408 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
almost taken away, and yet my sufferings could not prevent 
my admiring the beautiful scenery which we traversed, one 
of the finest parts of the celebrated Huerta de Valencia. "The 
entire country resembles a vast garden, excellently cultivated 
and smiling with verdure, watered with innumerable rivulets, 
and shaded with forests of mulberry and other fruit-trees, 
among which, here and there, starts up the wavy summit of a 
Palm. Many little white dwellings might be seen dotting the 
scenery ; they are all built on one plan ; a thatched roof and a 
cross upon each gable are common to the whole, and they 
serve as the habitations and granaries of the labradores, or 
husbandmen, who cultivate the land. A quarter of an hour 
before we reached Valencia, the cupolas and towers of its 
public edifices might be seen, glittering in the sun's rays, and 
soon we reached the banks of the Guadalquiver, which, on 
this side, skirts the walls of the city. The numerous bridges 
which traverse this river, the many triumphal arches and ex- 
tensive convents which it contains, recall to mind the splendid 
times of the Spanish monarchy, and offer a striking contrast 
with the present poverty and terror of the city. All seemed 
deserted, we tried first one of the gates, and found it fast 
shut, for the purpose of defence ; so was a second ; and a third 
was only partially opened after a considerable delay, and 
several sentinels mounted guard before it. The inhabitants 
were busy setting cannon on the wall which encloses the 
city, but I could not help observing the want of order aud of 
watchfulness which marked their proceedings, many ofthe 
lowest parts of the wall being quite undefended, while the 
utter absence of advanced guards would have made it easy 
enough for any enemy to approach under cover of the houses 
and trees with which the Huerta is interspersed. And yet 
the inhabitants of Valencia had lately received a terrible 
lesson ; Cabrera, the triumphant Carlist chief, but two days 
before my arrival, deployed his army at Burjasot, only a mile 
and a half distant; and there, almost within sight of the 
people of Valencia, he caused twenty-nine officers, whom he 
had taken prisoners, to be shot, military music playing all the 
