Borrow's chief regret at leaving Russia was that his active life was
interrupted, perhaps at an end. He was dreading the old life of
unprofitable study with no complete friends. But luckily, when he had
only been a month in England, the Bible Society resolved to send him to
Lisbon and Oporto, to look for openings for circulating the Bible in
Portugal and perhaps in Spain. After this they had thoughts of sending
him to China by sea. In November, 1835, he sailed for Lisbon.
Spain was at this time the victim of private quarrels which had been
allowed to assume public importance. King Ferdinand VII. had twice been
restored to an unloving people by foreign, especially English, aid. This
King had for heir his brother Carlos, until his fourth wife, Maria
Christina, bore him a daughter, Isabella, in 1830; and to secure her
succession he set aside the Salic law. In 1833 he died. Isabella II.
was proclaimed Queen, and Christina Regent. Christinists and Carlists
were soon at war, and very bloody war. The English intervened, once
diplomatically, once with a foreign legion. The war wavered, with
success now to the Carlist Generals Zumalacarregui and Cabrera and now to
the Christinist Espartero. There were new Prime Ministers about twice
yearly. The parties were divided amongst themselves, and treachery was
common. The only result that could always be foreseen was that the
people and the country would suffer. Not until 1841 did Espartero
finally defeat Cabrera.
Portugal, in 1835, had just had its eight years of civil war between the
partisans of a child--Maria II.--aged seven, and her uncle, Miguel,
ending in the departure of Miguel. Borrow made a preliminary journey in
the forlorn country and decided for Spain instead. Escaping the bullets
of Portuguese soldiers, he crossed the boundary at the beginning of 1836
and entered Badajoz. There he met the Gypsies, and put off his journey
to Madrid to see more of them and translate the fifteenth chapter of St.
Luke into their tongue. At Merida he stopped again for a Gypsy wedding.
His guide was the Gypsy, Antonio Lopez, who sold him the donkey which he
rode as far as Talavera. At Madrid his business was to print the New
Testament in a Spanish Catholic translation. He had to wait; but with a
new Cabinet permission was obtained and arrangements for the printing
were made. The Revolution of La Granja, which he describes in "The Bible
in Spain," caused another delay. Then, in October, after a visit to the
Gypsies of Granada, he returned to London.
He had written long letters to the Bible Society, and one which was
combined and published in the "Athenaeum" with that written from Moscow.
It is dated, Madrid, July 19, 1836, but describes his visit to Badajoz on
January 6. He says, on entering Badajoz:
"I instantly returned thanks to God, who had protected me during a
journey of five days through the wilds of the Alemtejo, the province of
Portugal the most infested by robbers and desperate characters, and which
I had traversed with no other human companion than a lad, nearly idiotic,
who was to convey back the mules which carried myself and luggage."
Two men were passing him in the street, and seeing the face of one he
touched his arm: "I said a certain word, to which, after an exclamation
of surprise, he responded in the manner I expected." They were Gypsies.
He continues:
"They left me in haste and went about the town informing the rest that a
stranger had arrived who spoke Rommany as well as themselves, who had the
eyes and face of a Gitano, and seemed to be of the 'cratti' or blood. In
less than half an hour the street before the inn was filled with the men,
women and children of Egypt. I went out amongst them, and my heart sank
within me as I surveyed them; so much squalidness, dirt and misery I had
never before seen amongst a similar number of human beings; but the worst
of all was the evil expression of their countenances, denoting that they
were familiar with every species of crime, and it was not long before I
found that their countenances did not belie them. After they had asked
me an infinity of questions, and felt my hands, face, and clothes, they
returned to their homes."
He stayed with them nearly three weeks, he says; about ten days, says Dr.
