OCTOBER 1835–JANUARY 1836
BORROW had strong hopes that the Bible Society would continue to employ
him. Mr Brandram had written (5th June 1835) that the Committee “will
not very willingly suffer themselves to be deprived of your services.
From Russia Borrow had written to his mother: {148}
“They [the Bible Society] place great confidence in me, and I am
firmly resolved to do all in my power to prove that they have not
misplaced that confidence. I dare say that when I return home they
will always be happy to employ me to edit their Bibles, and there is
no employment in the whole world which I should prefer and for which
I am better fitted. I shall, moreover, endeavour to get ordained.”
On another occasion he wrote, also to his mother:
“I hope that the Bible Society will employ me upon something new, for
I have of late led an active life, and dread the thought of having
nothing to do except studying as formerly, and I am by no means
certain that I could sit down to study now. I can do anything if it
is to turn to any account; but it is very hard to dig holes in the
sand and fill them up again, as I used to do. However, I hope God
will find me something on which I can employ myself with credit and
profit. I should like very much to get into the Church, though I
suppose that that, like all other professions, is overstocked.”
Mrs Borrow reminded him that he had a good home ready to receive him, and
a mother grown lonely with long waiting. She told him, among other
things, that she had spent none of the money that he had so generously
and unsparingly sent her.
Borrow certainly had every reason to expect further employment. He had
proved himself not only a thoroughly qualified editor; but had discovered
business qualities that must have astonished and delighted the General
Committee. Above all he had brought to a most successful conclusion a
venture that, but for his ability and address, would in all probability
have failed utterly. The application for permission to proceed with the
distribution had, it is true, been unsuccessful; but there was, as Mr
Brandram wrote, the “seed laid up in the granary; but ‘it is not yet
written’ that the sowers are to go forth to sow.”
After remaining for a short time with his mother at Norwich, Borrow
appears to have paid a visit to his friends the Skeppers of Oulton. Old
Mrs Skepper, Mrs Clarke’s mother, had just died, and it is a proof of
Borrow’s intimacy with the family that he should be invited to stay with
them whilst they were still in mourning. Although there is no record of
the date when he arrived at Oulton, he is known to have been there on 9th
October, when he addressed a Bible Society meeting, about which he wrote
the following delectable postscript to a letter he addressed to Mr
Brandram: {149}
“There has been a Bible meeting at Oulton, in Suffolk, to which I was
invited. The speaking produced such an effect, that some of the most
vicious characters in the neighbourhood have become weekly
subscribers to the Branch Society. So says the Chronicle of Norfolk
in its report.” The actual paragraph read:
“It will doubtless afford satisfaction to the Christian public to
learn that many poor individuals in this neighbourhood, who previous
to attending this meeting were averse to the cause or indifferent to
it, had their feelings so aroused by what was communicated to them,
that they have since voluntarily subscribed to the Bible Society,
actuated by the hope of becoming humbly instrumental in extending the
dominion of the true light, and of circumscribing the domains of
darkness and of Satan.”
On returning to the quiet of the old Cathedral city, Borrow had an
opportunity of resting and meditating upon the events of the last two
years; but he soon became restless and tired of inaction. {150a} “I am
weary of doing nothing, and am sighing for employment,” {150b} he wrote.
He had impatiently awaited some word from Earl Street, where, seemingly,
he had discussed various plans for the future, including a journey to
Portugal and Spain, as well as the printing in Armenian of an edition of
the New Testament. Hearing nothing from Mr Jowett, he wrote begging to
be excused for reminding him that he was ready to undertake any task that
might be allotted to him.
On the day following, he received a letter from Mr Brandram telling of
how a resolution had been passed that he should go to Portugal. Then the
writer’s heart misgave him. In his mind’s eye he saw Borrow set down at
Oporto. What would he do? Fearful that the door was not sufficiently
open to justify the step, he had suggested the suspension of the
resolution. Borrow was asked what he himself thought. What did he think
of China, and could he foresee any prospect for the distribution of the
Scriptures there? “Favour us with your thoughts,” Mr Brandram wrote.
