620 
HFovisiow, at moderate prices; and a 
ottsiderable number of live bullocks are 
brought from tlre coast of Africa, which 
€ontribute to the supply of the garrison; 
but, though wheat is abundant in that 
€ountry, tueir religion allows none to be 
‘exported for the use of Christians. 
VICINITY OF MALAGA. 
Like all Spanish towns, Malaga isa 
foost beautiful object at a distance, but 
will not beat a near inspection. The 
Alameydais the only part of the town 
which is handsome, and that is truly 
fiagnificent. It consists of a foot-walk 
in the middle, about eighty feet wide, 
with orange and oleander trees planted 
6h each side: without these are good 
@arrjage roads, ‘and on both sides a row 
of sumptuous and ‘elegant houses. It 
is not the edifices constructed by 
human labour that render Malaga an 
interesting spot, but the benign climate 
atid fruitful soil with which Providence 
has blessed it, and which the industry of 
the people has been exerted to improve, 
The rivers Guadalmedina and Guada- 
furce, which empty themselves at this 
place into the ocean, wind round tlre 
fhountains, and pass through valleys the 
fichest and most fertile in the world, and 
it is upon the banks of these rivers that 
the prodigious quantity of figs, alinonds, 
©ranges, lemons, olives, sumach, ju» 
fiiper berries, wax, and honey, are pro- 
duced, which, with the dried raisins and 
Wities from the mountains, and the cork 
6f the hills, form the foundation of the 
fatufal external comnrerce of Malaga. 
The productions with which Europe is 
Bupplied from the western world, such 
&s coffee, cotton, cocoa, indigo, and pi- 
tnento, ‘had been all cultivated in this 
part of Spain for many ages before Ame- 
fica was discovered; and though it has 
ohly been of late years that any great 
increase in their cultivation has taken 
filace, yet, from the’ productiveness of 
the soil, from the specimens that have 
been. produced, and the political pros. 
pects of the world, the hope is enters 
tained, that this part of Spain may, in 
time, be.rendered capable of superseding - 
the necessity of cultivating the West In- 
tia Islands by the labour ot slaves. 
The present commerce of Malaga is 
very flourishing. The peace with Eng- 
tand has opened a vent for its commo- 
ditieg, which has been improved with 
great assiduity. The exports of wines 
and fruits during the last year, amounted 
early to three times as much as in any 
preceding year; and, as the commercial 
Mr. Jacob's Letters from Spain. 
laws of Spain are less strictly obehed here 
than at Cadiz, where the attention of 
the Junta is more immediately called to 
them, they have had their commerce less 
restricted. : 
We left Malaga at noon. The first 
part of the road, which runs along the 
sea side, was good and well constructed, 
-and was adorned on the left hand with 
the neat cottages of the peasantry, who 
were comfortably eating their frugal 
meals at the door, “every man under 
his own vine, and under his own fig- 
tree.” The hillsto the top were covered 
with vines, and the chasms between 
them with fig, almond, plum, orange, 
lemon, and apricot, trees. On the coast. 
between the clifts some fine levels, called 
Playas, open with a front generally. to~ 
wards the sea, of from one to two miles 
in extent, and terminate at the foot of 
the hills, so as to form @ triangalar 
plain. The soil of these playas is formed 
by the washing of the rains from the 
mountains, and, without any manure, is 
very productive in wheat and barley; 
which two species of grain are usually 
sown in alternate years, without allowin 
the lands to tie fallow. The richness of 
the soil, and the heat of the sun, cause 
the earth to yield almost spontaneously 
those productions whichy in other situa- 
tions, are the result. of much labour. 
After riding about four hours, we left 
the shore to.visit a sugar plantation at 
Torre del Mar. For three miles, as we 
approached it, our road passed, through 
fields of cotton and sugar canes. The 
sugars made on this coast resemble those 
of Cuba more than those produced in 
our West India island; they are not se 
white as those of the first quality from 
Cuba, but more so than the inferior 
kind ; and, as sugars of equal quality from 
the British Islands would, with the addi- 
tion of freight and insurance, cost more 
money in Eurepe than those raised in 
this vicinity, nothing is wanted to increase 
these establishnients, to a considerable 
extent, but a sufficient capital. It is not 
generally known, that sugar has been 
one of the productions of Spain for at, 
deast seven bundred years,: and that the 
process of planting the canes, grinding 
them, and granulating the juice, has 
deen very little, if at all,improved within 
that time. 
Coffee, cotton, sugar, and cocoa, are 
¢ultivated wholly by capitalists, who are 
alone able to defray the great expence of 
manuring and irrigating the land, and of 
erecting machinery, all of whieh proe 
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