Having observed much of the manners and character of the Spanish peasantry, more especially within the last fourteen days, I feel I should not be doing them justice, were I to abstain from speaking of them according to my impressions. I have given some account of their figures and countenances, and though both are good, I do not think them equal to their dispositions. There is a civility to strangers, and an easy style of behaviour, familiar to this class of Spanish society, which is very remote from the churlish and awkward manners of the English and German peasantry. Their sobriety and endurance of fatigue are very remarkable; and there is a constant cheerfulness in their demeanour, which strongly prepossesses a stranger in their favour. This cheerfulness is displayed in singing either antient ballads, or songs, which they compose as they sing, with all the facility of the Italian improvisatori. One of their songs varying in words, according to the skill of the singer, has a termination to certain verses, which says, "that as Ferdinand has no wife, he shall marry the King of England's daughter." Some of these songs relate to war or chivalry, and many to gallantry and love: the latter not always expressed in the most decorous language, according

to our ideas.

"The agility of the Spaniards in leaping, climbing, and walking, has been a constant subject of admiration to our party. We have frequently known a man on foot start from a town with us, who were well mounted, and continue his journey with such rapidity, as to reach the end of the stage before us, and announce our arrival with of ficious civility. A servant likewise, whom we hired at Malaga, has kept pace with us on foot ever since; and

though not more than seventeen years of age, he seems incapable of being fatigued by walking. I have heard the agility of the Spanish peasants, and their power of enduring fatigue, attributed to a custom, which, though it may probably have nothing to do with the cause, deserves noticing from its singularity. A young peasant never sleeps on a bed till he is married; before that event he rests on the floor in his clothes, which he never takes off, but for the purposes of cleanliness: and during the greater part of the year it is a matter of indifference whether he sleep under a roof or in the open air.

"I have remarked, that though the Spaniards rise very early, they generally keep late hours, and seem most lively and alert at midnight: this may be attributed to the heat of the weather during the day, and to the custom of sleeping after their meal at noon, which is so general, that the towns and villages appear quite deserted from one till four o'clock. The labours of the artificer, and the attention of the shopkeeper, are suspended during those hours; and the doors and windows of the latter are as closely shut as at night, or on a holiday.

"Though the Spanish peasantry treat every man they meet with politchess, they expect an equal return of civility; and to pass them without the usual expression, Vaja usted con Dios,' or saluting them, without bestowing on them the title of Cabaleros, would be risking an insult from people, who, though civil and even polite, are not a little jealous of their claims to reciprocal attentions. I have been informed, that most of the domestic virtues are strongly felt, and practised, by the peasantry; and that a degree of parental, filial, and fraternal affec

tion, is observed among them, which is exceeded in no other country. I have already said sufficient of their religion; it is a subject on which they feel the greatest pride. To suspect them of heresy, or of being descended from a Moor or a Jew, would be the most unpardonable of all offences; but their laxity with respect to matrimonial fidelity, it must be acknowledged, is a stain upon their character; which, though common, appears wholly irreconcileable with the generality of the Spanish character. They are usually fair and honourable in their dealings; and a foreigner is less subject to imposition in Spain, than in any other country I have visited.

"Their generosity is great, as far as their means extend; and many of our countrymen have experienced it in rather a singular way. I have been told that, after the revolution, when Englishmen first began to travel in the peninsula, many who had remained a few days at an inn, on asking for their bill, at their depart ure, learnt, to their great surprise, that some of the inhabitants, with friendly officiousness, had paid their reckoning, and forbidden the host to communicate to his guests the persons to whose civility they were indebted. I knew one party myself, to whom this occurred at Malaga: they were hurt at the circumstance, and strenuously urged the host to take the amount of their bill, and give it to the person who had discharged it; but he resolutely refused it, and protested he was ignorant of those who paid this conpliment to Englishmen. It was common, if our countrymen went to a coffee-house, or an ice-house, to discover, when they rose to depart, that their refreshment had been paid for by some one who had disappeared, and with whom they had

not even exchanged a word. Í am aware that these circumstances may be attributed to the warm feelings towards our country, which were then excited by universal enthusiasm; but they are, nevertheless, the offspring of minds naturally generous and noble.

"I should be glad, if I could, with justice, give as favourable a picture of the higher orders of society in this country; but, perhaps, when we consider their wretched education, and their early habits of indolence and dissipation, we ought not to wonder at the state of contempt and degradation to which they are now reduced. I am not speaking the language of prejudice, but the result of the observations I have made, in which every accurate observer among our countrymen has concurred with me in saying, that the figures and the countenances of the higher orders are as much infe rior to those of the peasants, as their moral qualities are in the view I have given of them.

"The mountains in this neighbourhood are filled with bands of contrabandists, who convey tobacco and other goods from Gibraltar to the interior of the country: they are an athletic race of men, with all the hardiness and spirit of enterprise which their dangerous occupation requires. They reside in the towns which are situated in the most mountainous parts of the country, and are well acquainted with all the passes and hiding places. They are excellent marksmen; and though the habit of their lives has rendered them disobedient to the revenue laws, yet they are much attached to their native land, and might, with a little management, be rendered very formidable to its invaders.

