OBTAINS LEAVE TO VISIT SPANISH COLOMKS. 21 



he was presented at the court of Aranjucz, and gra- chai>. u 

 ciously received by the king, to Avhom he explained pian~of~ 

 the motives which induced him to undertake a voyage ^''^'t ^" 

 to the New Continent. Being seconded in his applica- 

 tion by the representations of an enlightened minister, 

 Don Mariano Luis de Urquijo, he to his great joy ob- 

 tained leave to visit and explore, without impediment 

 or restriction, all the Spanish territories in America. 

 The impatience of the travellers to take advantage of 

 the permission thus granted did not allow them to 

 bestow much time upon preparations ; and about the 

 middle of May they left Madrid, crossed part of Old 

 Castile, Leon, and Galicia, and betook themselves to 

 Corunna, whence they were to sail for the island of 

 Cuba. 



According to the observations made by our travellers. Observations 

 the interior of Spain consists of an elevated table-land, "* ^'^"'' 

 formed of secondary deposites, — sandstone, gypsum, 

 rock-salt, and Jura limestone. The climate of the 

 Castiles is much colder tlian that of Toulon and Genoa, 

 its mean temperature scarcely rising to 59° of Fahren- 

 heit's thermometer. The central plain is surrounded 

 by a low and narrow belt, in several parts of which the 

 fan-palm, the date, the sugar-cane, the banana, and 

 many plants common to Spain and the north of Africa, 

 vegetate, without suffering from tlie severity of the 

 winter. In the space included between the parallels 

 of thirty-six and forty degrees of nortli latitude the 

 mean temperature ranges from 62° to G8° Fahrenheit, 

 and by a concurrence of favourable circumstances this 

 section has become tlie jjrincipal scat of industry and 

 intellectual cultivation. 



Ascending from the shores of the Mediterranean, to- '''ain of La 

 wards the elevated plains of La Mancha and the Castiles, 

 one imagines that he sees far inland, in the extended 

 precipices, the ancient coast of the Peninsula, — a cir- 

 cumstance which brings to mind the traditions of the 

 Samothracians and certain historical testimonies, accord- 

 ing to which the bursting: of the waters through the 



