1830.] The Spanish Presidio on the Coast ofBarbary. 53 



amongst Moors of distinction to wear splendid costume : those possess- 

 ing rank or power have a sort of reliance upon their native dignity, 

 which seems to suit rather more civilized notions than they are generally 

 supposed to possess. 



They have likewise amongst them a lady to whom they pay homage 

 as their sovereign. They say she is a lineal descendant of the Abencerrages 

 who were driven from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella after the con- 

 quest of Grenada. They call her the Princess Almansora, and acknow- 

 ledge her as their sultana. Her appearance bespeaks any thing but roy- 

 alty ; for, from the princess down to the lowest of her subjects, they are 

 all alike poverty and dirt have despoiled them of all idea of grandeur ! 



The Moors regard those who reside in this town, and who have accepted 

 of the protection of the Spanish monarch, as renegades, and would kill 

 them if found in any other part of Barbary, where they durst not venture. 

 The Mahommedaii ladies do not here conceal their faces ; and instead of 

 their husbands' jealousy being thereby excited, they are flattered by any 

 curiosity which leads a stranger to look at them. 



Ceuta is by no means a disagreeable residence, though, from its being 

 a presidio, a prejudice is generally entertained that it must be very dis- 

 mal. It certainly tires the mind's eye to be perpetually doomed to view 

 the same scene, however beautiful ; but this reproach is equally applicable 

 to Gibraltar, where the communication with Spain is subject to many 

 restrictions. 



The Alameyda of Ceuta is a very picturesque promenade, being a 

 levelled space or walk between two mountains, and can boast its pro- 

 portion of female beauty and grace with any town in Spain. The ladies 

 of Ceuta have indeed always rivalled the Andalusians. Neither the 

 prado of Seville nor Cadiz can boast a greater proportion of fine forms 

 and exquisitely small feet, that monopolized attraction of Spanish women. 

 Their pride of carriage, and seeming haughty turn of the swan-like crest, 

 to adjust the already but too well-posed mantilla, beneath which steals 

 many a soul-searching glance, might almost pardon an episode from an 

 anchorite's pen in praise of their charms. The beauty of the national 

 costume of Spain is certainly highly becoming to their shape and fea- 

 tures. In vain does any other nation wear the basquina with advantage. 

 English women appear as much out of their element in the majo dress 

 as they would be at a fiesta de toros applauding the fierceness of a bull 

 which gores the horse and endangers the picador, all of which a Spanish 

 lady may do with impunity. 



The contraband traffic of Spain, it is well known, fills the prisons of 

 this place annually with an immense number of delinquents, who, when 

 foiled in their smuggling speculations by the guardias de rentas, take to 

 the " mountain and the glen" with as little remorse as if the transition 

 were nothing more than natural to turn robbers when misfortunes over- 

 take them.* These are confined in the lower part of the town, and are 



* The reader may judge of the present disorganization of Spain, when he is told, that the 

 diligence from Seville to Madrid is escorted through the province of La Mancha by the 

 robbers themselves, whom the administration of diligences have been obliged to take into 



their pay. Mr. R , an English merchant at Madrid, with whom the writer had the 



pleasure of travelling, pointed out one of the escort of the diligence who had robbed him 

 professionally a year previous. 



Amongst some of the means resorted to for getting rid of the robbers in Spain, the following 

 has been recorded. A formidable band had for a long time infested one of the provinces, 

 setting the menaces and efforts of the government at defiance. They had been smugglers, 



