privileges, or _fueros_, they have become the champions of despotism.
These fueros date from 1332, when deputies from the provinces went
to Burgos, and offered the title of Lord to Alfonso the Judge, King
of Castile. In accordance with the treaty then {446} concluded, the
sovereign is prohibited from possessing any fortress, village, or
even house within the territory of the Euskarians. The Basques are
exempt from the conscription, and their militiamen, or _miqueletes_,
remain within the provinces except in time of war. The taxes can
only be levied with the consent of the provincial juntas, and must
be expended within the provinces, except what may be granted as a
“gift.” Commerce is not subjected to the same restrictions as in the
rest of Spain, and there are no monopolies. The municipalities enjoy
absolute self-government, carried on by an alcalde, an _ayuntamiento_,
or town council, and _parientes mayores_, or elders. In appearance
this organization is quite democratic, but in reality there exist many
feudal usages. In some places the town councils are self-elected;
in others they are elected by persons paying a specified amount in
taxes, or by nobles of a certain category; in others, again, they are
appointed by the lord of the manor. The provincial juntas are elected
in most diverse ways. The franchise, far from being universal, is a
privilege, and its exercise is attended with puerile formalities. The
laws of precedence are rigidly adhered to.
It is quite clear that the exceptional position of the Basque provinces
cannot be maintained. Navarra was assimilated with the rest of Spain
in 1839, and this process is progressing irresistibly in the other
provinces. If the descendants of the Euskarians decline to share free
institutions with the rest of Spain, they can never maintain them on
their own behalf. Twice already have they been defeated on an appeal
to arms; but more powerful than war is the influence exercised by
industry, commerce, and increased facilities for intercommunication.
This fusion is being hastened by emigration and migration, for the
Basques not only seek work during winter in the more hospitable lowland
districts, but they also emigrate in thousands. They are very clannish,
and at Madrid and elsewhere have founded “Patriotic Societies,” but in
spite of these they soon become merged with the rest of the population.
The few towns are principally inhabited by strangers, for the Basques
prefer a country life. Their homesteads are scattered over hill-slopes
and through the valleys, and beneath the oaks in front of them the
inmates meet after the day’s labour to pass their time in music and
dancing.
Bilbao, the largest town of the Basque provinces, has at all times
proved a rival of Valencia, Santander, and Cádiz. Its exports consist
principally of iron ores from neighbouring mines. Most of its
inhabitants are Spaniards, and during the Carlist wars the environs of
the town were frequently stained with blood. It was under its walls
that Zumalacarreguy, the Carlist leader, received his deadly wound. The
river Nervion connects Bilbao with its harbour at Portugalete.
[Illustration: LOS PASAGES.]
St. Sebastian, the largest city of Guipúzcoa, is likewise Spanish. A
seaport and fortress defended by a Castilian garrison, it resembles in
aspect and language the towns of the interior of the peninsula. Monte
Orgullo (475 feet), crowned by the Castle de la Mota, and bristling
with fortifications; the beautiful Bay of La Concha, to the west of the
town, with its fine beach; the river Urumea, which flows to the east of
the citadel, and struggles at its mouth with the foam of the sea; shady
walks and an amphitheatre of verdant hills dotted with villages, render
St. Sebastian a delightful spot, the favourite resort of worn-out and
idle {447} cosmopolitans. The town itself is devoid of interest,
for since its destruction by the English in 1813 it has been rebuilt
with monotonous regularity. Its harbour, though frequented by coasting
vessels, is shallow and insecure. The magnificent Bay of Pasages,
to the east of the town, might have been converted into a splendid
harbour, but its great advantages have never been appreciated, and its
mouth is now closed by a bar of alluvium brought down by the Oyarzun.
[Illustration: Fig. 175.—AZCOITIA AND AZPEITIA.
Scale 1 : 50,000.]
Delightful Fuenterrabia (Fontarabie), with its escutcheoned houses,
is likewise shut off from the sea by a bar, and is indebted for such
importance as it possesses to its sea baths and the vicinity of France,
which is visible from its battered walls. Irun, the terminal station
of the Spanish railways, close to the French frontier, is an important
strategical position; and Tolosa, with its factories, is the capital of
Guipúzcoa. Zarauz, Guetaria (on the neck of a peninsula), and Lequeitio
are seaside resorts. Zumaya, at the mouth of the Urola valley, has
quarries of gypsum, which furnish excellent cement. Near Vergara are
ferruginous springs, and a famous college founded in 1776 by the Basque
Society. The convention which put a stop to the first Carlist war in
1839 was signed here. Durango, likewise, has frequently been mentioned
in connection with the civil wars carried on in the north of Spain.