Knapp. Borrow continues:
"The result of my observations was a firm belief that the Spanish Gitanos
are the most vile, degraded and wretched people upon the earth. The
great wickedness of these outcasts may, perhaps, be attributed to their
having abandoned their wandering life and become inmates of the towns,
where, to the original bad traits of their character, they have
superadded the evil and vicious habits of the rabble. . . . They listened
with admiration, but alas, not of the truths, the eternal truths I was
telling them, but at finding that their broken jargon could be written
and read; the only words of assent to the heavenly doctrine which I ever
obtained, and which were rather of the negative kind, were the following,
from a woman--'Brother! you tell us strange things, though perhaps you do
not lie; a month since I would sooner have believed these tales than that
I should this day have seen one who could write Rommany.' . . ."
He preserves the clergyman, but deepens the Gypsy stain. The "Athenaeum"
was "not at liberty on this occasion" to publish the name of this man
whom Gypsies called "Brother," but apparently it would not be the name of
any writer hitherto known to readers of the "Athenaeum."
He was a month in England, and then left for Spain to print and
distribute Testaments. He had hardly put his feet on Spanish soil than,
said the Marquis of Santa Colona, {137} he "looked round, saw some
Gypsies lounging there, said something that the Marquis could not
understand, and immediately 'that man became _une grappe de Gitanos_.'
They hung round his neck, clung to his knees, seized his hands, kissed
his feet, so that the Marquis hardly liked to join his comrade again,
after such close embraces by so dirty a company." At Cordova he was very
well received by the Gypsies "on the supposition that he was one of their
own race." He says in "The Gypsies of Spain":
"As for myself, I was admitted without scruple to their private meetings,
and was made a participator of their most secret thoughts. During our
intercourse, some remarkable scenes occurred: one night more than twenty
of us, men and women, were assembled in a long low room on the ground
floor, in a dark alley or court in the old gloomy town of Cordova. After
the Gitanos had discussed several jockey plans, and settled some private
bargains amongst themselves, we all gathered round a huge brasero of
flaming charcoal, and began conversing _sobre las cosas de Egypto_, when
I proposed that, as we had no better means of amusing ourselves, we
should endeavour to turn into the Calo language some piece of devotion,
that we might see whether this language, the gradual decay of which I had
frequently heard them lament, was capable of expressing any other matters
than those which related to horses, mules, and Gypsy traffic. It was in
this cautious manner that I first endeavoured to divert the attention of
these singular people to matters of eternal importance. My suggestion
was received with acclamations, and we forthwith proceeded to the
translation of the Apostle's Creed. I first recited in Spanish, in the
usual manner and without pausing, this noble confession, and then
repeated it again, sentence by sentence, the Gitanos translating as I
proceeded. They exhibited the greatest eagerness and interest in their
unwonted occupation, and frequently broke into loud disputes as to the
best rendering--many being offered at the same time. In the meanwhile, I
wrote down from their dictation, and at the conclusion I read aloud the
translation, the result of the united wisdom of the assembly, whereupon
they all raised a shout of exultation, and appeared not a little proud of
the composition."
In his desire to see the Gypsies and the ways of the people he more than
doubled his difficulties, and suffered from cold and the rudeness of the
roads and of the people. But in spite of the internecine civil war he
got safe to Madrid. Printing was begun in 1837, and when copies were
ready Borrow advertised them and arranged for their distribution. He
himself set out with his servant, Antonio Buchini, a Greek of
Constantinople, who had served an infinity of masters, and once been a
cook to the overbearing General Cordova, and answered the General's sword
with a pistol. They travelled to Salamanca, Valladolid, Leon, Astorga,
Villafranca, Lugo, Coruna, to Santiago, Vigo, and again to Coruna, to
Ferrol, Oviedo, Santander, Burgos, Valladolid, and so back to Madrid in
October. He had suffered from fever, dysentery and ophthalmia on the
journey. According to Dr. Knapp it was the most unpropitious country
possible. If chosen by anything but ignorance, it must have been by whim
and the unconscious desire to delight posterity and amaze Dr. Knapp.
