53 



>.j 



BISCAY. 



Biscay, notwithstanding the appearance of strength, it could 

 not make a protracted resistance. Owing to I 

 town bcin ort, and carrying on some trade, 



the population rises to 13,000 souls. Most of the 

 other towns in Biscay are inconsiderable. Fontara- 

 bia, on the extreme limits of Spain, was formerly 

 esteemed one of the keys to the kingdom, and once 

 stood a siege by the French. 



The Biscayans convert the vallies, and the less 

 rugged parts of their mountains, to the greatest agri- 

 cultural use of which they are susceptible. But the 

 farmer has to contend with a stubborn soil, which 

 only hy the unsparing use of manure affords him an 

 abundant harvest. For centuries the fields have been 

 plentifully supplied with lime, yet little alteration in 

 many instances follows ; and, were it not for extra- 

 ordinary exertion, nothing except brush-wood and 

 briars would spring. The mode of turning up the 

 earth, which is detailed by the acute and intelligent 

 Bowles, is extremely rude and laborious. An iron- 

 pronged instrument is forced into the ground by the 

 united power of three or four persons, and large 

 pieces of turf turned over by mere manual power. 

 These are afterwards broken in pieces, and the clods 

 beaten with wooden mallets : holes are dug, und the 

 grain sown in them. The steepness of the moun- 

 tains, added to the stubbornness of the soil, is a great 

 obstacle to agriculture, insomuch, that the consump- 

 tion of the lordship exceeds it3 produce ; and the in- 

 come from land, deducting all charges, amounts to 

 no more than two per cent. There is abundance of 

 good fruit in Biscay, and wine is made for home con- 

 sumption. An indifferent kind, called Chacoli, is 

 procured from a mixture of grapes, and until it is 

 consumed, no other kind can be sold by the vintner3. 

 The proprietors being thus secure of a market, 

 become regardless of its quality, and it is carelessly 

 made ; it serve.;, however, only during four months of 

 the year, and the remainder of what is required for 

 the lordship comes from Old Castile. Vineyards are 

 numerous about Bilbao and Orduna, forming the 

 principal revenue", of the gentbmen. 



The number of iron mines in Biscay has led to the 

 establishment of extensive manufactories, particular- 

 ly as the ore may be procured at a trifling expense. 

 The mine of Somorrostro is free to the whole inhabi- 

 lants ; it is common property, and each may carry 

 ay as much as he pleases. Great quantities are 

 i-.eyed from it by water-carnage ; and calculations 

 been made, that it docs not yield less than 

 800,000 quintals annually. There are manufactories 

 of anchors, cannon, and other tire arms, in different 

 ts of the province. Copper boilers of large di- 

 mensions are fabricated at Toledo one of the chief 

 owns of Guipuzcoa, and sheets of sheathing copper 

 prepared at Balmuseda. Extensive manufactories of 

 cordage and rigging are likewise established at St 

 Sebastian and Bilbao. 



The only natural productions with which Biscay 

 can supply other countries, are iron and chesnuts. 

 Notwithstanding the abundance of the former, the 

 'its to the proprietors are extremely inconsider- 

 able. A well managed forge does not produce above 

 ;>00 ducat?, each worth 4s. 8d. to its owner ; and the 

 ret :er paying all expenses, scar 



amount to 300. Yet this is the chief article which Biseay. 

 brings money into Biscay. But the inhabitants are 

 obliged to be economical of fuel, and to use small 

 Were these as large as some which are em- 

 ployed in the great iron works in other parts of Eu- 

 rope, the mountains would he stripped bare of wood, 

 and the works interrupted for want of fuel. The 

 preservation of ancient privileges checks the trade of 

 Biscay ; for Bilbao, owing to the rejection of custom- 

 houses, receives no encouragement from government. 

 A commercial company, established at St Sebastian 

 in 1728* proved of great utility to the province: 

 Spain immediately supplied all Europe with cocoa, 

 at a period when tea was only beginning to be known, 

 and it quickly fell two-thirds in price. Subsequent 

 mismanagement, and the contraction of a great load of 

 debt, occasioned the dissolution of the company in 

 1780; but, until the present war, a private trade with 

 America was still carried on by the merchants of St 

 Sebastian. The intercourse of the province within 

 its own limits, and also with other parts of Spain, 

 is greatly facilitated by excellent roads, though 

 there is a great want of inns. Formerly the roads 

 passed over mountains, or along the edge of pre- 

 cipices, and, in consequence of the inconvenience 

 attending them, the three cantons united to form new 

 ones at the public expense. 



A society was established a considerable time ago, 

 called the Sociedad Bascongada, or Biscay Society, 

 partly, we believe, with the view of philosophical im- 

 provements ; but there are here no extensive semina- 

 ries of literature. A school was established on a liberal 

 plan at Vergara, in Guipuzcoa, solely at the expense 

 of a patriotic society, where various branches of use- 

 ful study were taught. There are sixteen masters, 

 who, in addition to the more ordinary parts of 

 education, teach the French and English languages, 

 drawing, and music. The institution is under the 

 superintendance of commissioners, who are changed 

 every four months; and one of them constantly re- 

 sides in the edifice devoted to its purposes. Every 

 four months, also, the pupils undergo a public exa- 

 mination in presence of the commissioners, and prizes 

 arc annually bestowed on the most meritorious. Na- 

 val schools have been established in Biscay, and 

 schools for drawing at Vittoria. 



Biscay can boast of few learned men. Lama, a 

 celebrated lawyer, who flourishsd in the seventeenth 

 century, was born at Vittoria ; and in that preceding 

 it, Diego Esquivel wrote a work on the reformation 

 of religion, which is said to contain many excellent 

 principles, though esteemed too difficult to be con- 

 verted to practice. The language of the province is 

 distinct from that spoken in the rest of the Spanish 

 dominions, and its use remounts to a high period of 

 antiquity. It is said to be soft, harmonious, and 

 energetic, and so peculiar to the inhabitants, that 

 Larramendi wrote a book called /.'.' imposible ven- 

 cido ; arte de la langua Basccmadu : and the com- 

 mon Spanish dialect is not understood in the moun- 

 tains. 



The Bis ss an inherent love of liberty, 



which ran prompt them to forego ; they 



jcalously preserve various privileges, which they ei- 

 ther enjoyed while .-. dent government, or 