“Experimental agency in a Society like ours is a formidable undertaking.”
Borrow replied the same day, {150c}
“As you ask me to favour you with my thoughts, I certainly will; for
I have thought much upon the matters in question, and the result I
will communicate to you in a very few words. I decidedly approve
(and so do all the religious friends whom I have communicated it to)
of the plan of a journey to Portugal, and am sorry that it has been
suspended, though I am convinced that your own benevolent and
excellent heart was the cause, unwilling to fling me into an
undertaking which you supposed might be attended with peril and
difficulty. Therefore I wish it to be clearly understood that I am
perfectly willing to undertake the expedition, nay, to extend it into
Spain, to visit the town and country, to discourse with the people,
especially those connected with institutions for infantine education,
and to learn what ways and opportunities present themselves for
conveying the Gospel into those benighted countries. I will moreover
undertake, with the blessing of God, to draw up a small volume of
what I shall have seen and heard there, which cannot fail to be
interesting, and if patronised by the Society will probably help to
cover the expenses of the expedition. On my return I can commence
the Armenian Testament, and whilst I am editing that, I may be
acquiring much vulgar Chinese from some unemployed Lascar or stray
Cantonman whom I may pick up upon the wharves, and then . . . to
China. I have no more to say, for were I to pen twenty pages, and I
have time enough for so doing, I could communicate nothing which
would make my views more clear.”
The earnestness of this letter seems effectually to have dissipated Mr
Brandram’s scruples, for events moved forward with astonishing rapidity.
Four days after the receipt of Borrow’s letter, a resolution was adopted
by the Committee to the following effect:—
“That Mr Borrow be requested to proceed forthwith to Lisbon and
Oporto for the purpose of visiting the Society’s correspondents
there, and of making further enquiries respecting the means and
channels which may offer for promoting the circulation of the Holy
Scriptures in Portugal.” {151}
Mr Brandram gave Borrow two letters of introduction, one to John Wilby, a
merchant at Lisbon, and the other to the British Chaplain, the Rev. E.
Whiteley. Having explained to Mr Whiteley how Borrow had recently been
eventually going to be employed in St Petersburg in editing the Manchu New
Testament, he wrote:—
“We have some prospect of his eventually going to China; but having proved by experience
that he possesses an order of talent remarkably suited to the
purposes of our Society, we have felt unwilling to interrupt our
connection with him with the termination of his engagement at St
Petersburg. In the interval we have thought that he might
advantageously visit Portugal, and strengthen your hands and those of
other friends, and see whether he could not extend the promising
opening at present existing. He has no specific instructions, though
he is enjoined to confer very fully with yourself and Mr Wilby of
Lisbon.
“I have mentioned his recent occupation at St Petersburg, and you may
perhaps think that there is little affinity between it and his
present visit to Portugal. But Mr Borrow possesses no little tact in
addressing himself to anything. With Portugal he is already
acquainted, and speaks the language. He proposes visiting several of
the principal cities and towns . . .
“Our correspondence about Spain is at this moment singularly
interesting, and if it continues so, and the way seems to open, Mr
Borrow will cross the frontier and go and enquire what can be done
there. We believe him to be one who is endowed with no small portion
of address and a spirit of enterprise. I recommend him to your kind
attentions, and I anticipate your thanks for so doing, after you
shall have become acquainted with him. Do not, however, be too hasty
in forming your judgment.”
This letter outlines very clearly what was in the minds of the Committee
in sending Borrow to Portugal. He was to spy out the land and advise the
home authorities in what direction he would be most likely to prove
useful. He was in particular to direct his attention to schools, and was
“authorised to be liberal in _giving_ New Testaments.” Furthermore, he
was to be permitted to draw upon the Society’s agents to the extent of
one hundred pounds.