Borrow had met, among others, Benedict Mol, the Swiss seeker after
treasure hidden in the earth under the Church of San Roque at St. James'
of Compostella. This traveller was not his only acquaintance. He formed
a friendship at Madrid with the Spanish scholar, Luis de Usoz, afterwards
editor of "The Early Spanish Reformers," who became a member of the Bible
Society, helped Borrow in editing the Spanish Testament, and looked after
his interests while he was away from Madrid. At St. James' itself he
made a friend and a co-operator of the old bookseller, Rey Romero, who
knew Benedict Moll.
Borrow returned to the sale of Testaments at Madrid, and to his own
favourite project of printing his Spanish Gypsy translation of the Gospel
of St. Luke. To advertise his Testaments he posted up and sent about
flaming tricoloured placards. This was too much for the Moderate
Government which had followed the Liberals: the sale of Testaments was
stopped, and that for thirty years after. The officials had been
irritated by the far graver indiscretions of another but irregular agent
of the Bible Society, Lieutenant Graydon, R.N., "a fervid Irish
Protestant." {139} Apparently this man had advertised Bibles in Valencia
as to be sold at very low prices and even given away; had printed abuse
of the Spanish clergy and Government, and had described himself as co-
operating with Borrow. Except at Madrid, the Bibles and Testaments in
Borrow's depots throughout Spain were seized by the Government. The
books had at last to be sent out of the country, British Consuls were
forbidden to countenance religious agents; and in the opinion of the
Consul at Seville, J. M. Brackenbury, this was directly due to Graydon's
indiscretions. The Society were kind to him. They cautioned him not to
attack Popery, but to leave the Bible to speak for itself. The caution
was vain, but in spite of the harm done to Borrow and themselves they
recalled Graydon with but a qualified disavowal of his conduct. Borrow
did not conceal from the Society his opinion that this man, with his
"lunatic vagaries," had been the "evil genius" of the Bible cause and of
himself. The incident did no good to the already bickering relations
between Borrow and the Rev. A. Brandram, the Secretary. Evidently
Borrow's character jarred upon Brandram, who took revenge by a tone of
facetious cavil and several criticisms upon Borrow's ways, upon his
confident masculine tone, for example, his "passionate" prayer, and his
confession of superstitious obedience to an ominous dream. Brandram even
took the trouble to remind Borrow that when it came to distribution in
Russia his success had ended: which was true but not through any fault of
his. Borrow took the criticism as if applied to his Spanish work also,
saying: "It was unkind and unjust to taunt me with having been
unsuccessful in distributing the Scriptures. Allow me to state that no
other person under the same circumstances would have distributed the
tenth part. Yet had I been utterly unsuccessful, it would have been
wrong to charge me with being so, after all I have undergone--and with
how little of that are you acquainted." {140} If Borrow had been as
revengeful as Dr. Knapp believed him, he would not have allowed Brandram
to escape an immortality of hate in "Lavengro" or "The Romany Rye."
Borrow irritated the Spanish Government yet a little more by issuing his
Gypsy "Luke," and in May, 1838, he was illegally imprisoned in the
_Carcel de Corte_, where he insisted upon staying until he was set free
with honour and the payment of his expenses. He vindicated his position
by a letter to a newspaper, pointing out that his Society was neither
sectarian nor political, and that he was their sole authorised agent.
This led directly to the breaking of his connection with the Bible
Society, who reprimanded him for his letter and virtually recalled him
from Spain.
Nevertheless Borrow made a series of excursions into the country to sell
his Testaments, until in August he was definitely recalled. He returned
to England, as he says himself, for "change of scene and air" after an
attack of fever. He obtained a new lease from the Bible Society and was
back in Spain at the end of 1838. Early in 1839 he made further
excursions with Antonio Lopez to sell his Testaments, until he had to
stop. Thereupon he went to Seville. He was still forming plans on
behalf of the Society. He wished to go to La Mancha, the worst part of
Spain, then through Saragossa and into France.
