupil of the well-known Cardinal Mezzofanti, he was appointed,
while yet a very young man, to the Chair of Hebrew at Valladolid. In
1839 he made the acquaintance in England of Benjamin Wiffen, the Quaker,
so well known in connexion with Protestant literature and the slavery
question in Spain; and after helping Borrow in his endeavour to circulate
the Scriptures, and having accumulated an immense library of religious
books, some of which were bequeathed to Wiffen, some to the British and
Foreign Bible Society, and some to the great library at Madrid, he died
in August, 1865. See the works of Wiffen and Boehmer; Menendez Pelayo,
_Heterodoxos Españoles_, lib. viii. cap. 2; and finally Mayor, _Spain_,
_Portugal_, _and the Bible_ (London, 1892).
{2} Chili in 1810–1818; Paraguay in 1811–1814; La Plata in 1810–1816;
Mexico in 1810–1821; Peru and Bolivia not until 1824.
{3} The Duc de Berri was the second son of the Comte d’Artois, and as
his elder brother, the Duc d’Angoulême, was childless, he was practically
heir to the crown of France, and his assassination in 1820 had a most
disastrous effect upon the royalist fortunes in that country. The son
that was born to his wife some months after his death was the Duc de
Bordeaux, better known in our own times as the Comte de Chambord, “Henri
V.”
{4a} She was proclaimed in 1833; again on attaining her majority in
1843; and was formally deposed in 1868. She still (1895) lives in Paris.
{4b} Queen Christina soon afterwards married her paramour, Ferdinand
Muñoz, created Duke of Rianzares.
{4c} It was a curious coincidence that Don Carlos, Pretender in Spain,
and Dom Miguel, Pretender in Portugal, should have left Lisbon on the
same day in an English ship.
{7a} See Duncan, _The English in Spain_, p. 26.
{8} In the words of an ancient chronicler, “Tuvose por muy cierto, que
le fueron dadas yerbas” (Zurita, _Anales de Aragon_, lib. xviii. cap. 7).
{14a} Villages between Madrid and Toledo.
{1} Mendizabal had become Premier and Minister of Finance in September,
and the new Cortes was opened at Madrid by a speech from the throne on
November 16.
{3a} _Bethlehem_. The church was founded on the spot where Vasco da
Gama embarked for his memorable voyage, July 8, 1497.
{3b} More correctly _Caes do Sodré_, now the _Praça dos Romulares_.
{3c} Sir Charles Napier (1786–1860) defeated and destroyed the Miguelite
squadron off Cape St. Vincent on July 3, 1833.
{5} One of the peculiarities of Lisbon is the number and variety of the
names borne by the same street or square. This noble square, nearly 600
feet long by 500 wide, is, as may be supposed, no longer known by the
name of the detested Inquisition, but is officially designated _Praça do
Commercio_; it is invariably spoken of by the Portuguese inhabitants as
the _Terreiro do Paço_, and by the English as Blackhorse Square, from the
fine equestrian statue of King José I., erected in 1775.
{6a} Henry Fielding, born 1707, died at Lisbon, 1754.
{6b} Dr. Philip Doddridge, born 1702, died at Lisbon, 1751.
{7b} Cintra is an agglomeration of beauties, natural and architectural,
and is full of historic and antiquarian interest. The greater part of
the buildings are Moorish; but, unlike the Alhambra in Spain, it has been
the abode of Christian kings ever since the expulsion of the Moslems in
the twelfth century, and the palace especially is to-day a singular and
most beautiful mixture of Moorish and Christian architecture.
{8a} Tivoli (_Tibur_) is eighteen miles north-east of Rome.
{8b} Born 1554, succeeded to the throne 1557, killed in battle in Africa
in 1578.
{9a} Alcazar-Kebir al-Araish, near Tangier or Larache, in Morocco.
{9b} João or John de Castro, the _Castro forte_ of Camoens, second only
to Vasco da Gama, among the great Portuguese discoverers and warriors of
the sixteenth century, was born in 1500, appointed governor-general of
the Portuguese Indies in 1546, and died in 1548. After a deadly battle
with the Moslems near Goa, in which his son Ferdinand was killed, he
pledged the hairs of the moustache and beard of his dead son to provide
funds, not to defend, but to re-fortify the city of Goa. The money was
cheerfully provided on this slender security, and punctually repaid by
the borrower.
{9c} William Beckford of Fonthill, the author of _Vathek_. His _Quinta
de Montserrat_, with perhaps the most beautiful gardens in Europe, lies
about three miles from the palace at Cintra, and is now in the possession
of Sir Francis Cook, Bart., better known by his Portuguese title of
Visconde de Montserrat.
{11} A version of the entire Scriptures from the Vulgate was published
in twenty-three volumes 12mo at Lisbon, 1781–83 by Dr. Antonio Pereira de
Figueiredo. This was re-edited and published at Lisbon, 1794–1819. An
earlier version was that of Almeida, a Portuguese missionary in Ceylon,
who became a convert to Protestantism at the close of the seventeenth
century. (See note on p. 98.)
{12} If Cintra is the Alhambra of Portugal, Mafra is the Escurial. The
famous convent was, moreover, founded by John V. in fulfilment of a vow.
The building was commenced in 1717, and the church consecrated only in
1730.
{14b} He was killed in June, 1835. (See Introduction.)
{16} _Alem_, “beyond;” _Tejo_, the river Tagus.
{18} “I, who am a smuggler.” The Spanish version, “_Yo que soy_,” etc.,
is more familiar, and more harmonious.
{19} “When the king arrived.”
{25a} So spelt by Borrow, but the correct Portuguese form is _Dom_.
{25b} Rabbits were so numerous in the south of the Peninsula in
Carthaginian and Roman times, that they are even said to have given their
name (_Phœn._ “Pahan”) to Hispania. Strabo certainly speaks of their
number, and of the mode of destroying them with ferrets, and the rabbit
is one of the commonest of the early devices of Spain (see Burke’s
_History of Spain_, chap. ii.).
{28} May 26, 1834.
{29} The ballad of Svend Vonved, translated from the original Danish,
was included by Borrow in his collection of _Romantic Ballads_, a thin
demy 8vo volume of 187 pages—now very rare—published by John Taylor in
1826. The lines there read as follows:—
“A wild swine sat on his shoulders broad,
Upon his bosom a black bear snor’d.”
The original ballad may be found in the _Kjæmpe Viser_, and was
translated into German by Grimm, who expressed the greatest admiration
for the poem. Svend in Danish means “swain” or “youth,” and it is
characteristic of Borrow’s mystification of proper names that he should,
by a quasi-translation and archaic spelling, give the title of the Danish
ballad the appearance of an actual English surname.
{33a} The Spanish _Seo_ = a cathedral.
{33b} _Serra_ is the Portuguese form of the Spanish _Sierra_ = a saw.
{35} The barbarous seaman’s English transliteration of _Setubal_, the
town of Tubal, a word which perpetuates one of the most ancient legends
of Spanish antiquity (see Genesis x. 2, and Burke’s _History of Spain_,
chap. i.).
