6 Unexplored Spain 
awaits but the wand of a magician to recall its people to front 
rank. Neither by despotic methods nor by the power that is 
only demonstrated by violence will the change be brought about, 
but by the enlightenment that has learnt to leave unimitated the 
follies of the past, and unused the forces of coercion. 
Such a leader, we believe, to-day wields that wand. May he 
be spared to restore the destinies of his country. 
It was in Spain, remember, that, more than 2000 years ago, 
the fate of Carthage and, later, that of Rome was decided. To 
the latter Imperial city Spain had given poets, philosophers, and 
emperors. It was in Spain that there dawned the earlier 
glimmerings of popular liberties, as such are now understood. 
Self-government with municipal rights were recognised by the 
Cortes of Leén previous to our Magna Charta. Individual 
guarantees, freedom of person and contract, and the inviolability 
of the home were granted by the Cortes of Zaragoza in 1348— 
more than three centuries before our Habeas Corpus was signed 
in 1679. A land with such traditions and achievements, with 
its twenty millions of inhabitants, cannot long be held back 
outside the trend of liberal expansion. 
The pursuit of game, alike with other aspects of Spanish 
things, is not exempt from startling surprises. A ramble 
through the cistus-scrub, with no more exciting object than 
shooting a few redlegs, may result in bagging a lynx; or a 
handful of snipe from some cane-brake be augmented by the 
addition of a wild-boar. It is not that game abounds, but that 
the country is wide and wild, abandoned to natural state and 
combining conditions congenial to animal-life. Of the big-game 
that is obtained or of its habitats, there is no approximate 
estimate, nor do precise knowledge or records exist. Hach 
village in the sierra or higher mountain-region lives its own life 
apart. Communication with other places is rare and difficult, 
nor is it sought. One must go oneself to the spot to ascertain 
with any sort of accuracy what game has been, or may be 
obtained thereat. This means finding out every fact at first- 
hand, for no reliance can be placed on reports or hearsay evidence. 
Nor does this remark apply to game alone: it applies universally 
in wilder Spain. The Englishman straying in these lone scenes 
finds himself amongst a kindly but independent people where 
sympathy and a knowledge of the language carry him further 
