SPAIN. 175 



45 



On our arrival we were met by the cuftom- 

 houfe officers, who came to us, with loaded 

 fire-arms, in a boat. We afterwards went in 

 fmaller boats into more fhallow water, where 

 we found a good many fellows who offered to 

 carry the people on fhore for fome fmall mat- 

 ter, and they did it very cleverly. For the 

 fame purpofe afTes and horfes were kept in 

 readinefs. Though the city is lefs than Ca- 

 diz, yet its ftreets are finer ; all the private 

 and public houfes are of flone, the fame as 

 in Cadiz, but lefs. Some of them were not 

 yet rebuilt fmce the plundering of this place 

 by the Englifh. In a monaftery of this town 

 I faw feveral repofitories full of relicks, but 

 I fuppofe my readers will pardon my omit- 

 ting to enumerate them. The houfes were 

 ornamented with pots, in which were rofe- 

 mary, carnations, and other odoriferous plants, 

 in full bloffom; but the Sc?nper-vi-vu?n arboreum 

 had no flowers as yet. Where thefe orna- 

 ments were wanting, Flora herfelf had fup- 

 plied the bare walls with Bryum murale and 

 Lichen parietinus ; and befides thefe, in fome 

 places with Cotyledon umbilicus > or navelwort, 

 whofe leaves grew between every little cleft, 

 the Mercurialis a?mua, or French mercury s 

 and Parietaria Lufiianka* The old ruined 

 2 wails 