Guernica, in Biscay, boasts of a palace of justice and an old oak
beneath which the legislature is in the habit of meeting; but, like all
other Basque towns, it is hardly more than a village.
The centres of population are not more numerous on the southern
slope of the Pyrenees. Vitoria, the capital of Álava, on the railway
connecting Madrid with Paris, is a commercial and manufacturing town.
Pamplona, or Pampeluna, recalls the name of Pompey, who rebuilt it. It
is a fortress, often besieged and captured. Its cathedral is one of the
finest in Spain. Tafalla, _la flor de Navarra_, the ancient capital of
the kingdom, has the ruins of a palace, which Carlos the Noble, who
{448} built it, desired to unite by means of a covered gallery with
the palace of Olite, three miles lower down in the same valley. Puente
la Reina is celebrated for its wines. Estella, one of the most charming
towns of Navarra, commands several roads leading to Castile and
Aragon, and its strategical importance is consequently considerable.
The Carlists, during the late war, transformed it into a formidable
fortress.
Tudela, abounding in wines, Calahorra, and Logroño, all in the
adjoining province of Logroño, are likewise of some value from a
military point of view, for they command the passages over the Ebro.
Calahorra, with its proud motto, “I have prevailed over Carthage and
Rome,” was the great bulwark of defence when Sertorius fought Pompey,
but was made to pay dearly for its heroism. Besieged by the Romans, its
defenders, constrained by hunger, fed upon their women and children,
and most of them perished. Though situated in the fertile district of
Rioja, beyond the frontiers of the Euskarian language, the history of
Calahorra is intimately connected with that of the Basque provinces,
for upon its ancient laws were modelled the fueros of Álava.[161]
VIII.—SANTANDER, THE ASTURIAS, AND GALICIA.
The Atlantic slope of the Cantabrian Pyrenees is a region completely
distinct from the rest of Spain. Mountains, hills, valleys, and
running waters succeed each other in infinite variety, and the coast
throughout is steep, with bold promontories and deep inlets, into
which flow rapid torrents. The climate is moist and salubrious. The
Celto-Iberian inhabitants of the country have in most instances escaped
the commotions which devastated the other provinces of the peninsula,
and the population, in proportion to the cultivable area, is more
dense than elsewhere. This region, being very narrow compared with its
length, has been split up into several political divisions, in spite of
similarity of physical features. The old kingdom of Galicia occupies
the west, the Asturias the centre, and Santander the east.[162]
The mountain region of Santander begins immediately to the east of
the Sierra Salvada and the depression known as Valle de Mena. The
Cantabrian Mountains slope down steeply there towards the Bay of
Biscay, whilst their height above the upland, through which the Ebro
has excavated its bed, is but trifling. The Puerto del Escudo attains
an elevation of 3,241 feet above Santander, its southern descent to
the valley of the Virga hardly exceeding 500 feet. The Pass of Reinosa
(2,778 feet), farther west, through which runs the railway from Madrid
to Santander, is even more characteristic. An almost imperceptible
height of land there separates the plateau from the steep declivity
which leads down to the coast, and by means of a canal sixty feet deep,
and a mile in length, the waters of the Ebro might be diverted into
the river Besaya, which enters the Atlantic at San Martin de Suances.
This height of land forms the natural outlet of {449} the Castiles to
the sea, and its possession is as important to the inhabitants of the
plateau as is that of the mouth of a river to a people dwelling on its
upper course.
[Illustration: Fig. 176.—THE ENVIRONS OF BILBAO.
Scale 1 : 200,000.]
Immediately to the east of this pass the aspect of the mountains
changes. They rise to a great height, piercing the zone of perennial
snow, and their southern escarpments are of great steepness. The Peña
Labra (8,295 feet) dominates the first of these mountain masses. Rivers
descend from it in all directions: the Ebro in the east, the Pisuerga
in the south, and the Nansa, or Tinamenor, in the north-west. Farther
west the Peña Prieta rises to a height of 8,295 feet, its snows feeding
the Carrion and Esla. It is joined in the north to a mountain mass even
more considerable, which bears the curious name of Peñas de Europa, or
“rocks {450} of Europe,” and culminates in the Torre de Cerredo (8,784
feet), covered with snow throughout the year, and boasting even of a
few glaciers, due to the excessive amount of precipitation.
