Considerable apprehensions have been entertained lest an epidemic fever should break out, similar to that which has frequently prevailed on this coast; but the heavy rains have in some measure dispelled those fears, though several have lately died with the worst symptoms of the disease. The dead are interred at a cemetery, without the walls, about a mile from the city. The last time the fever raged here, Solano, at that time Governor, carried a point of importance he had long meditated, the preventing interments within the churches; and all now quietly acquiesce in a regulation which, even in a moment of terror, was adopted with reluctance. Coffins are seldom used; and the corpse, which is dressed in the garment of the deceased, is conveyed to the grave on a bier, with the face uncovered, and exposed to the view of those who accompany the mournful ceremony. C C LETTER XXIX. ISLA DE LEON-PANTHEON-PUENTE DE ZUARZOS-SALT PITS-CHICLANAGAME-CORTOS-CHURCH OF ST. ANNA-MINERAL SPRINGS AT CHICLANA -CHRISTMAS PARTY-STROLLING PLAYERS. CADIZ, DEC. 1809. I HAVE been spending some days at Chiclana, a delightful place, about sixteen miles hence, where the merchants of this city have their country houses. We went in a berlin, with four good horses. The road is very fine, and is raised on a parapet, with the sea on both sides; on the left the bay of Cadiz, and on the right the main ocean, with the shore stretching towards Cape Trafalgar. In two hours we reached the Isla de Leon, a city containing between forty and fifty thousand inhabitants; but from its extent, including St. Carlos, capable of holding double that number. The streets are wide, the houses large, and, like other Spanish towns, it displays a mixture of grandeur and poverty, quite characteristic of the nation. As this place is soon destined to become the seat of government, I saw it with more interest than it would otherwise have excited. It is at present inhabited chiefly by officers of the navy, and by different persons employed in the dock-yard of the Caraccas; but the expected convocation of the Cortes has increased the rent of houses so much, that the present inhabitants will soon be under the necessity of removing to cheaper habitations. I visited the principal church, which is as elegantly decorated as the religious edifices in Spain usually are; but what principally attracted my attention was the repository for the dead, which is called the pantheon: it is an open court, of an oval form, with a corridor, built on arches and supported by pillars; and in the walls, which are of a competent thickness, are receptacles for the remains of the clergy. These niches resemble the mouths of ovens, which after the interment are closed with brickwork. I counted five hundred of these places, all of which were filled; and I was told, that when a priest died, the bodies, which had been longest deposited there, were removed to make room for the new occupier. Suzlo The end of the Isla de Leon, towards the Continent, is remarkably strong, both by nature and art, and may be considered as one of the principal defences of Cadiz. The navigable river Santi Petri intersects the land, and is crossed by a bridge, flanked with batteries, and defended by gun-boats. The vulgar opinion is, that this bridge, called Puente de Zuarzo, was built by Julius Cæsar, and every one assured me that this was the fact. Above water it is, however, evidently of modern construction; and though Ocampo asserts it was built by Cornelius Balbo the younger, before the Christian era, yet younger, seventeen years Antonio Ponz, the most accurate Spanish author, discovered at Segovia an inscription which ascribes it to a Dr. Sanchez Zuarzo, who died in that city in 1437. It is more than probable, that the Romans erected a bridge at this spot, as it is the only point connecting the island, on which Cadiz stands, with the Continent, and therefore it guaco |