FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 39 
thus described in a letter to me, in 1841,* from Hon. 
William Jarvis, the principal person engaged in them: 
“When the second irruption of the French armies 
into Spain, in the winter of 1809, drove the Spanish 
Junto from Madrid to Badajos, the Junto was with- 
out money and without resources, and they durst not 
levy any taxes on the Estremaduras lest they should 
disgust that province, and the people should declare 
in favor of the French. No alternative was, there- 
fore, left them other than to sell the four flocks of 
Merinos which had been confiscated with the other 
property of four grandees who had joined France, with 
license to transport them out of Spain. Those flocks 
were the Paular, which had belonged to the celebrated 
Prince of Peace, the Negretti, which had belonged to 
the Conde Campo de Alange, the Aqueirres (the wool 
of which was known in England as the Muros, this 
flock having been the property of the Moors before 
their expulsion from Spain), which had belonged to the 
Conde de Aqueirres, and the Montarco, which had be- 
longed to the Conde of that name. These flocks were 
then in the vicinity of Badajos, and, when confis- 
cated, the two former numbered about five thousand 
each, and the two latter about twenty thousand each; 
but they had been reduced, by being unceremoni- 
ously slaughtered for the use of the armies, to about 
seven thousand five hundred Paulars, six thousand 
Negrettis, four thousand Montarcos, and three thou- 
sand Aqueirres. Four thousand of the Paular flock 
were sent to the King of England, in compliance with 
the application of his Minister, and General Downie 
and I purchased the remainder. Sir Charles Stewart, 
the British Minister, purchased the Negretti flock, of 
which I selected a small part, and the remainder he 
* Published in the Transactions of the New York State Agricultural 
Society that year. 
