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robbers, told me, that a failure in Cadiz once led him to repair there in haste, and when crossing Chiclana heath, early in the morning, he was stopped by four robbers, who took his money, and made him lie down upon the ground, where he continued until they had stopped about forty other persons, and treated them in a similar manner. Most of the company were going to a fair in the neighbourhood, and among the rest were four Xerez farmers, each attended by a servant, and all well armed and mounted. Yet when the chief of the robbers approached them fiercely, they dismounted and gave up their arms. When they were released, my friend made the best of his way to Cadiz, leaving information of the robbery at the first station of soldiers which he met with. A year afterwards, while witnessing a bull-fight at Ronda, he recognised the man who sat next him, as one of the robbers, and, reminding him of the event, was offered a cigar, and invited to take a social glass with him. The robber said, that they had been pursued by soldiers, who shot two of his comrades, took the third prisoner, and he alone escaped. Since that time he had given up his old trade, and become an honest man, that is to say, a smuggler.

The same gentleman who related the preceding anecdote, was once returning from Ronda Fair, in company with a number of British officers and others from Gibraltar, and on stopping to take refreshments by the way, they were told that it was unsafe for them to proceed, as there was a company of robbers lying in wait at a given place. As their party consisted of sixteen or seventeen, however, and each man had a good double-barreled gun, they organized themselves under the command of a colonel of engineers, a truly brave man, who was to lead the van, and the rest, following in single file, were all to dismount the moment the robbers hailed them, and, with their horses for a bulwark, were to rest their guns across their saddles, thus arraying against their opponents a battery of more than thirty barrels. They found the robbers lying beside a fence, and so sure were they of their prey that their guns were stocked at a distance of some yards from them. Seeing the disadvantage at which they were taken, they claimed to be custom-house officers, whose business it was to search the baggage of travellers. To this, the colonel replied, that he well knew them to be robbers, but, in order to test the matter, if they were what they claimed to be, one of them might advance and examine their baggage, but

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should one of the others stir from his place, they would shoot him instantly. Seeing themselves thus foiled,- "Vayaste con Dios," (go with God,) said the robbers, the usual parting salutation of the Spanish. "Vayaste con Dios yourselves,' said the colonel, for it belongs to us, who are victors, to dictate conditions; and thus the robbers quickly retreated, when the party again mounted and proceeded on their journey.

I have recently learned, through an English gentleman, who was robbed a short time since near the place where I' met with a similar misfortune, that the robbers have increased their number to twenty-five. They do not now unlock trunks, but force them open, and all the passengers were compelled to pull off their boots, lest money should be concealed there. There were in that instance, four officers of the Queen's army in the diligence, but, being dressed in citizens' clothes, they were not recognised by the robbers, who were Carlists, except that they found among their spoil one hat, which bore the title of an officer. All the passengers disowned it, however, and the robbers said, that if they could determine to whom it belonged, they would kill him instantly. It were easy to multiply anecdotes of robberies in Spain, to almost any extent, as few who travel there escape such adventures; but I have given the preceding cases, merely to show the wretched state of the country, and the boldness with which such affairs are managed. In view of the present condition of poor unhappy Spain, rent, distracted, and weakened as she is by party spirit, and civil contention and bloodshed, well may we be grateful to God for the peace and safety vouchsafed to our own favored land; while at the same time we have cause for fear and trembling, lest the zeal with which the flame of party spirit is fanned, and the liberal hand with which the spoils of office are dealt out to successful partisans, should fully engender among us the deep and deadly curse of permanent political hostility and discord, which may end in weakening the sanctions of law, loosening the bonds of society, and bringing down upon us all the bitter evils of a civil war.

The proportion of illegitimate to legitimate births in Spain, is as one to three and a half. It is said, that not more than one crime in five is brought before courts of justice, while bribery, perjury, and intimidation, prevent the conviction of more than half of these. Thus, not more than one crime in ten is clearly brought to light, yet, the average number of convicted murders and attempts at murder, is more

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than 3,000 a year. Now, if we allow that murder escapes detection less often than other crimes, and call its average convictions one in five, we shall still have 15,000 murders in Spain per year.