"After this digression from the city of Ronda to the inhabitants of

the

ras.

passed the town of Dos Barrios, a place containing about one thousand inhabitants, when I began to ascend the Sierra, which, though not so high, is equally wild with that called the Trocha, at the back of AlgeziThe roads over it are excessively bad, and the prospects dreary and romantic beyond description, It occupied four hours to reach the summit of the Sierra, where huge rocks, lifting their heads among the trees, and gushing streams bursting in every part, gave to the prospects a sublimity, and a solitary wildness, which excited the most awful impressions.

"In one of the rudest parts of the road, at a sudden turning, I met General Doyle, who, with his aid de camp and servants, was going to Gibraltar, on his way to Catalonia. I cannot describe to you the pleasure of such an interview, in such a situation. He had all his usual cheerfulness and gaiety, and did not appear incommoded by the fatigues of his journey, though, as I afterwards learnt, he had slept the preceding night among the horses and mules at a gypsey-hut on the plain below. After having remained on horseback for seven hours, I reached the miserable hovel from which he had proceeded, and was too much disgusted with its filth to venture within it; but while the horses were refreshing, ate the meal I had brought with me under some cork trees, that grew at the door. I was joined at this place by some EngJishmen, one of whom I slightly recognized: they had come from Algeziras that day, and our joint stock of provisions made the Spaniards almost envy us the sumptuous repast, which was spread on the grass before us.

"From this wretched venta I passed over a fine plain, which the

late rains had rendered wet and muddy, but which appeared totally uncultivated. A few straggling oxen were the only cattle I observed, and I could discover no vestige of an habitation, till, after four hours riding, I reached Vegel. As I found I could be accommodated in a venta near that place with an apartment, and straw beds, both for myself and for my countrymen who were following me, I determined to pass the night there, and employ the time till dark in seeing the town. The ascent is steep and dangerous, and scarcely passable for any animals, except mules and asses. The sight of the town was by no means a recompence for the labour of ascending to it; and though it contains (as I was informed) seven thousand inhabitants, not a single object was to be seen deserving attention. It is, however, surrounded with fruitful corn fields, and the country in general appears fertile.

"I accidentally met the Corregidor, and conversed with him on political subjects, with the freedom allowed to an Englishman. He expressed himself much in the same manner as the Spaniards in general do, when conversing about the state of their affairs. He exultingly pointed out to me the secure position of his own town in particular; and concluded by saying, that if the Junta gave up all Andalusia to the French, the inhabitants of Vegel could defend their own asylum against every enemy. I have seen so many instances of this parochial patriotism, if I may be allowed the expression, that it has ceased to excite astonishment. But, amidst the gloom which now overshadows the political horizon, it forms the only consolation, and constitutes the only hope, that remains for Spain. Numerous armies, without combina

tion, and without confidence in their leaders, can no longer be relied on. But the native valour of the people, their unconquerable hatred of the invaders, their capability of enduring fatigue and hardship, and the unassailable fastnesses of the courtry, hold forth the best promise of a war, which may ultimately terminate in the emancipation of the peninsula.

"When I descended from the mountain, and reached the venta, the horrors which precede invasion were strikingly exhibited. The Duchess of Medina Celi, the wife of the proprietor of all this extensive country, and the richest subject in Europe, had just arrived with her family, having fled from St. Mary's, to escape from the enemy. She was attended by several cariages, as well as many mules and asses; but as the road would not admit of wheel carriages beyond this place, a sufficiency of the latter was provided, to carry her grace and her suite to Algeziras, where she intended to embark for Majorca. There was a cheerfulness in her conversation, and a liveliness in her manners, which proves what I have often had occasion to remark, that Spaniards, even of high rank, possess an elasticity of mind, which renders them superior to the unexpected calamities of life, and drives away those imaginary ills, which are the worst enemies of human happiness.

"In a miserable hovel, at the foot of a mountain, which towered over our heads, with all the horrors to be expected from an approaching enemy, and without the aid of a festive board, my countrymen, and myself, collected in our apartment a society of the neighbours, who, with the guitar, the grave fandango, and songs of "long life to Ferdi

nand, and death to Napoleon," passed an evening as meriily and as happily as if we had been their oldest friends; and appeared as tran quil, as if the enemy was not at hand. I shall feel a respect, and even affection, for the simple pleasures, the cheerful lives, and the generous character, of the Spanish peasants, as long as I recollect this and other similar societies, of whose hilarity I have been a partaker.

"I left Vegel early the next morning, and after ascending one mountain, from the sides of which gushing streams of transparent water turn a series of mills, I gained a level and barren plain; and, after about five hours, rehed Chiclana. But having already passed some days there, about six weeks ago, and there being a nearer road than that through the town, I passed it on' the right hand, and proceeded to the ferry over the river Santi Petri. There I met a number of convicts, chained together, who were marching to Algeziras, to be embarked for Ceuta before the arrival of the enemy.

"I pushed on with eagerness to Cadiz, the situation of which it is impossible to describe. The French are advancing with rapidity, and no force exists to impede their progress. The battery of St. Fernando is unfinished; there is no government to forward its completion, and no troops, except volunteers, to man the works, and too few even of them to perform the requisite duty. The late feeble government is dissolved, and some of its solitary members are dropping in here, glad to have escaped from the fury of the populace at Xeres, and other places. The fears of an insurrection in this city are so strong, that patroles are parading every night, and detachments of volunteers are constantly under arms, while the British sailors are