The most significant part of this letter is the passage relating to
China. It leaves no doubt that Borrow’s reiterated requests to be
employed in distributing the Manchu New Testament had appealed most
strongly to the General Committee. Mr Brandram was evidently in doubt as
to how Borrow would strike his correspondent as an agent of the Bible
Society, hence his warning against a hasty judgment. Apparently this
letter was never presented, as it was found among Borrow’s papers, and Mr
Whiteley had to form his opinion entirely unaided.
On 6th November Borrow sailed from the Thames for Lisbon in the steamship
_London Merchant_. The voyage was fair for the time of year, and was
marked only by the tragic occurrence of a sailor falling from the
cross-trees into the sea and being drowned. The man had dreamed his fate
a few minutes previously, and had told Borrow of the circumstances on
coming up from below. {153}
Borrow had scarcely been in Lisbon an hour before he heartily wished
himself “back in Russia . . . where I had left cherished friends and warm
affections.” The Customs-house officers irritated him, first with their
dilatoriness, then by the minuteness with which they examined every
article of which he was possessed. Again, there was the difficulty of
obtaining a suitable lodging, which when eventually found proved to be
“dark, dirty and exceedingly expensive without attendance.” Mr Wilby was
in the country and not expected to return for a week. It would also
appear that the British Chaplain was likewise away. Thus Borrow found
himself with no one to advise him as to the first step he should take.
This in itself was no very great drawback; but he felt very much a
stranger in a city that struck him as detestable.
Determined to commence operations according to the dictates of his own
judgment, he first engaged a Portuguese servant that he might have ample
opportunities of perfecting himself in the language. He was fortunate in
his selection, for Antonio turned out an excellent fellow, who “always
served me with the greatest fidelity, and . . . exhibited an assiduity
and a wish to please which afforded me the utmost satisfaction.” {154a}
When Borrow arrived in Portugal, it was to find it gasping and dazed by
eight years of civil war (1826–1834). In 1807, when Junot invaded the
country, the Royal House of Braganza had sailed for Brazil. In 1816 Dom
Joāo succeeded to the thrones of Brazil and Portugal, and six years later
he arrived in Portugal, leaving behind him as Viceroy his son Dom Pedro,
who promptly declared himself Emperor of Brazil. Dom Joāo died in 1826,
leaving, in addition to the self-styled Emperor of Brazil, another son,
Miguel. Dom Pedro relinquished his claim to the throne of Portugal in
favour of his seven years old daughter, Maria da Gloria, whose right was
contested by her uncle Dom Miguel. In 1834 Dom Miguel resigned his
imaginary rights to the throne by the Convention of Evora, and departed
from the country that for eight years had been at war with itself, and
for seven with a foreign invader.
Borrow proceeded to acquaint himself with the state of affairs in Lisbon
and the surrounding country, that he might transmit a full account to the
Bible Society. He visited every part of the city, losing no opportunity
of entering into conversation with anyone with whom he came in contact.
The people he found indifferent to religion, the lower orders in
particular. They laughed in his face when he enquired if ever they
confessed themselves, and a muleteer on being asked if he reverenced the
cross, “instantly flew into a rage, stamped violently, and, spitting on
the ground, said it was a piece of stone, and that he should have no more
objection to spit upon it than the stones on which he trod.” {154b}
Many of the people could read, as they proved when asked to do so from
the Portuguese New Testament; but of all those whom he addressed none
appeared to have read the Scriptures, or to know anything of what they
contain.
After spending four or five days at Lisbon, Borrow, accompanied by
Antonio, proceeded to Cintra. {155a} Here he pursued the same method,
also visiting the schools and enquiring into the nature of the religious
instruction. During his stay of four days, he “traversed the country in
all directions, riding into the fields, where I saw the peasants at work,
and entering into discourse with them, and notwithstanding many of my
questions must have appeared to them very singular, I never experienced
any incivility, though they frequently answered me with smiles and
laughter.” {155b}
From Cintra he proceeded on horseback to Mafra, a large village some
three leagues distant. Everywhere he subjected the inhabitants to a
searching cross-examination, laying bare their minds upon religious
matters, experiencing surprise at the “free and unembarrassed manner in
which the Portuguese peasantry sustain a conversation, and the purity of
the language in which they express their thoughts,” {155c} although few
could read or write.
