of October. In January, when the canes are ripe, they should be cut into short junks, and crushed in the mill. The juice should be boiled in iron caldrons, and then left to cool till it becomes clarified; it should then be boiled again, till the fourth part only remain, when it should be put into vases of clay, of a conical form, and placed in the shade to thicken; afterwards, the sugar must be drawn from the vases and left to cool. The canes, after the juice is expressed, are preserved for the horses, who eat them greedily, and become fat by feeding on them.”

We left Torre del Mar at five o'clock, passed through a field of ripe canes, and then through olive grounds, till in about half an hour we reached this place.

THIS city has more the appearance of internal desolation than any I have ever beheld; for the dreadful fever of 1804, which swept away nearly half its inhabitants, has left a great number of houses totally unoccupied. The surrounding country, however, is fertile and beautiful beyond description. The town is situated on the declivity of a lofty mountain, and the vines on the sides of it, the verdure of its gardens, the shady groves on the banks of the river, the lofty elms in the Paseo, the profusion of fruits, and the transparent streams in the valley, render it one of the most enchanting spots in Andalusia.

"Hic gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata, Licori,

Hic nemus hic ipso tecum consumerer ævo."

The views around Velez create additional interest from several Moorish towns, placed on the narrow summits of mountains, which seem to bid defiance to the attacks of the soldier, and to render the access difficult, even to their own peaceful inhabitants. Among this number may be reckoned Benamocarra, Alcaucen, and Albaşyda,

the names and position of which, carry back the mind to those remote periods when the conquering Catholics spread devastation through the valleys, and the luxurious, but not totally enervated Moors, retiring to these fastnesses, renounced their luxuries, and carried on the most inveterate warfare against their invaders; nor is it possible, amid such scenes, to refrain from anticipating with regret, the similar events, which are soon likely to occur in this devoted country.

Having now arrived at the end of that tract of country, which commences at Rio Verde, beyond Marvella, where the tropical fruits are most abundantly produced, I shall make a few observations, before I ascend the mountains, on the agriculture of these delightful valleys. Coffee, cotton, sugar, and cocoa, are cultivated wholly by capitalists, who are alone able to defray the great expence of manuring and irrigating the land, and of erecting machinery, all of which processes require considerable disbursements before any profits can be derived from the crops. In a country, therefore, where capital is so limited as in Spain, there can be but little progress made in the increase of this branch of agriculture; and hence, the plantations are in exact proportion to that surplus of capital which the merchants of Malaga can spare, for this purpose, from their other concerns.

The ancient and more extensive system of agriculture is in a state equally languishing, from the same cause. The growers of wine raisins and figs are mostly small proprietors of lands, or petty tenants, paying their rents monthly, when in money, and, when in produce, at

the season of harvest, and who, being unable to subsist and pay their labourers, are under the necessity of being supplied by the merchants to whom they mortgage their expected produce, long before it is fit for market; the consequence is, that the cultivators are kept in a state of poverty and depression, from which there is no prospect of their emerging.

On the hills that surround Malaga, there are upwards of seven thousand vineyards, which produce annually eighty thousand arobas of wine, of which more than one half is exported. The first harvest of grapes commences in the month of June, which is solely for those dried by the sun, the heat of which, by extracting the saccharine juice, preserves them without any other process; and this species is known through Europe under the denomination of Malaga raisins. In the month of September the second crop is gathered, which is made into a dry wine, resembling sherry, and called by that name, but, to my taste, much inferior. Of late years the cultivation of the grape for this kind of wine has much increased, and the merchants are not without hope, that in a few years they shall rival the vineyards of Xeres, both in quantity and quality. The last vintage of the year is in October and November, and produces those wines called in Spain and her colonies Malaga, and in England Mountain; the natives of Spain prefer these to the dry wines of Xeres, or even of Madeira.

There are several species of wine made in this district of great celebrity, one in particular, called Pedro Ximenes, is very rich, and is said to be made from the Rhenish grape transplanted to these mountains, where it has lost its tartness, and acquired a rich and

delicious flavour. Another kind, called Guinda, is merely the common sweet wine of the mountains, with a mixture of the juice of cherries, and is not much valued here, but highly esteemed in other countries and the Lagrima de Malaga, a sweet wine, resembling Constantia, though highly valued by Spaniards, is not agreeable to an English palate. These wines are rather cultivated by the curious than made an object of commerce, and the quantity produced of each very small.

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Next to wine, the most important article is oil, for the making of which there are more than seven hundred mills in the district through which I have lately passed. In general, the oil partakes of the bad qualities I noticed at Seville, but in Velez more attention is paid to cleanliness than any where else, and the oil is by far the best I have tasted in Spain.

The quantity of raisins exported hence is very great, indeed this is the principal market for that article. Besides what is sent over the mountains to Granada, and other places farther north, there is annually exported fifty thousand quintals by small vessels, which anchor near Torre del Mar, or by ships from the port of Malaga.

The quantity of figs dried in this neighbourhood is very considerable, but is of less importance, as an object of foreign trade, than the raisins; they are mostly sent into the mountains, or to the city of Granada, whence wheat and barley are brought in exchange; for, though some of the playas are capable of producing these grains in the greatest abundance, the quantity raised is not sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants.