602 Spanish High-ways and By-mays. [J UNE, 



gleaning where the harvest had been already reaped. I therefore set out 

 in the manner above stated to rejoin my servant on the Spanish frontiers. 

 On the road to St. Jean de Luz, I had an opportunity of proving my dogs, 

 who found plenty of teal and wild fowl in the rushes and sides of the lake, 

 which is seen by the road side. These dogs I brought from England, and 

 were rare and valuable in Spain. I overtook my servant at Irun, and sent 

 him forward to Vittoria with my dogs, while I made an excursion of an 

 hundred miles through Vergara and Durango to see my friends at Bilboa. 



Bilboa is the capital of Biscay, and, though small, is considered one of 

 the neatest and pleasantest towns in Spain. It is situated on the river 

 Ansa, which flows into the Bay of Biscay, and carries on a considerable 

 trade with Newfoundland ; salted cod-fish being the principal and 

 favourite food with the peasantry. Large quantities of wool, some years 

 sixteen thousand bags, are exported from Bilboa to England and France. 

 The streets are paved with small pebbles, worked into squares and fanciful 

 devices, which have a novel and pretty effect ; through many of the streets 

 carts and heavy vehicles are not allowed to pass. General Mazarado, the 

 governor of the city, with whom I was intimate, paid me every attention 

 during my stay, and gave an entertainment to which he invited all the 

 nobility and gentry in the neighbourhood, by which I had the pleasure of 

 meeting the beau monde of Bilboa. The inhabitants I found a social and 

 enlightened people, commerce having diffused its influence throughout, 

 eradicating errors and prejudices but too common in the interior of Spain. 

 On my road to Vittoria my travels were nearly brought to a close, as my 

 friend the consul at Bayonne had prognosticated, though by a different 

 mode. I was slowly ascending one t>f those long hills so common in that 

 part of Biscay, when I encountered a line of mules laden with merchan- 

 dize. These animals have a particular aversion to horses, and no sooner 

 did I arrive within reach of their heels, than they lashed out on me with 

 such violence and fury, that I was literally kicked over some pieces of 

 timber, lying in the road, and thrown to such a distance, that had 

 I not providentially grasped a small tree, I should have been plunged 

 into the river below. My horse was so much hurt, that I was obliged 

 to halt at a posada for three hours, before he could proceed ; however, 

 by exertion, I contrived to make Vittoria before night, a distance of 

 forty-eight English miles. From Vittoria I pursued my old route 

 to Escaray, where I engaged another servant. He was a native of Lon- 

 don, but from a long residence in Spain had become almost naturalized. 

 I purchased another horse for him, equipped like my own, and started 

 for the capital. We left the high road and made for the small town of 

 Barbadillios, across a range of stupendous mountains, having engaged a 

 guide to conduct us. The road was highly picturesque, though anything 

 but convenient for travellers. We followed a horse-track for a consider- 

 able distance, of just sufficient space for us to pass singly. It was in one 

 place covered with deep snow, which rendered it both difficult and dan- 

 gerous to proceed. My horse fell three times in our attempt to pass. 

 We halted about midway, and spreading our provisions on a sunny bank 

 we indemnified ourselves for our past labour. For nearly thirty miles 

 across these mountains, we did not meet with a human being, nor the 

 semblance of a habitation ; those wild and inhospitable mountains seem- 

 ing by common consent to be abandoned to the wolves, the wild boars, 

 and the deer, their native possessors. 



We reached the small village of Barbadillios in the evening, and took 



