第161章 2nd May,1839(1)

To the Rev.A.Brandram.

(ENDORSED:recd.May 21,1839)

SEVILLE,SPAIN,MAY 2,1839.

REVD.AND DEAR SIR,-I have been in Seville one week.Perhaps on learning this you will be disposed to demand the reason of my not having written previously to this,knowing,as I do,the anxiety of my friends to know the fate of their adventurer in his wanderings in wild Spain;but believe me that I had several reasons for deferring,the principal being an unconquerable aversion to writing blank letters.At present I have something to communicate besides my arrival,indeed one or two odd things.The courier and myself came all the way without the slightest accident,my usual wonderful good fortune accompanying us.I may well call it wonderful.I was not aware when I resolved to venture with the mail that I was running into the den of the lion,the whole of La Mancha with the exception of a few fortified places being once more in the hands of Pollillos and his banditti,who whenever it pleases them,stop the courier,burn the vehicle and letters,murder the paltry escort which attends,and carry away any chance passenger to the mountains,where an enormous ransom is demanded,which if not paid,brings on the dilemma of four shots through the head,as the Spaniards say.The upper part of Andalusia is becoming rapidly nearly as bad as La Mancha.The last time the courier had passed,he was attacked at the defile of La Rumblar by six mounted robbers;he was guarded by an escort of as many soldiers;but the former suddenly galloped from behind a solitary VENTA and dashed the soldiers to the ground,who were taken quite by surprise,the hoofs of the robbers'horses making no noise on account of the great quantity of mud.The soldiers were instantly disarmed and bound to olive-trees,with the exception of two who escaped amongst the rocks;they were then mocked and tormented by the robbers,or rather fiends,for nearly half an hour,when they were shot,the head of the corporal who commanded being blown to fragments with a blunderbuss.The robbers then burnt the coach,which they accomplished by igniting the letters by means of the tow with which they light their cigars.The life of the courier was saved by one of them who had formerly been his postillion;he was,however,robbed and stripped.As we passed by the scene of the butchery the poor fellow burst into tears,and,though a Spaniard,cursed Spain and the Spaniards,saying that he shortly intended to pass over to Morocco to confess Mahomet and to learn the Law of the Moors,for that any country and religion was better than his own.He pointed to the tree where the corporal had been tied;though much rain had fallen since,the ground around was still saturated with blood,and a dog was gnawing a piece of the unfortunate wretch's skull.Afriar travelled with us the whole way from Madrid to Seville;he was OF THE MISSIONARIES,and was going to the Philippine Islands to conquer (PARA CONQUISTAR),for such was his word,by which Isuppose he meant preaching to the Indians.During the whole journey he exhibited every symptom of the most abject fear,which operated upon him so that he became deadly sick,so that we were obliged to stop twice in the road and lay him amongst the green corn.He said that if he fell into the hands of the factious he was a lost priest,for that they would first make him say mass and then blow him up with gunpowder.He had been a professor of philosophy,as he told me,in one of the convents (I think it was San Tomas)of Madrid,before their suppression,but appeared to be grossly ignorant of the Scripture,which he confounded with the works of Virgil.

We stopped at Manzanares as usual;it was Sunday morning and the market was crowded with people.I was recognised in a moment,and twenty pairs of legs instantly hurried away in quest of the prophetess,who presently made her appearance in the house to which we had retired to breakfast.After many greetings on both sides,she proceeded in her admirable Latin to give me an account of all that had occurred in the village since I had last been there,and of the atrocities of the factious in the neighbourhood.I asked her to breakfast and introduced her to the friar whom she addressed in this manner;ANNE DOMINE REVERENDISSIME FACIS ADHUC SACRIFICIUM?