{38} 1554–1578 (see note on p. 8).
{39} “The Fashion or ordering of the Chapel of the most illustrious and
Christian prince, Henry VI. King of England and France, and lord of
Ireland, described for the most serene prince, Alfonso the illustrious
King of Portugal [Alfonso V., ‘The African’] by his humble servant
William Sav., Dean of the aforesaid chapel.” This was William Saye of
New College, Oxford, who was Proctor of the University in 1441, and
afterwards D.D. and Dean of the Cathedral of St. Paul, and of the Chapel
of Henry VI. (See Gutch, _Appendix to Woods Fasti Oxonienses_, p. 48).
{41} Portuguese _oração_ or _oraçam_—a prayer.
{44} This, the correct Portuguese form, is that generally used in
English, though the Spanish _auto-de-fé_ is often referred to.
{47} _Alecrim_ is usually supposed to be a word of Arab origin. The
Spanish for rosemary is, however, quite different, _romero_. The Goths
and Vandals have, it may be noticed in passing, scarcely enriched the
modern vocabulary of the Peninsula by a single word. (See the Glossary.)
{50} The modern form of “_Hymne Marseillaise_” is less correct. Hymns
of the kind are masculine in French; those that are sung in churches only
are feminine!
{55} Spanish _hidalgo_.
{57} “Surrender, scoundrel, surrender!”
{59a} The Portuguese form.
{59b} The missing word would seem to be “Catholics.” Borrow was fond of
such, apparently meaningless, mystery.
{66} Toreno (1786–1843), a statesman and historian, thrice banished on
account of his liberal opinions, died in exile in Paris. His friend
Martinez de la Rosa (1789–1862), who experienced a somewhat similar fate,
was the author of some dramas and a satire entitled _El Cementerio de
Monco_. See Kennedy, _Modern Poets and Poetry of Spain_, p. 169.
Toreno’s historical works have been translated into French.
{67a} When the Jews were banished from Spain by the Catholic sovereign
in 1492, they were received into Portugal by the more liberal John II.,
on payment of a tax or duty of eight _cruzados_. Armourers and smiths
paid four _cruzados_ only. Before the marriage of his cousin, King
Emmanuel, with the widowed Princess Isabella in 1497, the Jews were
subject to renewed persecution in Portugal by arrangement between
Isabella the Catholic and her son-in-law (see Burke’s _History of Spain_,
chaps, xlvi., xlix.).
{67b} See Appendix to this volume.
{68} A seaport town in North Africa, better known by the name of
Mogadore (see chap. lii.).
{69} The name that may not be spoken; that is, Jehovah or _Yahweh_ (see
Glossary, _sub verb_.).
{70} Strange anecdotes, however, are told, tending to prove that Jews of
the ancient race are yet to be found in Portugal: it is said that they
have been discovered under circumstances the most extraordinary. I am
the more inclined to believe in their existence from certain strange
incidents connected with a certain race, which occurred within the sphere
of my own knowledge, and which will be related further on.—Note by
Borrow.
{75} Portuguese _real_ = one-twentieth of an English penny.
{76} The lines, which Borrow, quoting from memory, has not given quite
accurately, occur in the ballad of “The Cout of Keilder.” They are,
according to the text in the edition of 1858, with “Life by Sir Walter
Scott”—
“The hounds they howled and backward fled,
As struck by Fairy charm” (stan. 16).
John Leyden, M.D., was born in 1775, near Hawick, and died in Java in
1811, after an adventurous and varied life. His ballad of Lord Soulis is
of the same character as that so highly praised by Borrow.
{81} The place of the brooks, or water-courses. Sp. _arroyo_ = brook.
{83} The first Lusitanians of whom we have any record or tradition were
almost certainly Celts.
{85} May you go with God; _i.e._ God be with you; good-bye.
{89} The modern Portuguese _vossem_ or _vossé_ has degenerated into a
mode of address to inferiors, and not having any such vocable as the
Spanish Vd nor using the second person plural in ordinary address, as in
French and English, the Portuguese is forced to turn every sentence, “Is
the gentleman’s health good?” “Will Mr. Continho pass the mustard?” “If
Mr. Borrow smokes, will he accept this cigar?” In familiar speech the
second person singular is universally used.
{90} _Castellano afrancesado Diablo condenado_. The proverb is of very
general application.
{96} During the Peninsular war, Badajoz was besieged by the French in
1808 and in 1809, and again in 1811, when it surrendered, March 11, to
Soult. It was thrice besieged by Wellington; first on April 20, 1811;
next in May and June of the same year; and thirdly, in the spring of
1812, when he captured the city by storm, on the night of April 6, after
a murderous contest, and a loss, during the twenty days’ siege, of 72
officers and 963 men killed, and 306 officers and 3483 men wounded. The
province of Badajoz has an area of 8687 square miles, and a population of
(1884) 457,365.
{98} See note on p. 11. It is uncertain where the missionary Joao
Ferreira d’Almeida made this translation; probably in Ceylon. The place
and date of his death are equally uncertain. His translation, revised by
more than one Dutch scholar, was finally printed in 1712 at Amsterdam, at
the cost of the Dutch East India Company. When the British and Foreign
Bible Society first undertook the publication of the Bible in Portuguese
in the years 1809–1810, this version of Almeida was selected; but the
objections made to its accuracy were so numerous that in 1818, and again
in 1821, a reprint of Pereira’s translation was adopted in its place.
{99} This was indeed treason, when the “1811’s” were in their prime, and
the “1834’s” were already maturing. But ordinary port wine, as made up
for the English market, was rather filthy, and as remade up by the grocer
or small wine merchant in England, resembled blacking rather than the
juice of the grape.
{100} This is certainly not true now. Perhaps, if Borrow’s explanation
is the true one, in that we have not of late “roughly handled” our
jealous neighbours, Sebastopol and Pekin and excuses for being in Egypt
have dulled the friendly feelings generated by Vitoria and Waterloo!
{102a} “Charity, Sir Cavalier, for the love of God, bestow an alms upon
me, that I may purchase a mouthful of red wine.”
{102b} “St. James and close Spain!” The battle-cry of Castilian
chivalry for a thousand years.
{102c} Every one who has gone from Portugal into Spain must understand
and sympathize with Borrow’s feelings. I have even felt something of the
same expansion in South America, when the Brazilian gave place to the
Argentine. I have no doubt that the language has a great deal to say to
it.
{103a} In _The Zincali_, part ii. chap. i., the date is given as January
6, 1836.
{103b} They are as old as the ancient Celtiberian times, and are
mentioned as σάγοι in a treaty, over 150 years B.C., by Appian, in his
_Iberica_.
{104} I suppose Portugal, Spain, and England.
{105a} See _The Zincali_, part ii. chap. i.
{105b} For the meaning of this and other gypsy words, see the Glossary.
{106a} See _The Zincali_, part i. chap. vii., part ii. chap. vi.,
_Romano Lavo-Lil_, p. 244.
{106b} See _The Zincali_, part ii. chap. vi.
{108} _The Zincali_, part ii. chap. i.