[Illustration: Fig. 177.—ST. SEBASTIAN.
Scale 1 : 30,000.]
The valley of La Liébana, at the eastern foot of the Peñas de Europa,
resembles a vast caldron of extraordinary depth. Shut in on the west,
south, and east by huge precipices rising to a height of 6,500 feet,
it is closed in on the north by a transversal chain, through which
the waters of the Liébana have excavated for themselves a narrow
passage. The village of Potes, in the centre of this valley, lies at
an elevation of only 981 feet above the level of the sea. In Santander
and the Asturias, even more frequently than in the Basque country, we
meet with secondary chains running parallel with the coast. These are
composed of triassic, Jurassic, and cretaceous rocks, and rise like
advanced walls of defence in front of the main range of the mountains,
which consist of Silurian slates upheaved by granite. It results from
this that the course of the rivers is most erratic. On leaving their
upper valleys, where they frequently form cascades, their farther
progress is arrested by these parallel ranges, and they twist about
to the east and west until they find an outlet through which they may
escape.
The two funnel-shaped valleys of Valdeon (1,529 feet) and Sajambre are
enclosed between spurs of the Peñas de Europa. Their torrents drain
into the Bay of Biscay, but they are most readily accessible from the
plateau. Farther west the mountains decrease in height, and their main
crest gradually recedes from the coast. They are crossed here by the
Pass of Pajares (4,471 feet), which connects Leon with Oviedo. {451}
The Asturian Mountains are objects of veneration to every patriotic
Spaniard. Beautiful as they are, their lower slopes being covered with
chestnut-trees, walnut-trees, and oaks, whilst higher up forests of
beeches and hazel alternate with meadows, their beauty is enhanced by
the fact of their having afforded a refuge to the Christians whilst the
Moors held the rest of the country. Mount Ansena sheltered St. Pelagius
and his flock, and at Covadonga he built himself an abbey. These
“illustrious mountains” do not, however, merely boast of historical
associations, delightful villages, herds, and pastures; they hide
within their bowels a rich store of coal, one of the principal sources
of wealth to the Asturias.
[Illustration: Fig. 178.—ST. SEBASTIAN.]
Galicia is separated from the Castilian plateau by a continuation of
the Cantabrian Pyrenees, which here swerve to the south, and through
which the Sil has excavated its bed. To the north of that river they
culminate in the Pico de Miravalles (6,362 feet), and are crossed by
the Pass of Predrafita (3,600 feet), through which runs the main road
from Leon to Galicia.
[Illustration: Fig. 179.—GUETARIA.
Scale 1 : 8,000.]
In Galicia the hills rarely form well-defined chains, and mostly
consist of {452} primitive rocks or small table-lands, with peaks
or summits rising a few hundred feet above the general level of the
country. The disposition of the small ranges generally corresponds
with that of the coast. The Sierra de Rañadoiro (3,612 feet), a spur
of the Cantabrian Mountains, forms the natural boundary between the
{453} Asturias and Galicia. West of it, the Sierra de Meira (2,982
feet) runs in the same direction, but the chains which terminate in
Capes Estaca de Vares and Ortegal (_i.e._ Nortegal, “north cape”) run
from east to west, and are dominated by the pyramid of Monte Cuadramon
(3,342 feet). The hills to the west of the river Miño (Minho) terminate
in the famous promontories of Toriñana and Finisterre, or “land’s-end.”
This latter, a steep cliff rising boldly above the waters to the west
of the wide Bay of Corcubion, formerly bore a temple of the ancient
gods, since replaced by a church dedicated to the Virgin.
[Illustration: Fig. 180.—GUERNICA.
Scale 1 : 100,000.]
{454}
The coast of the Asturias abounds in small bays, or _rias_, bounded by
steep cliffs. In Galicia these rias assume vast proportions, and are
of great depth. They may fitly be likened to the fiords of Northern
Europe, and their origin appears to be the same. The marine fauna of
these Galician rias is Britannic rather than Lusitanian, for amongst
two hundred species of testacea collected by Mr. MacAndrew there are
only twenty-five which were not also found on the coasts of Britain.
