FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 39 



thus described in a letter to me, in 1841,'* from Hon. 

 William Jarvis, the principal person engaged in them : 



" When the second irruption of the French armies 

 into Spain, in the winter of 1809, drove the Spanish 

 Junto from Madrid to Badajos, the Junto was with- 

 out money and without resources, and they durst not 

 levy any taxes on the Estremaduras lest they should 

 disgust that province, and the people should declare 

 in favor of the French. No alternative was, there- 

 fore, left them other than to sell the four flocks of 

 Merinos which had been confiscated with the other 

 property of four grandees who had joined France, with 

 license to transport them out of Spain. Those flocks 

 were the Paular, which had belonged to the celebrated 

 Prince of Peace, the Negretti, which had belonged to 

 the Conde Campo de Alange, the Aqueirres (the wool 

 of which was known in England as the Muros, this 

 flock having been the property of the Moors before 

 their expulsion from Spain), which had belonged to the 

 Conde de Aqueirres, and the Montarco, which had be- 

 longed to the Conde of that name. These flocks were 

 then in the vicinity of Badajos, and, when confis- 

 cated, the two former numbered about five thousand 

 each, and the two latter about twenty thousand each ; 

 but they had been reduced, by being unceremoni- 

 ously slaughtered for the use of the armies, to about 

 seven thousand five hundred Paulars, six thousand 

 Negrettis, four thousand Montarcos, and three thou- 

 sand Aqueirres. Four thousand of the Paular flock 

 were sent to the King of England, in compliance with 

 the application of his Minister, and General Downie 

 and I purchased the remainder. Sir Charles Stewart, 

 the British Minister, purchased the Negretti flock, of 

 which I selected a small part, and the remainder he 



* Published in the Transactions of the Ne\v- York State Agricultural 

 Society that year. 



