652 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
Sometimes the coast-guards are deceived, or overawed; but 
oftener they are bribed to wink at this traffic, which is so 
universal, that I scarcely spoke to a peasant in the Grenada 
and Malaga provinces, who did not own to having been 
a sharer in one or more expeditions, and talk of them too 
with a kind of pleasure, enhanced by the excitement and risk, 
and by the reward of three or four piastres, which every man 
receives for his own trouble, and twice as much for every 
mule that he brings. 
At the foot of one of the mountains that we had to pass, 
we met two men, who warned us to be on our guard, and 
told us that they had just been robbed higher up the pass. 
Arms we had none, except one hunting gun, among us all, 
and no powder or shot; but, determined to put a bold face ` 
on the matter, we set the stoutest Alpujerrefio forward, 
graced with this single redoubtable weapon, while I. shoulder- 
ing my barometer, and another carrying its empty case, with 
a cane inside, thus conferred a most warlike aspect on two 
others; and either by the awe we struck into the robbers' 
hearts, or because there were no robbers there, we passed on 
our way in safety, and met with no detention. There are 
hardly any regularly organized bands of robbers in this 
country; but the traveller who goes alone, or very slenderly 
guarded, is here, as throughout Andalusia, in danger of being 
plundered by the peasants, whom the love of rapine has 
induced to start to the road, as they forcibly express what we 
should call, taking to the highway. Their rapid proceedings 
has gained them in Spanish the name of rateros, from rato, 
(the Italian ratto) swift, or folks who seize the profitable 
moment. 5 
Towards noon we reached the town of Nerja, situated 
near the sea-coast on a rather elevated plain. Its environs are 
watered by lovely streams, near which I gathered the Pretis 
lanceolata ; the Sugar-cane is extensively cultivated. My 
friend and I went to rest ourselves at the house of the 
Alcalde, one of his acquaintances, and the richest inhabitant 
of the town, and I was much struck by the internal arrange- 
