S P A I N, 
445 
known to the Police Commissary of the district, in which 
he lives. At each station on the road, stupid and staring 
police officers demand the passports, and inspect them to 
such a degree of minuteness, that the entire back of the 
paper is covered over with their signatures; and it becomes 
necessary to join it to three or four more leaves, which are 
soon written over in the same manner. 
« They tell you, the government suspects every man 
moving from one place to another, to be a public enemy. 
“ Popery proceeds in Spain with a firm step to recover all 
her ancient terrible authority. At Valencia, where a school¬ 
master was lately hanged for heresy, a Jew has been since 
burnt for Judaism. A letter from Madrid says, “ the human 
sacrifices which Rome abolished in her treaty with Carthage, 
have been revived at Valencia.” 
The secret prisons of the Apostoliques are filled with 
heretics, consisting of witches and magicians, accused of 
being connected with the devil. In short, the priesthood 
have the satisfaction to light up again the funeral pile. To 
the present time, they were contented with forcing the 
Jews to frequent their churches, and to assist in their 
Catholic ceremonies, which was in itself an absurdity, 
they being strangers to that religion; and now in this 
enlightened age, they have condemned one of them to 
be burnt to death. “ For along time past,” says the before- 
mentioned writer, “ they had been informed at Madrid, 
that an auto-da-fe would soon take place : the brotherhood 
of St. Hennandad took the road to Valencia, followed by 
numbers of associates to sacrifice an unfortunate Hebrew. 
All the thieves- and assassins surrounded the pile, carrying 
the banners of the Inquisition and St. Dominique, preceded 
by monks, singing the psalms of David. Between them 
was placed their unfortunate victim, who was clad in a 
round frock, upon which was painted various devils, having 
on his head a pasteboard cap, decorated with flames of fire. 
He was escorted by two Dominican friars, who compli¬ 
mented him on his being about to be burned for the salva¬ 
tion of his soul, and, previous to his ascending the faggots, 
they embraced him. The wretched man having been gagged 
and tied down, the torch was applied, and the torturers sur¬ 
rounded the pile, singing hymns to drown his cries!!” 
But not this distress of his people, nor the successes of the 
Dey of Algiers, nor the loss of South America, nor the penu¬ 
rious state of his treasury, could restrain Ferdinand from 
engaging in further broils to uphold the despotism of the 
sceptre and of the mitre. The constitution established in 
Portugal (see Portugal), was naturally viewed with a 
jealous eye from the first moment of its establishment; but 
when its quiet and salutary operation began to be felt in the 
country and observed abroad, Ferdinand determined to 
overturn, by any stratagems, a government which held up 
so seductive an example to his subjects. Some Portuguese 
nobles revolted, and organized several bands of peasants, 
and attacked the newly constituted authority. Beaten, how¬ 
ever, and repulsed, they retired into Spain, where they re¬ 
ceived reinforcements of men, and supplies of arms and pro¬ 
visions. They advanced again, and though again repulsed, 
they returned after each defeat stronger than before. This 
went on so long, that the Portuguese government found 
itself obliged to solicit the assistance of its old ally, England, 
against the aggressions of Spain. The Court of St. James’s 
waited but till the aggressions of Spain were clearly proved, 
and then sent 10,000 chosen troops to Lisbon. In the 
mean time, the English ambassador at Madrid, was in¬ 
structed to demand, firmly but peremptorily, of Ferdinand, 
that he should no longer harbour the Portuguese troops. 
This he agreed to; denying, however, that they had ever 
received any countenance by his desire: and he promised to 
take steps to prevent his subjects from affording the rebels 
any assistance. These promises continually repeated, are as 
.often broken. The English troops remain in Portugal, and 
the rebel force is by no means destroyed, though often de¬ 
feated. On the other hand, the constitutionalists of Spain 
are again raising their heads in the provinces. 
Statistics. —Spain may be considered as composed of a 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1582. 
series of mountain terraces, which, projecting successively 
their rugged edges towards the south, present a flight of 
gigantic steps from the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean. 