Moreover, the flora of the Asturian Mountains is very much like that of
Ireland; and these facts go far in support of the hypothesis, started
by Forbes, that the Azores, Ireland, and Galicia, anterior to the
glacial epoch, were connected by land.
[Illustration: Fig. 181.—PASS OF REINOSA.
Scale 1 : 300,000.]
The climate, too, resembles that of Great Britain. The rainfall on
the exterior slopes of the mountains is abundant, whilst to the south
of them, in the arid plains of Leon and Castile, it hardly rains at
all. There are localities in the Asturias where the rainfall amounts
to more than six feet annually, a quantity only again met with on the
western mountain slopes of Scotland and Norway, and on the southern
declivities of the Swiss Alps. There is no season without rain, and
{455} droughts are exceedingly rare. Equinoctial storms are frequent
in autumn, and render the Bay of Biscay dangerous to mariners. The
temperature is equable, and fogs, locally known as _bretimas_, are
as frequent as in the British Islands. These fogs exercise a strong
influence upon the superstitious minds of the Galicians, who fancy they
see magicians, or _nuveiros_, ride upon the clouds, expand into mists,
and shrink back into cloudlets. They also believe that the bodies of
the dead are conveyed by the mists from cemetery to cemetery, these
fearful nocturnal processions being known to them as _estadeas_, or
_estadhinas_.[163]
In spite of an abundance of running water, the Cantabrian provinces
cannot boast of a single navigable river. In the Asturias the littoral
zone is too narrow, and the slope too considerable, to admit of
torrents becoming tranquil rivers. Nor are the Tambre and Ulla, in
Galicia, of any importance; and the only true river of the country is
the Miño, called Minho by the Portuguese on its lower course, where it
forms the boundary between the two states of Iberia. The Miño is fed
from both slopes of the Cantabrian Mountains, the Miño proper rising
on the western slope, whilst the Sil comes from the interior of the
country. The latter is the main branch. “The Miño has the reputation,”
say the Spaniards, “but the Sil has the water.” The Sil, before leaving
the province of Leon, passes through the ancient lake basin of the
Vierzo, now shrunk to a small sheet of water known as the Lago de
Carrocedo. It then passes in succession through a wild gorge, a second
lake basin, the tunnel of Monte Furado (“pierced mountains”), excavated
by the Romans to facilitate their mining operations, and finally rushes
through a gorge intersecting the Cantabrian Mountains, and one of the
wildest in all Spain, with precipitous walls more than 1,000 feet in
height. Immediately below the confluence with the Miño a second gorge
has to be passed, but then the waters of the river expand, and flow
into the sea through a wide estuary. Below Tuy, for a distance of about
twenty miles, the river is navigable. But though of small service to
navigation, the Miño is nevertheless one of the eight great rivers of
the Iberian peninsula, and proportionately to the extent of its basin
it is the most copious.[164]
The water of this and other rivers is not needed for agricultural
purposes, for it rains abundantly in Galicia and the Asturias, and the
emerald meadows of these provinces are as famous as those of England.
The flora, however, is upon the {456} whole more southerly in its
features than that of the countries to the north of the Bay of Biscay.
The orchards produce not only apples, chestnuts, and walnuts, but
also oranges, and in a garden at Oviedo dates ripen in the open air.
The great moisture, however, prevents certain plants from attaining
the commercial importance they would otherwise possess. The mulberry
flourishes, but the culture of silk-worms has only yielded indifferent
results, and even the grapes, except in a few favoured localities,
yield but sour wine of disagreeable flavour. Cider, on the other hand,
enjoys a high reputation, and is even exported to America.
[Illustration: Fig. 182.—THE PEÑAS DE EUROPA.
Scale 1 : 660,000.]
The Asturian boasts of having never submitted to the yoke of
Mussulmans. Some of the mountain districts preserved their independence
throughout, and nowhere could the Arabs maintain themselves for any
length of time. Oviedo was called the “city of bishops,” from the
great number of prelates who found a refuge there. The Galicians were
equally successful in their resistance to the Moors, and the blood of
the Celtic inhabitants of these remote provinces is thus purer than
anywhere else in Spain.