{110} “I do not understand.”
{112} Spirit of the old man.
{114a} Deceived. An English termination added to a Spanish termination
of a Romany word, _jonjabar_, _q.v._ in Glossary.
{114b} _El crallis ha nicobado la liri de los Calés_. (See _The
Zincali_ part ii. chap. i.)
{115} “Doing business, doing business; he has much business to do.”
{116} “We have the horse.”
{118} See _The Zincali_, part ii. chap. vi.
{120} “Don’t trouble yourself,” “Don’t be afraid.” See vol. ii. p. 2.
_Cuidao_ is Andalusian and Gitano for _cuidado_.
{122} See _The Zincali_, part ii. chap. vi.
{123a} Mother of the gypsies.
{123b} See _The Zincali_, part ii. chap. vii.
{124} See _The Zincali_, part ii. chap. vi. = _cauring_ in English
Romany. _Romano Lavo-Lil_, p. 245.
{126} “Say nothing to him, my lad; he is a hog of an _alguazil_.”
{127} “At your service.”
{132} “Who goes there?” Fr. _Qui vive_? The proper answer to the
challenge by a Spanish sentry is _España_, “Spain,” or _Piasano_, “a
civilian.”
{133a} “Shut up;” “Hold your tongue.”
{133b} Stealing a donkey.
{135} See _The Zincali_, part i. ch. v.
{138a} See Introduction.
{138b} _El Serrador_, a Carlist partisan, who about this period was much
talked of in Spain. Note by Borrow (see the Glossary, _s.v._).
{138c} He is a man indeed; _lit._ very much a man.
{143} On foot.
{146} Estremadura was for long years a vast winter pasturage whither the
flocks from the Castiles were driven each successive autumn, to return to
their own cooler mountains on the return of summer. The flocks were
divided into _cabañas_ of about 10,000 sheep, in charge of fifty
shepherds and fifty of their immense dogs.
{150a} “All are taken.”
{150b} No doubt Oropesa, where the Duke of Frias has an ancient and
somewhat dilapidated palace.
{152} Las Batuecas is a valley in the south-west corner of the modern
province of Salamanca, four leagues from the city of that name, eight
leagues from Ciudad Rodrigo, and about six leagues from Bejar. The
principal town or village in the remote valley itself was Alberca. The
strange inhabitants of the valley of Batuecas are entirely legendary, as
is the story of their discovery by a page of the Duke of Alva in the
reign of Philip II. See _Verdadera relacion de las Batuecas_, by Manuel
de Gonzalez (Madrid, 1693), Ponz, _Viaje_ vii. 201; Feijoo, _Teatro
Critico_, iv. 241, where the valley is compared with the equally mythical
island of Atlantis.
{153} More commonly spelt ticking.
{154} See _Lavengro_, chap. 1.
{156a} The conventional diminutive of Pepa, which is itself the
diminutive of Josefa, as is Pepe of Josefe.
{156b} This is, of course, a fancy name. Borrow has chosen that of a
Spanish Jew, one of the great Rabbinical commentators. See _The
Zincali_, part i. chap. ii.
{157a} This concession to local prejudice is delightful. But it must be
remembered that _barraganeria_ or recognized concubinage was approved by
Church and State in Spain for many hundred years. See Burke’s _History
of Spain_, vol. i., Appendix ii.
{157b} Ferdinand the Catholic and his wife Isabella. Their systematic
persecution and banishment of the Jews—the edict was dated March 30,
1492—are well known.
{162} The street of the Bramble.
{163} See the Introduction, and Duncan, _The English in Spain_,
_passim_.
{164a} Juan Alvarez y Mendizabal was a more or less Christianized Jew,
who began his career as a commissariat contractor to the national army on
the French invasion in 1808. Born in 1790, he rendered important
services to Spain, until in 1823 he was compelled, like so many of his
liberal compatriots, to take refuge in England from the tyranny of
Ferdinand VII. Abroad as well as at home, he displayed his great talent
for finance for the benefit of Spain, and returned in 1835 as Minister of
Finance in the Toreno Administration. He resigned in 1837, was again
called to power in 1841, and died in 1853.
{164b} The honourable George Villiers was our Minister at Madrid from
1833 to March, 1838, when, having succeeded to the title of his uncle as
Earl of Clarendon, he returned to England, where in course of time he
became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Foreign Minister.
{166a} I have been so far unable to discover the name of this gentleman.
{166b} Mendizabal, as has been said, was a Jew by race.
{168} The word “cigarette” was not yet naturalized in England. The
thing itself was practically unknown; even cigar was sometimes spelt
_segar_.
{169} _Ojalateros_, criers of _ojala_; Arab. _Inshallah_, “if it please
God,” “would to God.” _Pasteleros_, pastry-cooks, “wishers and dishers.”
{170a} See the Glossary.
{170b} “A gypsy matron without honour spoke to her man of blood.”
{170c} These are not fanciful names. Francisco Montes, who was born in
1805, was not only a celebrated _matador_, but the author of a work on
Tauromachia; he appeared in the ring for the last time in 1850, and died
in 1851. _Sevilla_ was the name borne by many less distinguished
_toreadores_; Francisco Sevilla, the _picador_, who appeared for the last
time in 1838, is perhaps the man referred to. _Poquito Pan_, or Bit of
Bread, was the Tauromachian nickname of Antonio Sanchez, one of the
favourite _picadores_ in the _cuadrilla_ or band of Montes.
{171} A gallows-show. Yet, as will be seen in the text, the gallows or
_furca_ itself is no longer used.
{172} Peace, pity, and tranquillity.
{174a} _Manolo_ is a somewhat difficult word to translate; it is applied
to the flash or fancy man and his _manola_ in Madrid only, a class fond
of pleasure, of fine clothes, of bull-fights, and of sunshine, with a
code of honour of their own; men and women rather picturesque than
exemplary, and eminently racy of the soil.
{174b} In 1808.
{175} At the last attack on Warsaw, when the loss of the Russians
amounted to upwards of twenty thousand men, the soldiery mounted the
breach, repeating, in measured chant, one of their popular songs, “Come,
let us cut the cabbage,” etc.—[Note by Borrow.] See the Glossary, _s.v.
Mujik_.
{176} “Another glass; come on, little Englishman, another glass.”
{177a} See note on chap. x. p. 138.
{177b} _Montero_ in Spanish means “a hunter;” and a _montero_ cap, which
every reader of Sterne is familiar with at least by name, is a cap,
generally of leather, such as was used by hunters in the Peninsula.
{177c} Twelve ounces of bread, small pound, as given in the prison.
[Note by Borrow.]
{178} According to the late Marquis de Santa Coloma, as reported by Mr.
Wentworth Webster (_Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society_, vol. i. p. 151),
“in Madrid Borrow used to ride a fine black Andalusian horse (_v. p_.
261), with a Russian skin for a saddle, and _without stirrups_.” This
was, however, during his second visit, and _Don Jorge_ may have changed
his practice. That he could ride without stirrups, or saddle either, is
certain (p. 308, and _Lavengro_, chap. xiii.).
