BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 409 
while, and utterly unmoved even by the enormous ransom at 
which several of those unfortunate men offered to purchase 
their lives. Will it be believed that this butchery took place 
before the walls of a city which contains 100,000 souls, 
together with 4000 well armed soldiers of the national 
guard, and yet not an idea of a sally and rescue was 
entertained ! 
Misery prevailed in Valencia; provisions were very scarce 
and dear; for Cabrera had issued a proclamation, declaring 
that any muleteer, who should attempt to convey articles 
thither, was liable to the seizure and confiscation of his mule and 
its lading, and even to death, in case of resistance. The silk- 
workers, a numerous body of men at Valencia, were reduced 
to the deepest poverty, and it was deplorable to see many of 
these people, decently attired, who asked for charity at the 
corner of the streets and by the church gates, covering their 
faces with their mantas. 
It may well be supposed that I had no desire to remain in 
this unhappy place a moment longer than was necessary, and 
yet I was delayed nearly ten days, for want of the means of 
pursuing my way to Andalusia, whither I hoped to proceed 
in some small vessel, bound for any port in that province. 
t was a vexatious circumstance, too, that the dis- 
turbed state of the environs would not allow me to go out of 
the city, even so far as Murviedo, the ancient Sagontum, only 
four leagues off, which I much desired to visit. Valencia, 
unlike Barcelona, has preserved all the character of 
a Spanish city of the middle ages. A perfect labyrinth of 
narrow, unpaved, and crooked streets, through which it is 
difficult to make one's way, marks the style of building preva- 
lent among the Moors, who then swayed the land. At almost 
every step, you come upon little black crosses, plastered to 
the walls and bearing an inscription which points out the 
spot where an assassination had taken place. For what 
Hon I cannot imagine, these crosses are called in Spain 
"milagros," or miracles, a term which might imply the un- 
frequency of the crime which these memorials, on the con- 
trary, so numerously attest, 
