An Abandoned Province 23 1 



The citadel marks the era of war. The Goths followed and 

 despised fortifications. Their ornate palaces, enriched with 

 escutcheons and sculptured device, lie below, outside the Roman 

 walls. 



After the Goths and after the Moors, Trujillo enjoyed a 

 transient awakening when Pizarro, son of an Estremenian swine- 

 herd, with Cortez (also born hard by), swept the New World 

 from Mexico to the Andes, and the glory of her sons, with the 

 gold of the Incas, poured into the city. Thereafter destiny 

 altered. Instead of consolidating new-won dominions by foster- 

 ing commerce, exploiting their resources by establishing forts 

 and factories, plantations, harbours, and the like, Spain directed 

 her energies to missionising. Instead of commercial companies 

 with fleets of merchantmen, she sent out sacred Brotherhoods, 

 friars of religious orders, and studded the New World with empty 

 names, all acts right enough and laudable in their own proper 

 time and place. 



Trujillo boasts an industry in the manufacture of a rough red- 

 brown earthenware, chiefly tall water -jars, amphora - shaped, 

 which damsels carry upright on their 

 heads with marvellous balance ; and 

 iron -spiked dog-collars as here repre- 

 sented. These are not suitable for lap- 

 dogs, but for the huge mastifts employed 

 in guarding sheep and which, without ,^. . 



such protection, would be devoured by ' 



wolves ! WOLF-PROOF DOG-COLLAR 



Hitherto our journeys have led us (six-inciiduvna-ter. ) 



chiefly through the Estremenian plain, 



but after passing Plasencia the country changes. We enter the 

 outliers of those great sierras that shut out Estremadura from 

 Leon and Castile, from Portugal — and the world ! Here one 

 quickly perceives signs of greater prosperity, due in part to the 

 heavier rainfall from the hills, to a slightly richer soil, but 

 mainly to the superior energy of hill-folk. Wherever the soil 

 warrants it, cultivation is pushed right up amidst the jungled 

 slopes of the hills. 



In the folds of the sierra grow magnificent woods of Spanish 

 chestnut with some walnut trees, and among these we observed 