At Seville it was, in May, 1839, that Colonel Napier met him. Nobody
knew who, or of what nationality, he was--this "mysterious Unknown," the
white-haired young man, with dark eyes of almost supernatural penetration
and lustre, who gave himself out to be thirty instead of thirty-five, who
spoke English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Romaic to those who
best understood these languages. Borrow and Napier rode out together to
the ruins of Italica:
"We sat down," he says, "on a fragment of the walls; the "Unknown" began
to feel the vein of poetry creeping through his inward soul, and gave
vent to it by reciting, with great emphasis and effect, the following
well-known and beautiful lines:
"Cypress and ivy, weed and wallflower, grown
Matted and massed together, hillocks heap'd
On what were chambers, arch crush'd, column strown
In fragments, choked up vaults, and frescoes steep'd
In subterranean damps, where the owl peep'd,
Deeming it midnight:--Temples, baths, or halls--
Pronounce who can; for all that Learning reap'd
From her research hath been, that these are walls."
"I had been too much taken up with the scene, the verses, and the strange
being who was repeating them with so much feeling, to notice the approach
of a slight female figure, beautiful in the extreme, but whose tattered
garments, raven hair, swarthy complexion, and flashing eyes, proclaimed
her to be of the wandering tribe of Gitanos. From an intuitive sense of
politeness she stood with crossed arms and a slight smile on her dark and
handsome countenance, until my companion had ceased, and then addressed
us in the usual whining tone of supplication--'Gentlemen, a little
charity; God will repay it to you!' The Gypsy girl was so pretty and her
voice so sweet, that I involuntarily put my hand in my pocket.
"'Stop!' said the 'Unknown.' 'Do you remember what I told you of the
Eastern origin of these people? You shall see I am correct.' 'Come
here, my pretty child,' said he in Moultanee, 'and tell me where are the
rest of your tribe.' The girl looked astounded, and replied in the same
tongue, but in broken language; when, taking him by the arm, she said in
Spanish: 'Come, Caballero, come to one who will be able to answer you';
and she led the way down among the ruins towards one of the dens formerly
occupied by the wild beasts, and disclosed to us a set of beings scarcely
less savage. The sombre walls of this gloomy abode were illumined by a
fire, the smoke from which escaped through a deep fissure in the mossy
roof, whilst the flickering flames threw a blood-red glare on the bronzed
features of a group of children, two men, and a decrepit old hag who
appeared busily engaged in some culinary operations.
"On our entrance, the scowling glance of the males of the party, and a
quick motion of the hand towards the folds of the faja (where the clasp-
knife is concealed), caused in me, at least, anything but a comfortable
sensation; but their hostile intentions were immediately removed by a
wave of the hand from our conductress, who, leading my companion towards
the sibyl, whispered something in her ear. The old crone appeared
incredulous. The 'Unknown' uttered one word; but that word had the
effect of magic. She prostrated herself at his feet, and in an instant,
from an object of suspicion, he became one of worship to the whole
family, to whom on taking leave he made a handsome present, and departed
with their united blessings.
"I was, as the phrase goes, dying with curiosity, and as soon as we
mounted our horses, exclaimed: 'Where, in the name of goodness, did you
pick up your acquaintance with the language of these extraordinary
people?' 'Some years ago, in Moultan,' he replied. 'And by what means
do you possess such apparent influence over them?' But the 'Unknown' had
already said more than he perhaps wished on the subject. He dryly
replied that he had more than once owed his life to Gypsies and had
reason to know them well; but this was said in a tone which precluded all
further queries on my part."
This report is a wonderful testimony to Borrow's power, for he seems to
have made the Colonel write almost like himself and produce a picture
exactly like those which he so often draws of himself.
From Seville Borrow took a journey of a few weeks to Tangier and Barbary.
There he met the strongest man in Tangier, one of the old Moors of
Granada, who waved a barrel of water over his head as if it had been a
quart pot. There he and his Jewish servant, Hayim Ben Attar, sold
Testaments, and, says he, "with humble gratitude to the Lord," the
blessed Book was soon in the hands of most of the Christians in Tangier.