{180a} General Cordova had been entrusted from the beginning of the war
with high command in the queen’s armies. He succeeded Valdez as
commander-in-chief immediately after the death of Zumalacarregui, at the
end of June, 1835, to the end of August, 1836, when he was succeeded by
Espartero. See Duncan, _The English in Spain_, pp. 58, 72.
{180b} See Introduction, and _Revue des Deux Mondes_, 15 fevrier, 1851.
{181a} May, 1836.
{181b} Don Francisco Xavier de Isturitz was born in 1790, and after
taking part in the various liberal governments from 1808 to 1823, was
forced to fly to England on the absolutist counter-revolution in that
year. He returned to Spain on the amnesty in 1834, and on the fall of
his old friend Mendizabal in 1836, he became minister for foreign
affairs, and lived to negotiate the “Spanish marriages,” and to occupy
many high political and diplomatic posts under Isabella II.
{181c} See Introduction, p. xxiii.
{183} “He will do what you want for you: will gratify your fancy.”
{186} “Stuff and nonsense.”
{187} Charles III. of Spain (1759–1788). See _The Zincali_, part i.
chap. xii.
{188} “How goes it?”
{190} Whether this episode of Benedict Mol has any foundation in fact I
cannot say. I was on the point of starting for Compostella, where I
might have investigated the incident detailed, vol. ii. p. 183, and I had
actually paid for my ticket to Irun (May 2, 1895), when I was summoned to
a more distant shrine on the slopes of the Southern Pacific.
{191} A _cuarto_, a trifle over an English farthing, being almost
exactly 4/34 of 2½_d._
{192} “In short.”
{193a} Borrow writes indifferently _Saint James_, _St. Jago_, and
_Santiago_. The last is the correct Spanish form, while the English
usually speak of the place as Compostella. It has been thought best to
retain the form used by the author in each case.
{193b} Witch. Ger. _Hexe_.—[Note by Borrow.]
{193c} “Thanks be to God!”
{194} See note on p. 340.
{196} Señor Menendez Pelayo remarks that the government was too busy
with Carlists in the country and revolutionaries in the city to care very
much about Borrow or the Bible, and they therefore allowed him for the
moment to do pretty much as he pleased (_Heterodoxos Españoles_, tom.
iii. p. 662).
{197} Or San Ildefonso.
{198} This was August 14, 1836.
{199} The General Post-office.
{204a} Gypsy fellows.
{204b} A compound of the modern Greek πέταλον, and the Sanscrit _kara_,
the literal meaning being _Lord_ of the horse-shoe (i.e. _maker_); it is
one of the private cognominations of “The Smiths,” an English gypsy
clan.—[Note by Borrow.] See _The Zincali_, vol. i. p. 31; _Romano
Lavo-Lil_, p. 226, and the Glossary.
{206} Of these lines the following translation, in the style of the old
English ballad, will, perhaps, not be unacceptable:—
“What down the hill comes hurrying there?—
With a hey, with a ho, a sword and a gun!
Quesada’s bones, which a hound doth bear.
Hurrah, brave brothers!—the work is done.”
—[Note by Borrow.]
{207a} “One night I was with thee.”
{207b} Don Rafael, son of D. Eugenio Antonio del Riego y Nuñez, whose
poems were published in 1844 by D. Miguel del Riego, Canon of Oviedo, was
born at Oviedo on the 24th October, 1785. On the 1st January, 1820, he
began the revolt against Ferdinand VII. (see Introduction, p. xvi.), at
Las Cabezas de San Juan. He was finally hanged at Madrid on the 7th
November, 1823. _El Himno de Riego_, the Spanish _Marseillaise_, was
composed by Huerta in 1820, the words being written by Evariste
San-Miguel.
{207c} “_Au revoir_, Sir George!”
{208} 1836.
{212a} Dom José Agostinho Freire was minister of war to Dom Pedro, and
subsequently minister of the interior under the Duke of Terceira. In
1836 he was murdered at Lisbon by the National Guard, while driving in
his carriage.
{212b} The Carlist leader. See Duncan, _The English in Spain_, p. 88.
{214} Latin, _Bætis_ = the river afterwards named by the Arabs _Wady al
Kebir_, the _Guadalquivir_.
{215} The vane, _porque gira_. The modern tower is about 275 feet high.
See Girault de Prangey, _Essai sur l’Architecture des Maures et Arabes_
(1841), pp. 103–112.
{216a} The largest and perhaps the grandest of the mediæval cathedrals,
not only of Spain, but of Europe. It was commenced in 1403, and
completed about 1520.
{216b} 1350–1369.
{216c} Triana, for long the Whitefriars or Alsatia of Seville, the
resort of thieves, gypsies, and _mala gente_ of every description. See
_Zincali_, pt. ii. chap. ii. The Arabic _Tarayana_ is said to perpetuate
the name of the Emperor Trajan, who was certainly born in the
neighbourhood, and who would not be proud of his supposed
_conciudadanos_! The modern suburb was almost entirely destroyed by the
overflowing of the Guadalquivir in 1876. There is now (1895) a permanent
bridge across the river.
{218} This is, I think, a good English word. The Spanish form would be
_desesperados_.
{220} King of the gypsies in Triana.
{221} Isidore Justin Severin, Baron Taylor, was born at Brussels in
1789. His father was an Englishman, and his mother half Irish, half
Flemish. Isidore was naturalized as a Frenchman, and after serious
studies and artistic travels throughout Europe, he returned to France on
the Restoration with a commission in the Royal Guard. His _Bertram_,
written in collaboration with Charles Nodier, had a great success on the
Paris stage in 1821. In 1823 he accompanied the French army to Spain,
and on his return was made Commissaire Royal du Théâtre Français, in
which capacity he authorized the production of _Hernani_ and the _Mariage
de Figaro_. In 1833 he arranged for the transport of the two obelisks
from Luxor to Paris, and in 1835 he was commissioned by Louis Philippe
with an artistic mission to Spain to purchase pictures for the Louvre,
and on his return, having transferred the Standish collection of
paintings from London to Paris, he was named Inspecteur-Général des beaux
arts in 1838. He died in 1879.
{223} _Alcalá de Guadaira_; Arabic, _Al-Kal’ah_, the fort, or castle. A
name necessarily often repeated in Spain, where the Goths, who are so
proudly remembered, have left so few records of their three hundred
years’ dominion in the place-names of the Peninsula, and where the Arab,
at all times detested, is yet remembered in the modern names of wellnigh
every town, river, and headland in Southern Spain, and in many places
throughout the entire Peninsula. The most celebrated of all these
castles is, of course, _Alcalá de Henares_, the birthplace of Cervantes,
the seat of the great university of Ximenes. This _Alcalá_ is known as
that of Guadaira, _i.e._ the river of Aira, the Arabic _Wady al Aira_.
The town at the present day, though small, is a very important place,
with some eight thousand inhabitants, and over two hundred flour-mills,
and is known as the “oven of Seville,” _El horno de Sevilla_.
Carmona—the Roman Carmo and Arab Karmanah—with double the population, was
the last stronghold of Peter the Cruel, and is full of historic
associations.