On the return journey from Mafra to Cintra he nearly lost his life, owing
to the girth of his saddle breaking during his horse’s exertions in
climbing a hill. Borrow was cast violently to the ground; but
fortunately on the right side, otherwise he would in all probability have
been bruised to death by tumbling down the steep hill-side. As it was,
he was dazed, and felt the effects of his mishap for several days.
On his return to Lisbon, Borrow found that Mr Wilby was back, and he had
many opportunities of taking counsel with him as to the best means to be
adopted to further the Society’s ends. He learned that four hundred
copies of the Bible and the New Testament had arrived, and it was decided
to begin operations at once. Mr Wilby recommended the booksellers as the
best medium of distribution; but Borrow urged strongly that at least half
of the available copies “should be entrusted to colporteurs,” who were to
receive a commission upon every copy sold. To this Mr Wilby agreed,
provided the operations of the colporteurs were restricted to Lisbon, as
there was considerable danger in the country, where the priests were very
powerful and might urge the people to mishandle, or even assassinate, the
bearers of the Word.
By nature Borrow was not addicted to half measures. His whole record as
an agent of the Bible Society was of a series of determined onslaughts
upon the obstacles animate and inanimate, that beset his path. Sometimes
he took away the breath of his adversaries by the very vigour of his
attack, and, like the old Northern leaders, whose deeds he wished to give
to an uneager world in translated verse, he faced great dangers and
achieved great ends. Recognising that the darkest region is most in need
of light, he enquired of Mr Wilby in what province of Portugal were to be
found the most ignorant and benighted people, and on being told the
Alemtejo (the other side of the Tagus), he immediately announced his
intention of making a journey through it, in order to discover how dense
spiritual gloom could really be in an ostensibly Christian country.
The Alemtejo was an unprepossessing country, consisting for the most part
of “heaths, broken by knolls and gloomy dingles, swamps and forests of
stunted pine,” with but few hills and mountains. The place was infested
with banditti, and robberies, accompanied by horrible murders, were of
constant occurrence. On 6th December, accompanied by his servant
Antonio, Borrow set out for Evora, the principal town, formerly a seat of
the dreaded Inquisition, which lies about sixty miles east of Lisbon.
After many adventures, which he himself has narrated, including a
dangerous crossing of the Tagus, and a meeting with Dom Geronimo Jozé
d’Azveto, secretary to the government of Evora, Borrow arrived at his
destination, having spent two nights on the road. During the journey he
had been constantly mindful of his mission; beside the embers of a
bandit’s fire he left a New Testament, and the huts that mark the spot
where Dom Pedro and Dom Miguel met, he sweetened with some of “the
precious little tracts.”
He had brought with him to Evora twenty Testaments and two Bibles, half
of which he left with an enlightened shopkeeper, to whom he had a letter
of introduction. The other half he subsequently bestowed upon Dom
Geronimo, who proved to be a man of great earnestness, deeply conscious
of his countrymen’s ignorance of true Christianity. Each day during his
stay at Evora, Borrow spent two hours beside the fountain where the
cattle were watered, entering into conversation with all who approached,
the result being that before he left the town, he had spoken to “about
two hundred . . . of the children of Portugal upon matters connected with
their eternal welfare.” Sometimes his hearers would ask for proofs of
his statements that they were not Christians, being ignorant of Christ
and his teaching, and that the Pope was Satan’s prime minister. He
invariably replied by calling attention to their own ignorance of the
Scripture, for if the priests were in reality Christ’s ministers, why had
they kept from their flocks the words of their Master?
When not engaged at the fountain, Borrow rode about the neighbourhood
distributing tracts. Fearful lest the people might refuse them if
offered by his own hand, he dropped them in their favourite walks, in the
hope that they would be picked up out of curiosity. He caused the
daughter of the landlady of the inn at which he stopped to burn a copy of
Volney’s _Ruins of Empire_, because the author was an “emissary of
Satan,” the girl standing by telling her beads until the book were
entirely consumed.