Three fourths of the land in Spain is inalienably entailed upon the nobles, the church, and certain corporations; and, to render entails more pernicious, the law enacts, that all leases shall cease with the lives of the owners of the estates. About £90,000 sterling is the average expenditure on roads each year, in Spain. This is one twentieth of what is expended in England for the same purpose, which, being equal in extent to one third of Spain, makes the proportional expense of roads in the two countries, as one to sixty. The roads are so few, and many of them so poor, that transporting is very difficult, being done mostly on the backs of mules and donkeys. In the neighbourhood of Salamanca, owing to a succession of abundant harvests, wheat has actually been left to rot upon the ground because it would not pay the cost of carriage. There exist also oppressive taxes, handed down from those times when the provinces of Spain were distinct kingdoms, which now often prevent the transportation of the fruits of the earth from a province where they abound to an adjoining one where there is a scarcity. To these checks upon industry a recent Spanish writer attributes much of the indolence of the people, and with propriety asks, "What should induce the laborer to sow more wheat than he consumes, when unable to export the surplus, and in the country it will command no higher price than from fifteen to eighteen reals a fanega, which is no price at all." This he states was the price of wheat in Castile, in December, 1834. It would be about equal to from thirty-seven to forty-five cents a bushel. He adds in another place, that while at the time referred to above, wheat, in various parts of Castile, was from fifteen to twenty-nine reals a fanega, it was worth in Seville, in an adjoining province, from sixty-five to seventy-five reals, still, there was no profit in transporting it, though the difference of prices in the two places, was equal to two dollars and a half a hundred weight; and this, he says, is owing to the expense of transporting, arising from the want of good roads, secure communication, and the absurd and arbitrary duties exacted at certain places. So much for agriculture in Spain.

As we have recently been speaking of Cadiz, it may not

be amiss barely to allude to the amount of commerce there some sixty years ago, as compared with recent dates. In 1776, the number of vessels which entered the port of Cadiz, was 949, of which 265 were French. In 1777, there were 935, of which 280 were French. In 1835, there were 2,699 arrivals at Cadiz, of which 2,176 were Spanish vessels, most of them of a small class;-286 were English; 79 were from the United States; 22 were French; 34 Russian, and the rest from other nations of Europe. In 1834, there were 240 English vessels in Cadiz, carrying 31,899 tons, and manned by 1,968 seamen. During the same year, there were 71 vessels from the United States, with a tonnage of 20,630, and manned by 941 seamen.

After leaving Cadiz, early in the year Gibraltar, and from thence to Lisbon. went to Mahon, to Toulon, in France, to Greece.

1836, we sailed to From Lisbon, we Italy, Sicily, and

CHAPTER XIV.

CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF SPAIN.

Rev. Mr. Rule; his History, Labors, Journal. -Sabbath at Cadiz. -Journey to Seville. Religious Condition of the City. - Priest of St. Gil. - Students.- Infidelity. Journey to Madrid. Bishop of Astorga. - Spanish Versions of the Bible. - Union of the Spanish and English Churches. Augustine Monk; his Views of Spain. - Prohibited Books. - Opposition to Papacy. - Prisoners. Señor Potia. - Friars. - Public Morals and Religion. Spanish Hymns.-Circulation of the Bible in Spain: Missions there. Feelings of the People. - Facilities for Social Intercourse. - Liberty of the Press. Religious Laws. Bishop of Cadiz. - English Influence. Versions of the Scriptures. - Catechisms. Infidel Books. Catholic Works. - Thoughts on Popery. - Education in Spain. - Emigrants. Governors of Cadiz and Barcelona.- Archbishop of Toledo. Spanish Schools and Colleges.

DURING one of our earlier visits to Gibraltar, I became acquainted with the Rev. Mr. Rule, who for several years had been laboring among the Spanish population there, under the patronage of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in England. He had originally been destined as a missionary to Jerusalem, and resided for a time at Malta, to acquire a knowledge of the Italian and Arabic languages. He was there a fellow-student of the Rev. Eli Smith, missionary from the United States, and favorably known to the literary and religious public, as joint author with the Rev. Mr. Dwight of a valuable work on Armenia, the result of their travels in that country. Mr. Rule, besides the knowledge which he acquired of the Arabic, became so familiar with the Italian, that he could preach in it extempore with the greatest facility. He is now able to do the same in Spanish, having two public services in that language on the Sabbath, and, when we were at Gibraltar, he and his lady gave gratuitous instruction to fifty or sixty bright-looking Spanish children during the week. He has read the Hebrew Bible through, is quite at home in Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Rabbinical Hebrew, and, in addition to preparing a hymn-book, tracts, and larger works in Spanish, is engaged in a new translation of the New Testament, with a commentary in the same language. So accurate is his knowledge and pronun

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