{226} Madoz, in his _Diccionario Geografico-estadistico_, published in
1846, half a dozen years after the date of Borrow’s visit, says nothing
under _Carolina_, _Carlota_, or _Luisiana_ of this supposed German
colonization. Yet Carolina and eighty-four neighbouring villages form a
most interesting district, known as the _Nuevas poblaciones de Sierra
Morena_, especially exempted from taxation and conscription on their
foundation or incorporation by Olavides, the Minister of Charles III., in
1768. It is possible that some German colonists were introduced at that
time. Among the eighty-five _pueblos_ constituting this strange district
is the historic _Navas de Tolosa_, where the Moors were so gloriously
defeated in 1212.
{230} Wellington.
{232} Cordova was taken on October 1, 1836.
{234} “Look you, what men they were!”
{235a} ‘The king has come, the king has come, and disembarked at
Belem.’—_Miguelite song_.
{235b} Charles V., or _Carlos Quinto_, is the title all too meekly
accorded even in Spain to their king Charles I., fifth only of German
Karls on the imperial throne, the Holy Roman Emperor. If Charles himself
was not unpopular in Spain, even though he kept his mother Joanna, the
legitimate queen, under lock and key, that he might reign as Charles the
_First_ in Spain, his Germans and his Germanism were devoutly hated. The
next Carlos who reigned in Spain, correctly styled the _Second_, was
nearly a fool, but Charles III. was the best and most enlightened of the
sovereigns of Spain until the days of Alfonso XII. Charles IV. abdicated
under pressure of Napoleon in 1808, and then Don Carlos the Pretender
naturally assumed the style and title of Charles the _Fifth_.
{236a} See Introduction.
{236b} The Genoese was presumably referring to the sister-in-law of Don
Carlos, called _La Beira_. See Ford, _Handbook of Spain_, 1st edit., p.
822.
{239} This is not strictly accurate. The Mezquita, as designed by Abdur
Rahmán I. in 786, contained about 1200 pillars; when the mosque was
enlarged by Almanzor at the end of the tenth century, the number was
doubtless increased. Yet at the present day more than nine hundred are
still standing in the building, which ranks _second_ as regards area
among the churches of Christendom, and in historic interest is surpassed
only by the Mosque of Agia Sofia at Constantinople (see Burke’s _History
of Spain_, vol. i. pp. 130–133).
{240a} Morocco.
{240b} The Abencerrages were a family, or perhaps a faction, that held a
prominent position in the Moorish kingdom of Granada for some time before
its fall in 1492. The name is said to be derived from Yusuf ben Cerrág,
the head or leader of the family in the time of Mohammed VII., but
nothing is known with any certainty of their origin. In the _Guerras
civiles de Granada_ of Gines Perez de Hita, the feuds of the Abencerrages
with the rival family of the Zegris is an important incident, and
Chateaubriand’s _Les Aventures du dernier Abencerages_ is founded upon
Hita’s work.
{241a} A _haji_ is a man who has made the _haj_ or pilgrimage to Mecca.
As a title it is prefixed to the name. The Levantine Greeks who have
made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem are also accustomed to use the same title,
and their “Haji Michaeli” or “Haji Yanco” is as common a mode of address
as “Haji Ali.” “Haji Stavros” in About’s _Roi des Montagnes_ may be
happily remembered.
{241b} The great city of Negroland is, I presume, Khartoum, capital of
the Soudan, known to our fathers as _Nigritia_.
{242a} Philip II., eldest son of Carlos I. of Spain (the Emperor Charles
V.), married Mary of England the 25th of July, 1555.
{242b} _The Mystery of Udolpho_, the once celebrated but now forgotten
romance of Mrs. Radcliffe (1764–1823).
{243a} “Sir George of my soul,” _i.e._ “My dear Sir George.”
{243b} Puente. See _The Zincali_, part i. chap. ix.
{243c} See _ante_, note on p. 235.
{246} The House of the Inquisition, or Holy Office.
{247} “What do I know?”
{249a} “So pretty, so smart.”
{249b} Query, the Epistle to the Romans.—[Note by Borrow.]
{250} Bad fellows, the French _mauvais sujets_.
{254a} _Real_, _i.e._ royal, the first coin of Christian Spain, as
opposed to the Moorish _maravedi_. The first _real_ of which we have any
certain knowledge was struck by Henry II. on May 15, 1369. The value of
the _real_ is now about 2½_d._ English money, but as a unit of value and
computation it has been officially supplanted since 1870 by the _peseta_
or _franc_ of 9¾_d._ See Burke’s _History of Spain_, vol. ii. pp.
281–286.
{254b} Carlist leaders.
{257} There are at least three districts in Spain known as the Sagra:
one in Alicante, one in Orense, and another near Toledo which includes 27
miles by 24 miles of country to the north of the city. Amongst the
villages included in the district are Yuncler, Yunclillos, and Yuncos,
whose names would seem to tell of some foreign origin. The origin of the
word Sagra is most uncertain. It was commonly said to be _Sacra_
_Cereris_, on account of the abundant harvests of the district, and has
also been derived from the Arab _Ṣaḥ_ = a field.
{258} This was Don Vicente Lopez y Portaña, who was born at Valencia in
1772, and died at Madrid in 1850. His pictures were as a rule
allegorical in subject, and his son, Don Bernardo Lopez, was also alive
at this time, and died only in 1874.
{259a} Don Andrés Borrego, author of _La Historia de las Córtes de
España durante el siglo_ XIX. (1885), and other political works.
{259b} See vol. ii. p. 242.
{261} _V._ p. 178.
{262} Not Cabrera himself, but his subordinate Zariategui, an old friend
and comrade of Zumalacarregui. This was on August 11, 1837. See Duncan,
_The English in Spain_, p. 152.
{263} Lord Carnarvon, of course, would not have endorsed these opinions.
See Introduction, and Duncan _ub. sup. passim_.
{265a} Pera can hardly be said to be near Constantinople. It is the
_Franc_ quarter of the city, separated no doubt from Stambul by the
Golden Horn, and undoubtedly very beautiful. Buchini is hardly a Greek
name, and Antonio was no doubt like so many of his kind, of Italian
origin. My own faithful Spiro Varipati was a Constantinopolitan Greek of
Cerigo.
{265b} More usually spelt Syra.
{266a} This was possibly the period when Admiral Duckworth attempted to
force the passage of the Dardanelles.—[Note by Borrow.]
{266b} Cean Bermudez, the celebrated art critic, traveller, and
dilettante, the author of numerous works on art and architecture, more
especially in the Peninsula, was born in 1749, exiled 1801–8, and died in
1829. _C_ and _z_ before _e_ have the same sound in Castilian.
{268} See Glossary.
{269a} Nowadays he would call himself a Έλλην.
{269b} “Good luck to thee, Antonio!”
{271} Mr. Southern.
{274a} Romany _chal_ = gypsy lad.
{274b} “Good horse! gypsy horse!
Let me ride thee now.”