The chains of mountains which terminate and divide the 
great plains of the peninsula, are branches of the immense 
ridge -that, from the most elevated part of Tartary, runs across 
Asia and Europe, penetrates into the south of France, by 
Switzerland, and, entering Spain in the direction of the 
valleys of Roncal and Bastan, separates Navarre from Gui- 
puscoa; Biscay from Alava; the highlands of Burgos from 
the plains of Old Castile; and Asturias from the kingdom of 
Leon ; it then crosses Galicia, and dips into the ocean at the 
Capes Ortegal and Finisterre. 
The Pyrenees are lateral ramifications of this great trunk, 
which run east and west, on the eastern side of Spain, and 
take a south-west and north-west direction on the confines 
of Arragon and Navarre. The accumulated mass of these 
mountains presents, towards the peninsula, the convex side 
of a spherical segment, which, like a shield with its boss to 
the south, rounds its edges near the Atlantic and the Medi¬ 
terranean, and rears the highest part of its curve on the 
Spanish territory, between the springs of the rivers Cinca 
and Ara. This eminence, called Mont Perdu by the French, 
is known, in Arragon, by the appellation of Tres Sorores, 
alluding to its three peaks, distinctly seen from Zaragoza, of 
which the highest, according to the French naturalist, 
Ramond, who examined it in 1802, rises 4114 Spanish 
yards above the level of the sea. 
In the minor branches which strike off from the 
Pyrenees in a south direction, without forming a part of 
the great secondary chains, there are some mountains 
too remarkable to be left unnoticed. Such are the Mon 
sein, on the coast of Catalonia, near the town of Arens, 
and the well-known Monserrat, which rises, on the same 
coast, to the height of 1479 yards above the sea:—such 
the Sierras of Ribagoza, Barbastro, Huesca, and Jaca, 
which lake their names from the principal cities in their 
neighbourhood:—such, finally, those numerous spurs of 
the great ridge which run into Navarre, whose various 
appellations would only tend to confuse the reader. The 
most remarkable object, among these hills, is the Higa de 
Monreal, probably so called from the fancied resemblance 
of its highest rock to a fig. 
Of the main ridges which run across the peninsula, that 
which rises to the west of the source of the Ebro was called 
Idubcda by the Romans, and formed the limits of the an¬ 
cient Celtiberia. In its course towards the Mediterranean, 
the natives, according to a general custom, distinguish the 
various portions, or great links of the chain, by the appel¬ 
lation of Sierras, adding the name of some town or notable 
height in their vicinity. Such are the Sierra de Oca, of 
Urbion (the Distertice of the middle ages), of Moncayo 
(Mans Caunus), of Molina, Albarracin, and Cuenga. 
It is this chain, which Antilion calls the Iberian, that, by 
its direction from its origin to the heights of Moncayo, 
drives the Ebro to the east, and feeds the Duero towards the 
west. The Duero proceeds, however, to the south till it 
comes to Almazan, where the great ridge, forming an elbow 
to the south-south-west, forces the stream into its westerly 
bed. Farther south, near the sources of the small rivers 
Xalon and Tajuna, the Iberian ridge, bearing the name of 
Sierra Ministra, divides the waters between the Tagus and 
the Ebro. 
The first point where this great ridge splits into the minor 
chains which lose themselves in the Mediterranean, is to the 
north of Albarracin, in Arragon. Of these branches the most 
remarkable is that which, entering the province of Valencia, 
is again subdivided into the smaller ridges which terminate 
at Peniscola and Cape Oropesa. The waters that descend 
from these heights, to the north, mix finally with the Ebro, 
while the Turia and the Mijares are swelled by those which 
flow from the southern declivities. On the branch stretching 
towards Peniscola, and in the limits of Arragon, rises the 
Muela de Ares, a conical mountain, deprived of its apex; 
whose top is an extensive plain covered with luxuriant pasture, 
5 X and 