But with an account of his first day in the city he concluded "The Bible
in Spain."
When he was back again in Seville he had the society of Mrs. Clarke and
her daughter; Henrietta, who had come to Spain to avoid some legal
difficulties and presumably to see Borrow. Before the end of 1839 the
engagement of Borrow and Mrs. Clarke was announced without surprising old
Mrs. Borrow at Norwich. In November Borrow wrote almost his last long
letter to the Bible Society. He had the advantage of a singular address,
being for the moment in the prison of Seville, where he had been
illegally thrown, after a quarrel with the Alcalde over the matter of a
passport. He told them how this "ruffian" quailed before his gaze of
defiance. He told them how well he was treated by his fellow prisoners:
{picture: The Summer House, Oulton Cottage. Photo: C. Wilson, Lowestoft:
page145.jpg}
"The black-haired man who is now looking over my shoulder is the
celebrated thief Palacio, the most expert housebreaker and dexterous
swindler in Spain--in a word, the modern Guzman Dalfarache. The brawny
man who sits by the brasero of charcoal, is Salvador, the highwayman of
Ronda, who has committed a hundred murders. A fashionably dressed man,
short and slight in person, is walking about the room: he wears immense
whiskers and mustachios; he is one of that most singular race of Jews of
Spain; he is imprisoned for counterfeiting money. He is an atheist, but
like a true Jew, the name which he most hates is that of Christ: . . ."
{144} So well did Borrow choose his company, even in prison. Some of
his letters to the Society went astray at this time and he was vainly
expected in England. He was able to send them a very high testimony to
his discretion from the English Consul at Seville, and he himself
reminded them that he had been "fighting with wild beasts" during this
last visit. The Society several times repeated his recall, but he did
not return, apparently because he wished to remain with Mrs. Clarke in
Seville, and because he no longer felt himself at their beck and call. He
was also at work on "The Gypsies of Spain." Nevertheless he wrote to the
Society in March, 1840, a letter which would have been remarkable from
another man about to marry a wife, for he said that he wished to spend
the remaining years of his life in the northern parts of China, as he
thought he had a call, and still hoped "to die in the cause of my
Redeemer." In April he left Spain with Mrs. and Miss Clarke. Fifty or
sixty years later Mrs. Joseph Pennell "saw the sign, 'G. Borrow, Agent of
the British and Foreign Bible Society,' high upon a house in the Plaza de
la Constitucion, in Seville." Borrow was never again in Spain. After
reporting himself for the last time to the Society, and making a
suggestion which Brandram answered by saying, "the door seems shut," he
married Mrs. Clarke on April 23, 1840. She had 450 pounds a year and a
home at Oulton. Fifteen or sixteen years later he spoke of his wife and
daughter thus: "Of my wife I will merely say that she is a perfect
paragon of wives--can make puddings and sweets and treacle posset, and is
the best woman of business in Eastern Anglia--of my step daughter--for
such she is, though I generally call her daughter, and with good reason,
seeing that she has always shown herself a daughter to me--that she has
all kinds of good qualities, and several accomplishments, knowing
something of conchology, more of botany, drawing capitally in the Dutch
style, and playing remarkably well on the guitar--not the trumpery German
thing so called--but the real Spanish guitar." His wife wrote letters
for him, copied his manuscripts, and helped to correct his proofs. She
remained at Oulton, or Yarmouth, while he went about; if he went to Wales
or Ireland she sometimes accompanied him to a convenient centre and there
remained while he did as he pleased. She admired him, and she appears to
have become essential to his life, apart from her income, and not to have
resented her position at any time, though grieved by his unconcealed
melancholy.
A second time he praised her in print, saying that he had an exceedingly
clever wife, and allowed her "to buy and sell, carry money to the bank,
draw cheques, inspect and pay tradesmen's bills, and transact all my real
business, whilst I myself pore over old books, walk about the shires,
discoursing with Gypsies, under hedgerows, or with sober bards--in hedge
alehouses."