{277a} _Céad mile fáille_! Pronounce _Kaydh meela faulthia_.
{277b} _Estremeño_, a native of the province of Estremadura.
{279} See note on p. 193.
{280a} The _Colegio de Nobles Irlandeses_, founded in 1792 by Philip
II., is at present housed in a building of the earliest and best period
of the Spanish _cinquecento_, founded in 1521 by Archbishop Fonseca as
the _Colegio Mayor del Apostol Santiago_. It was built by Pedro de
Ibarra.
{280b} As is recorded in the second chapter of _Gil Blas_.
{282} I.e. _el cura_, the parish priest; Fr. _curé_. Our “curate” is
rather _el vicario_; Fr. _vicaire_.
{284} _Arapiles_ is the name by which the great English victory of
Salamanca is known to French and Spanish writers. It was fought on July
22, 1812, and the news reached Napoleon on the banks of the Borodino on
September 7, inducing that strange hesitation and want of alacrity which
distinguished his operations next day. The village of Arapiles is about
four miles from Salamanca.
{287} Savage mules.
{290} “See the crossing! see what devilish crossing!” _Santiguar_ is to
make the sign of the cross, to cross one’s self. _Santiguo_ is the
action of crossing one’s self.
{291} As late as 1521, Medina del Campo was one of the richest towns in
Spain. Long one of the favourite residences of the Castilian court, it
was an emporium, a granary, a storehouse, a centre of mediæval luxury and
refinement. But the town declared for the _Comuneros_ of Castile, and
was so pitilessly sacked, burned, and ravaged by the Flemish Cardinal
Adrian, acting for the absent Charles of Hapsburg (in 1521), that it
never recovered anything of its ancient importance. The name, half Arab,
half Castilian, tells of its great antiquity. To-day it is known only as
a railway station!
{292} “_Carajo_, what is this?”
{293a} We have adopted in English the Portuguese form Douro, which gave
the title of Marquis to our great duke . . . of Ciudad Rodrigo, as the
Spaniards prefer to call him.
{293b} Madhouse.
{293c} “May the Virgin protect you, sir:” lit. “May you go with the
Virgin.”
{293d} Valladolid, like so many place-names, not only in southern, but
in central Spain, is Arabic, _Balad al Walid_, “the land of _Walid_,” the
caliph in whose reign the Peninsula was overrun by the Moslems. The more
ancient name of _Pincia_ is lost.
{295} A friend and comrade of Zumalacarregui, who came into notice after
the death of the greater leader in June, 1835.
{296a} The _Colegio de Ingleses_ was endowed by Sir Francis Englefield,
a partisan of Mary Queen of Scots, who came to Spain after her execution.
Philip II. granted certain privileges to the students in 1590. The
number of students at the present day is about 45.
{296b} The _Celegio de Escoceses_ was founded only in 1790.
{298} _I.e._ uncontaminated with the black blood of Moorish or Jewish
converts; possibly also referring to the use of “New Castilian” for
“Gitano.” See _The Zincali_, part i. chap. i.
{299} _Temp_. Elizabeth and James I.
{300a} Celebrated also for the great victory of Ferdinand of Aragon over
Alfonso the African of Portugal (February, 1476), by which the succession
of Isabella to the crown of Castile was assured, and the pretension of
her niece _Juana la Beltraneja_ for ever put an end to.
{300b} _Alcayde_, the Arabic governor of a castle, or fortress, is
commonly used in modern Spanish for a jailer, a governor of a prison; the
somewhat similar word, _alcalde_, also an Arabic word, meant, and still
means, the mayor of a town.
{303} It was at Dueñas that Ferdinand and Isabella held their little
court immediately after their marriage in October, 1469.
{304a} Government requisition. See _ante_, p. 261.
{304b} The officers, no doubt, of the Spanish Legion and Contingent.
See Introduction.
{304c} “Hold hard, you gypsy fellows! you forget that you are soldiers,
and no longer swapping horses in a fair.”
{305a} See note on p. 120.
{305b} That is, gold _onzas_.
{309a} The Roman Pallantia; the seat of the first university in Castile,
transferred in 1239 to the more celebrated city of Salamanca.
{309b} The cathedral was commenced in 1321, and finished about two
hundred years later. As it now stands, the exterior is unsatisfactory;
the interior is most picturesque, and full of remarkable monuments,
including the tomb of the wicked Queen Urraca, who died in 1126.
{310a} These “paintings of Murillo” are imaginary. There are some good
pictures now in the _Sala capitular_—one by Ribera, one by Zurbaran, and
a third by Mateo Cerezo. The paintings in the church itself are
unimportant, and are rather German than Spanish in character.
{310b} The Sierra de Oca, to the east of Burgos, about sixty miles as
the crow flies to the north-east of Palencia.
{311} Possibly Cisneros or Calzada. Sahagun, which lies just halfway
between Palencia and Leon on the high-road, is rather a small town than a
large village, and, though shorn of all its former splendour, would have
afforded the travellers better quarters.
{312} See Introduction.
{313} A familiar Spanish locution—of which the meaning is sufficiently
obvious—derived originally, no doubt, from the game of chess, a game of
oriental origin, and no doubt introduced into Spain by the Arabs. Roque
is the rook or castle; Rey, of course, the king.
{315} The name of Leon has nothing to do with lions, but is a corruption
of _legionis_, or the city of the 7th Legion, quartered here by Augustus
to defend the Cantabrian frontier. The city is full of historic
interest, and bears the records of the conquerors of many ages and
nations.
The cathedral referred to by Borrow was finished about 1300, after having
been at least a hundred years a-building, and is in the early pointed
style of what we call Gothic, but the Spaniards Tudesque. The west front
and the painted glass windows in the aisles are of unrivalled beauty.
The church of San Isidoro, with the tombs of that great metropolitan and
of Alfonso el Batallador, of inferior æsthetic interest, is even more
attractive to the antiquary.
{318} Astorga is an old Roman town, _Asturica Augusta_, established
after the Cantabrian war (B.C. 25), when the southern _Astures_ first
became subject to Rome. But a far more ancient origin is claimed for the
city, which was traditionally founded by _Astur_, the son of Memnon (see
Silius Italicus, iii. 334; Martial, xiv. 199). The surrounding country
of the _Astures_ was celebrated at once for the riches of its gold-mines
and for its breed of horses, whence the Latin _Asturco_ (see Petron.,
_Sat._, 86, and Seneca, _Ep._, 87; Pliny, viii. 42, s. 67).
{319} Borrow has it Coruña, but it should be either La Coruña, if
written in Spanish, or Corunna, if written in English. Our ancestors,
who had good reason to know the place, called it The Groyne, but it would
be pedantic to so call it now.
{321} The origin of the Maragatos has never been ascertained. Some
consider them to be a remnant of the Celtiberians, others of the
Visigoths; most, however, prefer a Bedouin or caravan descent. It is in
vain to question these ignorant carriers as to their history or origin,
for, like the gypsies, they have no traditions and know nothing.
_Arrieros_, at all events, they are, and that word, in common with so
many others relating to the barb and carrier-caravan craft, is Arabic,
and proves whence the system and science were derived by Spaniards.
