4.10 SWABEY DIARY. 
18th September.—My time amply employed in antiquity hunting. 
In the church I found the tomb of Paredes,! said by Michael Cervantes 
to have been the strongest man in Spain, and a priest showed me an 
immense font which he presented to his mother in one hand, at the 
door of the church, she having left it without crossing herself with 
holy water. 
I need not add that to read the epitaph on his tomb describing him 
as a church benefactor was useless after the priest’s story. 
La Borde® says that according to Spanish writers, Truxillo was in 
existence before the dominion of the Romans under the name of 
Sealabis ; according to Pliny, Castra Julia; Les gens du pays attribuent 
sa fondation & Hercule. It changed masters frequently in the Moorish 
wars. Paredes.(mentioned in my journal) returning from wars against 
the Turks died at Boulogne and his body was carried 15 years after to 
Truxillo, which history the defaced state of the inscription on his tomb 
prevented my understanding at the time, though I call it perfectly to 
mind from the little that was intelligible. The story about his 
strength I had from a priest. 
This church of Santa Maria I remember to be an addition to a tower 
of considerable date, which La Borde says is supposed to be Turris 
Julia and built by Julius Cesar, I do not think it likely that the 
Romans would have built a tower where only part and one side of the 
surrounding country can be seen from it, when so many situations 
were at hand that would have answered the purpose better; and again 
the register of the town (still preserved, but probably containing many 
improbable traditions) speaks of the castle which is higher, as the most 
ancient building of the city. It would be impossible to say who built 
this castle, as from its singular construction adapted to the shape of 
the rock, out of which its walls are hewn and blasted, there is no trace 
of any particular system of building. ‘The castle so constructed within 
the walls is doubtless Roman, so that the tower of the church can hardly 
be so too, and I look upon it as a Spanish church grafted on a Moorish 
ruin, as indeed are many of the houses in the square. The construction 
both as to date and architecture being very evident, and in some of the 
more recently built, the Spaniards have evidently copied the Moorish 
ornaments, perhaps that they might not destroy the architectural 
uniformity ; at the same time they have afforded by an inevitable con- 
trast a lasting proof of the Moorish superiority. 
I wonder La Borde has overlooked Pizarro’s tomb, as he wrote just 
before his countrymen had removed his bones, and done their best to 
destroy the castles and convents. 
As an instance of the rascality and treason of some of the civil 
authorities, I need only instance the following case: six pieces of 
French artillery were found here concealed under some wood ; that the 
Alcade might not be taken by surprise, a note intimating that it was 
1 Garcia de Paredes, the Spanish Sampson. —F.4.W. 
2 Jean Benjamin La Borde was a French writer on history, geography, chronology, and music. 
He wrote ‘‘ Itineraire descriptive de L’ Espagne,” a useful guide-book to that country. La Borde 
who had been the premier valet de chambre to Louis the XV., and after his death one of the Fan- 
ners General, was guillotined during the French Reyolution, July 22nd, 1794,—Encyclopedia 
Britannica. ; 
