_P.S._ Before I quit Barcelona, it will be but just to say, that it is a
good city, has a fine mole, and a noble citadel, beside _Monjuique_, a
strong fort, which stands on a high hill, and which commands the town as
well as the harbour. The town is very large and strongly fortified,
stands in a large plain, and is encompassed with a semi-circular range
of high hills, rather than mountains, which form _un coup-d'oeil_,
that is very pleasing, as not only the sides of the hills are adorned
with a great number of country houses, but the plain also affords a
great many, beside several little villages. The roads too near the town
are very good. As to the city itself, it is rather well built in
general, than abounding with any particular fine buildings. The
Inquisition has nothing to boast of now, either within or without,
having (fortunately for the public) lost a great part of its former
power: it, however, still keeps an awe upon all who live within its
verge. I never saw a town in which trade is carried on with more spirit
and industry; the indolent disposition of the Spaniards of _Castile_,
and other provinces, has not extended ever into this part of Spain. They
have here a very fine theatre; but those who perform upon the stage are
the refuse of the people, and are too bad to be called by the name of
actors. They have neither libraries nor pictures worthy of much notice,
though they boast of one or two paintings in their churches by natives
of the town, François _Guirro_, and John _Arnau_. In the custom-house
hangs a full-length of the present King, so execrable, that one would
wonder it was not put, with the painter, into the Inquisition, as a
libel on royalty and the arts. I am told, at _La Fete Dieu_ there are
some processions of the most ridiculous nature. The fertility of the
earth in and about the town is wonderful; the minute one crop is off the
earth, another is put in; no part of the year puts a stop to vegetation.
In the coldest weather, the market abounds with a great variety of the
choicest flowers; yet their sweets cannot over-power the intolerable
smell which salt fish, and stinking fish united, diffuse over all that
part of the city; and rich as the inhabitants are, you will see the
legs, wings, breasts, and entrails of fowls, in the market, cut up as
joints of meat are in other countries, to be sold separately: nor could
I find in this great city either oil, olives, or wine, that were
tolerable. I paid a guinea a day at the _Fontain d'Or_ for my table;
yet every thing was so dirty, that I always made my dinner from the
dessert; nor was there any other place but the stable of this dirty inn
to put up my horse, where I paid twelve livres a week for straw only;
and whoever lodges at this inn, must pay five shillings a day for their
dinner, whether they dine there or not.
_Catalonia_ is undoubtedly the best cultivated, the richest, and most
industrious province, or principality, in Spain; and the King, who has
the SUN FOR HIS HAT, (for it always shines in some part of his
dominions) has nothing to boast of, equal to _Catalonia_.
As I have almost as much abhorrence to the Moors, as even the Spaniards
themselves, (having visited that coast two or three times, many years
ago) you may be sure I was grieved to meet, every time I went out, so
many maimed and wounded officers and soldiers, who were not long
returned from the unsuccessful expedition to _Algiers_. There are no
troops in the world more steady than the Spaniards; it was not for want
of bravery they miscarried, but there was some sad mismanagement; and
had the Moors followed their blows, not a man of them would have
returned. My servant, (a French deserter) who was upon that expedition,
says, Gen. O'Reilly was the first who landed, and the last who
embarked;--but it is the HEAD, not the _arm_ of a commander in chief,
which is most wanted. The Moors at _le point du jour_, advanced upon
the Spaniards behind a formidable _masked and moving battery_ of
camels: the Spaniards, believing them, by a faint light, to be cavalry,
expended a great part of their strength, spirits, and ammunition, upon
those harmless animals; and it was not till _this curtain_ was removed
that the dreadful carnage began, in which they lost about nine thousand
men. There seems to have been some strange mismanagement; it seems
probable that there was no very good understanding between the marine
and the land officers. The fleet were many days before the town, and
then landed just where the Moors expected they would land. There is
nothing so difficult, so dangerous, nor so liable to miscarriage, as
the war of _invading_: our troops experienced it at _St. Cas_; and they
either have, or will experience it in America. The wild negroes in
Jamaica, to whom Gov. Trelawney wisely gave, what they contended for,
(LIBERTY) were not above fifteen hundred fit to bear arms. I was in
several skirmishes with them, and second in command under Mr. Adair's
brother, a valiant young man who died afterwards in the field, who made
peace with them; yet I will venture to affirm, that though five hundred
disciplined troops would have subdued them in an open country, the
united force of France and England could not have extirpated them from
their fast holds in the mountains. Did not a Baker battle and defeat
two Marshals of France in the Cevennes? And is it probable, that all
the fleets and armies of Great-Britain can conquer America?--England
may as well attempt moving that Continent on this side the Atlantic.