Where George Borrow and Richard Ford are so uncertain, it is assuredly
unbecoming to dogmatize. Mariana (vol. i. lib. vii. cap. 7), speaking of
King Mauregato, who is supposed, as much from his name as from anything
else, to have been an illegitimate son of Alfonso I. by a _Moorish_ lady,
seeks to trace the origin of the Maragatos as being more especially the
subjects of Mauregato, but it is rather an extravagant fancy than an
explanation.
Monsieur Francisque Michel, in his _Races Maudites de la France et de
l’Espagne_ (Paris, 1847), has nothing to say of these Maragatos, though
he notices (ii. 41–44) a smaller tribe, the _Vaqueros_, of the
neighbouring Asturias, whose origin is also enveloped in mystery. See De
Rochas, _Les Parias de France et l’Espagne_, p. 120. [The _Cagots_ were
also found in northwest Spain as well as in France, but not, as far as we
know, to the west of Guipuzcoa. For an account of these Cagots and the
various etymologies that have been suggested for their names, see De
Rochas and F. Michel, _ubi supra_, tom. i. ch. i.]
{322} A transliteration of the old Spanish _Barrete_, an old kind of
helmet, then, generally, a cap.
{323} A mute is the offspring of a stallion and a she-ass, a mule of a
jackass and a mare.
{324a} Founded in 1471, on the site of one more ancient.
{324b} The name of this celebrated _arriero_ was Pedro Mato; the statue
is of wood.
{327a} The word _Gog_ is not Hebrew, and, according to Renan and Kuöbel
(_Volkert_, p. 63), is “mountain,” and Magog is “great mountain.”
_Maha_, Sanskrit, and _Koh_ or _Goh_, Persian. The legends concerning
Gog and Magog are very numerous, and extend over many parts of Europe,
Asia, and even Africa.
{327b} “The place of the apples.”
{329} _Caballero_. As a mode of address in common life, equivalent
merely to _sir_.
{331a} A Galician or Portuguese, but not a Spanish word, usually spelt
_corço_. The Spanish equivalent is _ciervo_.
{331b} There is a delightful translation of Theocritus, who by the way
described the scenery of Sicily rather than of Greece, into English verse
by C. S. Calverley, published in 1869.
{333} Bembibre lies on the southern confines of the district of El
Vierzo, one of the most interesting and least explored parts of the
Peninsula, the Switzerland of Leon, a district of Alpine passes, trout
streams, pleasant meadows, and groves of chestnuts and walnuts.
Bembibre, pop. 500, lies with its old castle on the trout-streams Noceda
and Boeza, amid green meadows, gardens, and vineyards, whose wines were
far more fatal to Moore’s soldiers than the French sabres. So much for
Bembibre—_bene bibere_. Ponferrada (_Interamnium Flavium_), which is not
entered, rises to the left on the confluence of the Sil and Boeza. The
bridge (_Pons-ferrata_) was built in the eleventh century, for the
passage of pilgrims to Compostella, who took the direct route along the
Sil by Val de Orras and Orense. The town afterwards belonged to the
Templars, and was protected by the miraculous image of the Virgin, which
was found in an oak, and hence is called _Nuestra Señora de la Encina_;
it is still the Patroness of the Vierzo (Murray’s _Handbook of Spain_,
1st edit. p. 595).
The Vierzo extends about 10 leagues east and west by 8 north and south.
This amphitheatre is shut out from the world by lofty snow-capped
mountains, raised, as it were, by the hand of some genii to enclose a
simple valley of Rasselas. The great Asturian chain slopes from
Leitariegos to the south-west, parting into two offshoots; that of El
Puerto de Rabanal, and Fuencebadon (_Fons Sabatonis_) constitute the east
barrier, and the other, running by the Puertos de Cebrero and Aguiar,
forms the frontier; while to the south the chains of the Sierras de
Segundera, Sanabria, and Cabrera complete the base of the triangle. Thus
hemmed in by a natural circumvallation, the concavity must be descended
into from whatever side it be approached; this crater, no doubt, was once
a large lake, the waters of which have burst a way out, passing through
the narrow gorge of the Sil by Val de Orras, just as the Elbe forms the
only spout or outlet to hill-walled-in Bohemia, the _kettle-land_ of
Germany (_Ibid._, p. 597).
{337a} Rendered by Borrow _rabble_; the French _canaille_; Ital.
_canaglia_, a pack of dogs—_canes_.
{337b} Known as Villafranca del Vierzo; said to have been one of the
principal halting-places of the French pilgrims to Santiago, hence _Villa
Francorum_; in any case, the abode of an important colony of monks from
the French abbey of Cluny. See Burke’s _History of Spain_, vol. ii. p.
69, and App. II.
{340} Query _Guerrilleros_ (see Glossary). These _Miguelets_ were
originally the partisans or followers of the Infante Don Miguel, the
absolutist leader in the dreary civil war which ravaged Portugal from
1823–1834. It was their custom to escape into Spain when attacked by the
Constitutional forces in Portugal, and nothing but Mr. Canning’s bold
action in sending an English army to Lisbon in December, 1826, prevented
their being utilized by both Spain and France for the overthrow of Queen
Maria in Portugal (see Alison, _History of Europe_, vol. iv. ch. xxi. s.
50). But as “Miguelets,” part refugees, part rebels, part brigands,
these bands of military ruffians were the terror of the frontier
districts of Spain and Portugal for many years after the conclusion of
the civil war in Portugal.
{341} _Don Quixote_, part ii. chap. ix.
{347} _Senhor_ is the Portuguese or Galician form. Borrow has now
crossed the frontier.
{351} It is possibly an older language than either. It resembles rather
the Portuguese than the Spanish, and is of great interest in many ways.
The great religious poem of Alfonso X., _Los Loores y Milagros de Nuestra
Señora_, written between 1263 and 1284, when the national language was
hardly formed, was written in Galician, though from the beginning of the
fourteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century little attention was
paid to the literary language. Within the last few years a species of
provincial revival has taken place, and the following works among others
have been published in and about the language of Galicia: (1) D. Juan
Saco Arce, _Gramatica Gallega_ (Lugo, 1868), with an appendix of proverbs
and popular songs; (2) Fernandez y Morales, _Ensayos poeticos_, edited by
Don Mariano Cubi y Soler; (3) A. G. Besada, _Historia critica de la
literatura gallega_ (La Coruña, 1887); the works of Manuel Murginà, also
published at La Coruña; Don Juan Cuveiro Piñol’s _Diccionario Gallego_
and _El habla_, both published at Barcelona in 1876; and, best of all,
Don Manuel Nuñez Valladares’ _Diccionario Gallego-Castillano_ (Santiago,
1884).
{353} “I believe it!”
{359} This is a curious blunder. _Lucus Augusti_ was not only never
capital of Roman Spain, but the capital only of _Northern Gallaecia_, or
Galicia; as _Bracara Augusta_, or Braga, was the chief town and seat of a
_Conventus Juridicus_ of southern Galicia, the Minho being the boundary
of the northern and southern divisions of the province.
