820 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



which, notwithstanding the re- 

 verses that the nation has sustained, 

 the modern Spaniard continues to 

 ;tct the part of his ancestors." 

 This is a mistake, the Spaniard has 

 always heen the same ; historians 

 depict hira as haughtj', boastful, 

 filled with self-esteem, and dis- 

 dainful of other nations. His na- 

 tive disposition was kept down 

 under the yoke of the people who 

 subdued him ; but it broke forth 

 with full force the moment he re- 

 covered his liberty. The Spaniard 

 of the twelfth century was the same 

 with the Spaniard of the eigh- 

 teenth. The Spaniards are brave; 

 they have always been so ; from 

 the most remote ages they have 

 evinced the most steady and intre- 

 pid valour. Tliucydides, Diodo- 

 rus Siculus, Livy, Strabo, and 

 Lucius Florus, represent them as 

 the most warlike of the barbarians; 

 as brave in battle ; patient of the 

 fatigues of war; bold and as vali- 

 ant as the Romans. They were 

 vanquished by Hannibal, on the 

 banks of the Tagus, only because 

 they wanted a head; under the 

 conduct of Hannibal, they van- 

 quished the Romans on the banks 

 of the Rhone ; they often beat 

 them when they fought under the 

 command of Veriatus and Sertorius; 

 they long resisted them in the Can- 

 tabrian war. The famous defence 

 of Saguntum, and that of Numan- 

 tia, would suffice to immortalize 

 Spanish valour ; the first resisted, 

 during eight months, an army of 

 150,000 Carthaginians, and chose 

 rather to bury itself under its own 

 ruins than surrender; the last 

 sustained, during fourteen years, 

 the utmost efforts of the Roman 

 power; triumphed several times 

 over the armies of the republic; 



twice compelled her generals to 

 sue for peace ; and only yielded, 

 at length, through famine, and the 

 small number of her defenders, 

 leaving nothing to her conquerors 

 but heaps of ruins, ashes, and dead 

 bodies. Even the women have 

 sometimes displayed a manly cou- 

 rage. In the Cantabrian war, uur 

 der the Romans, mothers were 

 seen to put their own children to 

 death, that they might not see 

 them fall into the hands of their 

 enemies. 



In later times the Spaniards had 

 not degenerated from the valour of 

 their ancestors. They evinced the 

 same energy against the Moors ; a 

 handful of Spaniards was often seen 

 to encounter innumerable hosts of 

 Arabs ; to defeat them, put them 

 to the rout, and reconquer from them 

 a wide extent of country. The 

 valour and reputation of the Spa- 

 nish infantry, under Ferdinand V. 

 and his successors are known to all 

 Europe. The names of Almansa, 

 of Villaviciosa, Bitonto, Codogno, 

 Veletri, Camposanto, Parma, Bue- 

 nos-Ayres, the Havannah, Port- 

 Mahon, and Oran, are famous in 

 the history of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury; the plains of Catalonia and 

 Biscay have become no less so in the 

 present war. These places have 

 been the theatre in which the Spa- 

 niards have shown to all Europe 

 that they were worthy the reputa- 

 tion of their fathers. 



The Spanish soldier is still one 

 of the best in Europe, when pla- 

 ced under an experienced general, 

 and brave and intelligent officers ; 

 he is possessed of a cool and steady 

 valour; he long resists fatigue, 

 and easily inures himself to labour; 

 lives on a little, endures hunger 

 without complaining ; executes the 



orders 



