An Abandoned Province 229 
dimensions, roe, wolves, and wild-boars abound on Estremenian 
sierra and vega. Then, too, there may well be isolated spots of 
interest in 20,000 square miles, but which escaped our survey. 
Yet what we write represents the essential fact—-Estremadura is 
a barren lifeless wilderness and offers no more attraction to 
naturalist than to agriculturist. 
The cause of all this involves questions not easily answered. 
In earlier days the case may have been different. Obviously the 
Romans thought highly of Estremadura and meant to run it for 
all it was worth. The Caesars were no visionaries, and such 
colossal works as their reservoirs and aqueducts at Merida, the 
massive amphitheatre and circus at the same city (a half- 
completed bull-ring stands alongside in pitiful contrast), besides 
their construction of a first-class fortress at Trujillo, all attest 
a matured judgment. After the Romans came the Goths, 
and they, too, have left evidence of appreciation (though less 
conspicuous) alike in city and country. Four hundred years 
later the Arabs overthrew the Goths on Guadalete (a.p. 711), 
and within two years had overrun two-thirds of Spain. But the 
Moor (so far as we can see) despised these barren uplands, or 
perhaps assessed them at a truer value—a single strong outpost 
(Trujillo) in an otherwise worthless region. 
Much or little, however, each of those successive conquerors 
found some use for Estremadura. A totally different era opened 
with the fall of Moslem dominion. After the Reconquista and 
subsequent extermination of the Moors (seventeenth century), 
Estremadura was utterly abandoned, by Cross and Crescent 
alike, till the highland shepherds of the Castiles and of Leén, 
looking down from its northern frontier, saw in these lower- 
lying wastes a useful winter-grazing. Then commenced 
seasonal nomadic incursions thereto, pastoral tribes driving down 
each autumn their flocks and herds, much as the Patriarchs did in 
Biblical days—or the Masai in East Africa till yesterday. 
Though the land itself was ownerless, shadowy prescriptive 
rights gradually evolved, and under the title of Mestas continued 
to be recognised by the pastoral nomads till abolished by Royal 
Decree in the sixteenth century. From that date commenced the 
subdivision of Estremadura into the present large private estates 
—again recalling the back-veld Boers, who hate to live one 
within sight of another, except that here owners are non-resident. 