Borrow had been greatly handicapped through the lack of letters of
introduction to influential people in Portugal. He wrote, therefore, to
Dr Bowring, now M.P. for Kilmarnock, telling him of his wanderings among
the rustics and banditti of Portugal, with whom he had become very
popular; but, he continues:
“As it is much more easy to introduce oneself to the cottage than the
hall (though I am not utterly unknown in the latter), I want you to
give or procure me letters to the most liberal and influential minds
in Portugal. I likewise want a letter from the Foreign Office to
Lord [Howard] de Walden. In a word, I want to make what interest I
can towards obtaining the admission of the Gospel of Jesus into the
public schools of Portugal, which are about to be established. I beg
leave to state that this is _my plan_ and no other person’s, as I was
merely sent over to Portugal to observe the disposition of the
people, therefore I do not wish to be named as an Agent of the B.S.,
but as a person who has plans for the mental improvement of the
Portuguese; should I receive _these letters_ within the space of six
weeks it will be time enough, for before setting up my machine in
Portugal, I wish to lay the foundations of something similar in
Spain.”
P.S.—“I start for Spain to-morrow, and I want letters something
similar (there is impudence for you) for Madrid, _which I should like
to have as soon as possible_. I do not much care at present for an
introduction to the Ambassador at Madrid, as I shall not commence
operations seriously in Spain until I have disposed of Portugal. I
will not apologise for writing to you in this manner, for you know
me, but I will tell you one thing, which is, that the letter which
you procured for me, on my going to St Petersburg, from Lord
Palmerston, assisted me wonderfully; I called twice at your domicile
on my return; the first time you were in Scotland—the second in
France, and I assure you I cried with vexation. Remember me to Mrs
Bowring, and God bless you.” {159a}
In this letter Borrow gives another illustration of his shrewdness. He
saw clearly the disadvantage of appealing for assistance as an agent of
the Bible Society, a Protestant institution which was anathema in a Roman
Catholic country, whereas if he posed merely as “a gentleman who has
plans for the mental improvement of the Portuguese,” he could enlist the
sympathetic interest of any and every broad-minded Portuguese mindful of
his country’s intellectual gloom. In response to this request Dr
Bowring, writing from Brussels, sent two letters of introduction, one
each for Lisbon and Madrid.
After remaining at Evora for a week (8th to 17th December) Borrow
returned to Lisbon, thoroughly satisfied with the results of his journey.
The next fortnight he spent in a further examination of Lisbon, and
becoming acquainted with the Jews of the city, by whom he was welcomed as
a powerful rabbi. He favoured the mistake, with the result that in a few
days he “knew all that related to them and their traffic in Lisbon.”
{159b}
Borrow’s methods seem to have impressed Earl Street most favourably. In
a letter of acknowledgment Mr Brandram wrote:—
“We have been much interested by your two communications. {159c}
They are both very painful in their details, and you develop a truly
awful state of things. You are probing the wound, and I hope
preparing the way for our pouring in by and by the healing balsam of
the Scripture. We shall be anxious to hear from you again. We often
think of you in your wanderings. We like your way of communicating
with the people, meeting them in their own walks.”
Thoroughly convinced as to the irreligious state of Portugal, Borrow
determined to set out for Spain, in order that he might examine into the
condition of the people, and report to the Bible Society their state of
preparedness to receive the Scriptures. On the afternoon of 1st January
1836 he set out, bound for Badajos, a hundred miles south of Lisbon.
From Badajos he intended to take the diligence on to Madrid, which he
decided to make his headquarters.