Roman Spain was at no time a province, but included, from B.C. 205 to
A.D. 325, many provinces, each with its own provincial capital. In the
division of the Roman world by Constantine, Hispania first became an
administrative unit as a diocese in the Prefecture of Gaul, with its
capital at _Hispalis_ or Seville, the residence of the Imperial Vicar
(see Burke’s _History of Spain_, vol. i. pp. 31, 35, 36).
{360} “Woe is me, O God!”
{361} Combats with young bulls, usually by amateur fighters. Although
the animals are immature, and the tips of their horns, moreover, sawn off
to make the sport less dangerous, accidents are far more common than in
the more serious _corridas_, where the professionals take no step without
due deliberation and _secundum artem_. _Novillo_, of course, means only
a young bull; but in common parlance in Spain _los toros_ means
necessarily a serious bull-fight, and _los novillos_ an amateur
exhibition.
{363} See note on p. 340.
{365} Span. _anis_ (see Glossary).
{366a} An _onza_ (see Glossary).
{366b} The real word, of which this is a modification, is _Carajo_—a
word which, used as an adjective, represents the English “bloody,” and
used as a substantive, something yet more gross. In decent society the
first syllable is considered quite strong enough as an expletive, and,
modified as _Caramba_, may even fall from fair lips.
{366c} At Seville Borrow seems to have been known as _El brujo_ (_v._ p.
178).
{368} On the north shore of this bay is built the town of El Ferrol (_el
farol_ = the lighthouse), daily growing in importance as the great naval
arsenal of Spain.
{369a} More commonly written _puchero_ = a glazed earthenware pot. But
it is the _contents_ rather than the pot that is usually signified, just
as in the case of the _olla_, the round pot, whose savoury contents are
spoken of throughout southern Spain as an _olla_, and in England as _olla
podrida_.
{369b} Santiago de Compostella (see note on p. 193). As usual I
preserve the author’s original spelling, though St. James is a purely
fanciful name. The Holy Place is known in common Spanish parlance as
Santiago, in classical English more usually as Compostella.
{370a} Probably Norwich.
{370b} See _Wild Wales_, chap. xxiv.
{375} For the etymology of Guadalete, and many references to the river
and to the battle that is said to have been fought on its banks between
the invading Arabs and Roderic, “the last of the Goths,” see Burke’s
_History of Spain_, vol. i. pp. 110, 111, and notes.
Borrow, in fact, followed almost exactly the line of the celebrated
retreat of Sir John Moore, as may be seen by referring to the map.
Moore, leaving the plain country, and provoked by the ignorant taunts of
Frere to abandon his own plan of marching in safety south-west into
Portugal, found himself on the 28th of December, 1808, at Benavente; on
the 29th, at Astorga; on the 31st, at Villafranca del Vierzo; and thence,
closely pressed day by day by the superior forces of Soult, he passed
through Bembibre, Cacabelos, Herrerias, Nogales, to Lugo, whence, by way
of Betanzos, he arrived on the 11th of January at Corunna. The horrors
of that winter march over the frozen mountains will never fully be known;
they are forgotten in the glorious, if bootless, victory on the
sea-coast, and the heroic death of Moore. The most authoritative account
of Sir John Moore’s retreat, and of the battle of Corunna, is to be found
in the first volume of Napier’s _Peninsular War_; but the raciest is
certainly that in the first edition of Murray’s _Handbook of Spain_, by
Richard Ford.
{378} A shepherd, we are told, watching his flock in a wild mountain
district in Galicia, was astonished at the appearance of a supernatural
light. The Bishop of _Iria Flavia_ (Padron) was consulted. The place so
divinely illuminated was carefully searched, and in a marble sarcophagus,
the body of Saint James the Greater was revealed to the faithful
investigators. The king, overjoyed at the discovery, at once erected
upon the ground thus consecrated a church or chapel dedicated to the
apostle—the forerunner of the noble cathedral of Santiago de Compostella,
and from the first, the favourite resort of the pilgrims of Christian
Europe. For it was not only a relic, but a legend that had been
discovered by the pious doctors of the church.
Saint James, it was said, had certainly preached and taught in Spain
during his lifetime. His body, after his martyrdom at Jerusalem in the
year of Christ 42, had been placed by his disciples on board a ship, by
which it was conveyed to the coast of his beloved Spain, miraculously
landed in Galicia, and forgotten for eight hundred years, until the time
was accomplished when it should be revealed to the devoted subjects of
King Alfonso the Chaste. The date of the discovery of the precious
remains is given by Ferreras as 808, by Morales as 835. But as it was
Charlemagne who obtained from Leo III. the necessary permission or
faculty to remove the Episcopal See of _Iria Flavia_ to the new town of
Compostella, the discovery or invention must have taken place at least
before 814, the year of the death of the emperor. Whatever may have been
the actual date of its first establishment; the mean church with mud
walls soon gave place to a noble cathedral, which was finished by the
year 874, consecrated in 899, and destroyed by the Arabs under Almanzor,
nigh upon a hundred years afterwards, in 997. See also Murray’s
_Handbook of Spain_, 1st edit., p. 660, Santiago.
{380} Or Jet-ery. _Azabache_ is jet or anthracite, of which a great
quantity is found in the Asturias. The word—of Arabic origin—is also
used figuratively for blackness or darkness generally in modern Spanish.
{382a} “Oh, my God, it is the gentleman!”
{382b} From the German _betteln_, to beg.
{384} May, 1823.
{386} _Meiga_ is not a substantive either in Spanish or Portuguese
(though it is in Galician), but the feminine of the adjective _meigo_, or
_mego_, signifying “kind,” “gentle.” _Haxweib_ is a form of the German
_Hexe Weib_, a witch or female wizard.
{389} Or El Padron (_Iria Flavia_), the ancient seat of the bishopric,
transferred to the more sacred Santiago de Compostella before the year
814.
{393} French, _sur le tapis_.
{394} More correctly, _Caldas de Reyes_.
{395} Branches of vines supported on or festooned from stakes. Borrow
uses the word for the stakes themselves. The dictionary of the Spanish
Academy has it, “_La vid que se levanta á lo alto y se extiende mucho en
vástagos_,” and derives the word from the Arabic _par_ = extension or
spreading.
{397} “What folly! what rascality!”
{399} The names of the ambassadors or envoys actually sent by King Henry
III. to Tamerlane were, in 1399, Pelayo Gomez de Sotomayor and Herman
Sanchez de Palazuelos, and on the second mission in 1403, Don Alfonso de
Santa Maria and Gonzalez de Clavijo, whose account of the voyage of the
envoys has been published both in Spanish and English, and is one of the
earliest and most interesting books of travel in the world.
{401a} Lord Cobham’s expedition in 1719; the town was taken on October
21. Vigo Street, in London, is called after the Spanish port, in memory
of the Duke of Ormond’s capture of the plate ships in the bay in 1702.
Vigo was also captured by the English under Drake in 1585 and in 1589.
{401b} See the Glossary, _s.v. Cura_.