334 
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
which he may have met with on the highways or in roadside inns, it 
has appeared to me that they would be pleased should I detail the 
little that I know of him. 
"Don Guillermo Bowles was born in a village in the neighbour- 
hood of the city of Cork in Ireland (about 1714). After having 
pursued the course of studies usual for youths of his time, his parents 
decided that he should follow the legal profession. This he did for 
some time, not without great repugnance. Pinally, however, he 
determined on going to Paris in 1740, where, following the bent of 
his mind, he applied himself to the study of the natural sciences, 
chemistry, metallurgy, and anatomy. He subsequently visited nearly 
all the provinces of Prance, making observations on their mines, their 
vegetable, and other productions. The journals of these travels are 
in my possession, and would furnish the material of a work equally 
interesting as that on Spain. 
"Being in Paris in 1752, he there chanced to make the acquain- 
tance of Don Antonio de TJlloa, Knight Commander of Ocana in the 
Order of Santiago, and at present lieutenant-general of the royal 
navy, who proposed to him that he should take service in Spain. He 
accepted the offer which was made through UUoa, with the intention 
of occupying himself in visiting the mines, and in establishing and 
directing a museum of natural history, as also a chemical laboratory. 
''His first commission was to visit and repair the works of the 
Almaden mine, which had been stopped in consequence of the damage 
caused by a fire therein. He subsequently visited the southern pro- 
vinces, collecting specimens for the museum, and was occupied with 
researches on and analyses of the various ores submitted to him of 
those brought from New Spain and Peru. During four years he 
served the king without pay, not liking to bind himself by accepting 
any, until he had seen whether the climate agreed with him or not. 
When, having come to a decision, he was asked by the Ministers Don 
Eicardo Wall and the Count de Valdeparaiso what salary he would 
accept, he answered that 24,000 reals (about £240) would be enough, 
thus astonishing these Ministers by his disinterestedness and modera- 
tion. 
He was tall and of fine appearance, generous, honourable, gay, 
and frank, and a lover of good society. These qualities brought him 
into relation with, and secured for him the appreciation of, a great 
number of persons distinguished by their high birth, their ministerial 
connexions, and their literary standing. 
" He usually resided in Madrid or in Bilbao, where he was at four 