Having taken leave of his servant Antonio (who had accompanied him as far
as Aldéa Galléga) almost with tears, Borrow mounted a hired mule, and
with no other companion than an idiot lad, who, when spoken to, made
reply only with an uncouth laugh, he plunged once more into the dangerous
and desolate Alemtejo on a four days’ journey “over the most savage and
ill-noted track in the whole kingdom.” At first he was overwhelmed with
a sense of loneliness, and experienced a great desire for someone with
whom to talk. There was no one to be seen—he was hemmed in by desolation
and despair.
At Montemôr Novo Borrow appears in a new light when he kisses his hand
repeatedly to the tittering nuns who, with “dusky faces and black waving
hair,” {160a} strove to obtain a glance of the stranger who, a few
minutes previously, had dared to tell one of their number that he had
come “to endeavour to introduce the gospel of Christ into a country where
it is not known.” {160b}
One adventure befel him that might have ended in tragedy. Soon after
leaving Arrayólos he overtook a string of carts conveying ammunition into
Spain. One of the Portuguese soldiers of the guard began to curse
foreigners in general and Borrow, whom he mistook for a Frenchmen, in
particular, because “the devil helps foreigners and hates the
Portuguese.” When about forty yards ahead of the advance guard, with
which the discontented soldier marched, Borrow had the imprudence to
laugh, with the result that the next moment two well-aimed bullets sang
past his ears. Taking the hint, Borrow put spurs to his mule, and,
followed by the terrified guide, soon outdistanced these official
banditti. With great _naïveté_ he remarks, “Oh, may I live to see the
day when soldiery will no longer be tolerated in any civilised, or at
least Christian country!” {161a}
For two and a half days the idiot guide had met Borrow’s most dexterous
cross-examination with a determined silence; but on reaching a hill
overlooking Estremóz he suddenly found tongue, and, in an epic of
inspiration, told of the wonderful hunting that was to be obtained on the
Serre Dorso, the Alemtejo’s finest mountain. “He likewise described with
great minuteness a wonderful dog, which was kept in the neighbourhood for
the purpose of catching the wolves and wild boars, and for which the
proprietor had refused twenty _moidores_.” {161b} From this it would
appear that the idiocy of the guide was an armour to be assumed at will
by one who preferred the sweetness of his own thoughts to the
cross-questionings of his master’s clients.
At Elvas, which he reached on 5th January, Borrow showed very strongly
one rather paradoxical side of his character. Never backward in his
dispraise of Englishmen and things English, in particular those
responsible for the administration of the nation’s affairs, past and
present, he demonstrated very clearly, in his expressions of indignation
at the Portuguese attitude towards England, that he reserved this right
of criticism strictly to himself. At the inn where he stayed, he
thoroughly discomfited a Portuguese officer who dared to criticise the
English Government for its attitude in connection with the Spanish civil
war. When refused entrance to the fort, where he had gone in order to
satisfy his curiosity, Borrow exclaims, “This is one of the beneficial
results of protecting a nation, and squandering blood and treasure in its
defence.” {162a}
Borrow was essentially an Englishman and proud of his blood, prouder
perhaps of that which came to him from Norfolk, {162b} and although
permitting himself and his fellow-countrymen considerable license in the
matter of caustic criticism of public men and things, there the matter
must end. Let a foreigner, a Portuguese, dare to say a word against his,
Borrow’s, country, and he became subjected to either a biting
cross-examination, or was denounced in eloquent and telling periods. “I
could not command myself,” he writes in extenuation of his unchristian
conduct in discomfiting the officer at Elvas, “when I heard my own
glorious land traduced in this unmerited manner. By whom? A Portuguese?
A native of a country which has been twice liberated from horrid and
detestable thraldom by the hands of Englishmen.” {162c}
On 6th January 1836, {162d} having sent back the “idiot” guide with the
two mules, Borrow “spurred down the hill of Elvas to the plain, eager to
arrive in old, chivalrous, romantic Spain,” and having forded the stream
that separates the two countries, he crossed the bridge over the Guadiana
and entered the North Gate of Badajos, immortalised by Wellington and the
British Army. He had reached Spain “in the humble hope of being able to
cleanse some of the foul stains of Popery from the minds of its
children.” {162e}