In some districts the customs are said to have remained unchanged
since {457} the time of the Romans. The herdsmen, or _vaqueros_, of
Leitariegos, on the Upper Narcea, form almost a distinct tribe. They
keep apart from the rest of the Asturians, and always marry amongst
themselves. Old dialects maintain their ground. The peasants on the
coast of Cantabria talk their _bable_, and in Galicia the dialects
differ even from village to village. The _gallego_, especially as
spoken near the Miño, is Portuguese rather than Spanish, but a
Lusitanian is nevertheless unable to understand a Galician, owing to
the curious sing-song intonation of the latter.
The country supports a dense population, but there are few towns. Many
of these consist merely of a church, a town-hall, and an inn. The
homesteads are scattered over the whole country. This may be due to
an innate love of nature, or perhaps, as in the Basque provinces, to
the security which the country has enjoyed during centuries. Foreign
and civil wars have scarcely ever affected these outlying provinces of
Spain. The manners are gentle, and the bloodthirsty bull-fights of the
Castilians unknown. The isolation and peace in which the Cantabrians
were permitted to exist did not, however, prove of advantage in
all respects. Elsewhere in Europe, nobles, priests, citizens, and
the peasantry, when threatened by danger, felt constrained to make
concessions to each other. Not so in the Asturias, where the peasants
were reduced to the condition of serfs, and sold with the land. At
the commencement of this century nearly the whole of the land in the
two Asturias was in the hands of twenty-four proprietors, and in the
neighbouring Galicia the conditions were not much more favourable.
Matters have changed since then. The lords have grown poor, the
monasteries have been suppressed, and the industrious Asturians and
Galicians have invested their hard-earned savings in land. Formerly the
feudal lords leased the land to the cultivators, who rendered homage
and paid a quit-rent, the lease remaining in force during the reign
of two or three kings, for a hundred years, or even for three hundred
and twenty-nine years, according to the custom of different districts.
These leases, however, frequently led to disputes; the leaseholders, on
the expiration of their leases, often refused to surrender possession,
and in numerous instances the law courts sustained them in this refusal.
The Galicians on the coast divide their time between the cultivation
of the land and fishing. During the season no less than 20,000 men,
with 3,000 or 4,000 boats, spread their nets in the Bays of La Coruña,
Arosa, Pontevedra, and Vigo, where tunny-fish and sardines abound. The
local consumption of sardines is enormous, and La Coruña alone exports
about 17,000 tons annually to America. These pursuits, however, are
not capable of supporting an increasing population, and thousands
of Galicians emigrate annually. Thrifty and clannish, they usually
succeed in amassing a small competency, and those among them who return
exercise a civilising influence upon their less-cultivated countrymen.
Ignorance and poverty, with all their attendant evils, are great in
Galicia, and leprosy and elephantiasis are common diseases.
One great hindrance to the development of the resources of the country
consists in the paucity of roads and railways. A beginning has been
made, but, looking to the financial condition of Spain, progress will
hardly be rapid. {458}
Most of the towns of the Asturias are close to the coast.
Castro-Urdiales, Laredo, and Santoña, immediately to the west of
the Basque provinces, have frequently served as naval stations. The
roadstead of Santoña is one of the most commodious and best sheltered
of the peninsula, and when Napoleon gave Spain to his brother Joseph he
retained possession of that place, and began fortifications which would
have converted it into a French Gibraltar.
[Illustration: Fig. 183.—RIAS OF LA CORUÑA AND FERROL.
Scale 1 : 210,400.]
The great commercial port of the country is Santander, with its
excellent harbour, quays, docks, and warehouses, built upon land won
from the sea. Santander is the natural outlet of the Castiles, and
exports the flour of Valladolid and Palencia, as well as the woollen
stuffs known as _sorianas_ and _leonesas_ from the places where they
are manufactured. It supplies the interior with the colonial produce
of Cuba and Puerto Rico, and its merchants keep up regular intercourse
with France, England, Hamburg, and Scandinavia.[165] The ship-building
yards at the head of the bay have lost their former importance, and
the manufacture of cigars is now the great industry of the country.
Sardinero, a bathing-place to the north of the town, and the hot
springs of Alcedo, Ontaneda, Las Caldas de Besaya, in the hills to the
south, are favourite places of resort.