Spaniards to depart, and join the defenders of their country, while restrictions, rendered necessary by the existing circumstances, are laid on the admission of those who may hereafter arrive. Preparations are now making for destroying the Spanish lines in front of this place, and for blowing up the forts of St. Philip and St. Barbara; in fact, every precaution is taking, which the importance of the place demands, whilst a part of the army is about to embark to take possession of Ceuta on the African shore..

to

CADIZ, JAN. 1810.

AFTER closing my last letter I left Gibraltar, intending pass the evening with General Castaños, and proceed with him to Chiclana; but owing to an unfortunate blunder of the servants, they were waiting for me without the gates of Gibraltar whilst I was searching for them every where within the town, when the evening gun announced the closing of the gate. I learnt their situation by accident, and applied to General Campbell, who, on account of the peculiarity of my case, had the goodness to order the gates to be opened, which occasioned no little trouble, and occupied a considerable time. When I had got fairly without the fortress, and had reached the Spanish lines, I found that the servants had gone to St. Roque, and I was, consequently, obliged to follow them, instead of enjoying the pleasant evening which I had anticipated with Castaños at Algeziras. There was no remedy, and being in an excellent house, the mortification was more easily borne.

At day-break, Mr. Ridout, who had accompanied me from Gibraltar, returned thither, having made a party to pass over to Ceuta

and Tangiers, and it being arranged that he should join me at Cadiz after his visit to Africa. I began my dreary journey to this place alone. The first part of the road was good, and the country pleasant; but at the expiration of two hours I passed the town of Dos Barrios, a place containing about 1000 inhabitants, when I began to ascend the Sierra, which, though not so high, is equally wild with that called the Trocha, at the back of Algeziras. The roads over it are excessively bad, and the prospects dreary and romantic beyond description. It occupied four hours to reach the summit of the Sierra, where huge rocks, lifting their heads among the trees, and gushing streams bursting in every part, gave to the prospects a sublimity, and a solitary wildness, which excited the most awful impressions.

In one of the rudest parts of the road, at a sudden turning, I met General Doyle, who, with his aid de camp and servants, was going to Gibraltar, on his way to Catalonia. I cannot describe to you the pleasure of such an interview, in such a situation. He had all his usual cheerfulness and gaiety, and did not appear incommoded by the fatigues of his journey, though, as I afterwards learnt, he had slept the preceding night among the horses and mules at a gypsey hut on the plain below. After having remained on horseback for seven hours, I reached the miserable hovel from which he had proceeded, and was too much disgusted with its filth to venture within it; but while the horses were refreshing, ate the meal I had brought with me under some cork trees, that grew at the door. I was joined at this place by some Englishmen, one of whom I slightly recognized: they had come from Algeziras that day,

and our joint stock of provisions made the Spaniards almost envy us the sumptuous repast, which was spread on the grass before us.

From this wretched venta I passed over a fine plain, which the late rains had rendered wet and muddy, but which appeared totally uncultivated. A few straggling oxen were the only cattle I observed, and I could discover no vestige of an habitation till, after four hours riding, I reached Vegel. As I found I could be accommodated in a venta near that place with an apartment, and straw beds, both for myself and for my countrymen who were following me, I determined to pass the night there, and employ the time till dark in seeing the town. The ascent is steep and dangerous, and scarcely passable for any animals except mules and asses. The sight of the town was by no means a recompence for the labour of ascending to it; and though it contains (as I was informed) seven thousand inhabitants, not a single object was to be seen deserving attention. It is, however, surrounded with fruitful corn fields, and the country in general appears fertile.

I accidentally met the Corregidor, and conversed with him on political subjects, with the freedom allowed to an Englishman. He expressed himself much in the same manner as the Spaniards in general do when conversing about the state of their affairs. He exultingly pointed out to me the secure position of his own town in particular; and concluded by saying, that if the Junta gave up all Andalusia to the French, the inhabitants of Vegel could defend their own asylum against every enemy. I have seen so many instances of this parochial patriotism, if I may be allowed the expression, that it has ceased to excite astonishment. But, amidst the gloom which

now overshadows the political horizon, it forms the only consolation, and constitutes the only hope, that remains for Spain. Numerous armies, without combination, and without confidence in their leaders, can no longer be relied on. But the native valour of the people, their unconquerable hatred of the invaders, their capability of enduring fatigue and hardship, and the unassailable fastnesses of the country, hold forth the best promise of a war, which terminate in the emancipation of the Peninsula.

may ultimately

When I descended from the mountain, and reached the venta, the horrors which precede invasion were strikingly exhibited. The Duchess of Medina Celi, the wife of the proprietor of all this extensive country, and the richest subject in Europe, had just arrived with her family, having fled from St. Mary's, to escape from the enemy. She was attended by several carriages, as well as many mules and asses; but as the road would not admit of wheel carriages beyond this place, a sufficiency of the latter was provided, to carry her grace and her suite to Algeziras, where she intended to embark for Majorca. There was a cheerfulness in her conversation, and a liveliness in her manners, which what I have often had occasion to reproves mark, that Spaniards, even of high rank, possess an elasticity of mind, which renders them superior to the unexpected calamities of life, and drives away those imaginary ills, which are the worst enemies of human happiness.

In a miserable hovel, at the foot of a mountain, which towered over our heads, with all the horrors to be expected from an approaching enemy, and without the aid of a festive board, my countrymen, and myself, collected in our apartment a society of the