1831.] Spanish Highways and B if ways. 145 



first choosing one path, then another, as it chanced to appear larger than 

 the rest, and hoping it might lead to sonne human abode, however 

 humble. The sun was sinking rapidly, and, fatigued and dispirited, I 

 saw no alternative but to bivouac for the night amongst the wilds whither 

 our errantry had led us ; when my servant, whose slight portion of wit 

 and natural faculties had increased in a more than usual proportion Avith 

 a hungry stomach, fancied he perceived something like a habitation in 

 the distance. Animated by this hope, we resumed our march, and found 

 what he had descried to be a high wall, inclosing a piece of ground con- 

 taining numberless hives of bees. The hives were of the rudest descrip- 

 tion, being made of small portions of hollow trees, and covered with 

 flat stones. The disappointment we experienced on finding the nature 

 of our expected refuge, was softened by the distant barking of a dog 

 becoming audible to our quickened senses ; and, shortly afterwards, we 

 had the good fortune to hail a peasant, who guided us to the neighbour- 

 ing village of Val de Flores. On the road he informed me that the 

 inclosed spaces for bee-hives, one of which I had observed, was made 

 sacred by the clergy, on account of the wax being so much in request for 

 the service of the Catholic church. In order to secure these places from 

 depredation, they have enacted a law that if any person is discovered in 

 appropriating any portion of these sacred spoils to profane uses, he is 

 condemned to lose his right hand. These establishments, of which there 

 are numbers amongst those mountains, I learned were extremely produc- 

 tive to the reverend proprietors and their agents — the bees delighting in 

 the odorous gum-schistus, and other fragrant shrubs, which are indige- 

 nous to this mountainous district. 



On our arrival at Val de Flores, I found, to my great annoyance, that 

 we were only thi*ee leagues from the mines which we left the day before ; 

 and, to render our disappointment the more severe, our accommodation 

 was not a whit better than on the night previous — the ground for beds, 

 our horse-furniture for covering, and a still more scanty supper than the 

 last to crown a day of toil. The next morning we received directions 

 to St. OUala, which, it was affirmed, could not this time be mistaken ; 

 and the idea of taking a guide for such a purpose was perfectly ridiculed. 

 We, therefore, set forward in better spirits, but found, to our perfect 

 dismay, the road, to which we had scrupulously adhered for several 

 leagues, gradually diminish, and at last branch off exactly in the manner 

 we had experienced on the two preceding days. I now became exceed- 

 ingly dispirited ; I was fatigued with our long and wearisome marches, 

 and weakened by little rest and sustenance. It was not, therefore, to be 

 wondered at, if I felt the unpleasantness of my situation more keenly 

 perhaps than the nature of the evil might warrant. I was almost 

 inclined to despair of ever finding my way from this blank and dreary 

 wilderness. In vain I strained my sight to its utmost gaze — almost to 

 painfulness — but could discover nothing but a range of sterile moun- 

 tains, and an interminable sea of entangled copse-wood. I would have 

 given anything to have heard the bark of a dog, or anything which indi- 

 cated humanity ; but my ear could catch no other sound than the hum 

 of the wild bee, or the moaning of the wind through the shrubs. In this 

 forlorn and desolate manner did we wander on for leagues further — 

 almost, I must confess, without hope. The sky was becoming overcast, 

 and the wind was evidently rising — all betokening a stormy night. In 

 vain did I cast my eye to the utmost limits of the horizon, becoming 



M. M. Nc7v Series.— V Oh. XII. No. (iH. S 



