To the Rev.Andrew Brandram (ENDORSED:recd.Feb.29th,1836)JOURNAL CONTINUED
BADAJOZ,10th JANUARY 1836.
THE night had closed in before we reached Evora,and having taken leave of my friends,who kindly requested me to consider their house my home,myself and my little party proceeded to the Largo de San Francisco,where was a hostelry,which the muleteer informed me was the best in the town.We rode into the kitchen,at the extreme end of which was the stable,as is customary in Portugal.The house was kept by an aged gypsy-like female and her daughter,a fine blooming girl about eighteen years of age.The house was large;in the upper story was a very long room,like a granary,extending nearly the whole length of the house;the further end was partitioned off,and formed a tolerably comfortable chamber,but rather cold,the floor being of tiles,as was that of the large room in which the muleteers were accustomed to sleep on the furniture of their mules.Having supped I went to bed,and after having offered up my devotions to Him who had protected me through a dangerous journey,I slept soundly till the morning.
Evora is a walled town,but not regularly fortified,and could not sustain a siege of a day.It has five gates;before that to the south-west is the principal promenade of the inhabitants;the fair on St.John's Day is likewise held there.The houses are mostly very ancient;many of them are unoccupied.It contains about five thousand inhabitants,though twice that number would be by no means disproportionate to its size.The two principal edifices are the See or Bishop's Palace,and the Convent of San Francisco,opposite to which I had taken up my abode.A large barrack for cavalry stands on the right-hand side on entering the south-west gate.The adjacent country is uninteresting;but to the south-east,at the distance of six leagues,is to be seen a range of blue hills,the highest of which is called Serra Dorso.It is picturesquely beautiful,and contains within its recesses wolves and wild boars in numbers.About a league and a half on the other side of this hill is Estremoz.
I passed the day succeeding my arrival principally in examining the town and its environs,and as I strolled about I entered into conversation with various people that I met.Several of these were of the middle classes,shopkeepers and professional men;they were all Constitutionalists,or pretended to be so,but had very little to say,except a few commonplace remarks on the way of living of the friars,their hypocrisy and laziness.I endeavoured to obtain some information respecting the state of instruction at Evora,and from their replies was led to believe that it must be very low,for it seemed that there was neither book-shop nor school in the place.
When I spoke of religion,they exhibited the utmost apathy,and making their bows left me as soon as possible.Having a letter of introduction to a person who kept a shop in the market-place,Icalled upon him,found him behind his counter and delivered it to him.I found that he had been persecuted much whilst the old system was in its vigour,and that he entertained a hearty aversion to it.I told him that the nurse of that system had been the ignorance of the people in religious matters,and that the surest means to prevent its return was to enlighten them in those points.
I added that I had brought with me to Evora a small stock of Testaments and Bibles,which I wished to leave for sale in the hands of some respectable merchant,and that if he were desirous to lay the axe to the root of superstition and tyranny he could not do so more effectually than by undertaking the charge of these books.
He declared his willingness to do so,and that same evening I sent him ten Testaments and a Bible,being half my stock.
I returned to the hostelry,and sat down on a log of wood on the hearth within the immense chimney in the common apartment.Two men were on their knees on the stones;before them was a large heap of pieces of iron,brass,and copper;they were assorting it and stowing it away in various large bags.They were Spanish CONTRABANDISTAS,or smugglers of the lowest class,and earned a miserable livelihood by smuggling such rubbish from Portugal into Spain.Not a word proceeded from their lips,and when I addressed them in their native language they returned no answer but a kind of growl.They looked as dirty and rusty as the iron in which they trafficked.The woman of the house and her daughter were exceedingly civil,and coming near to me crouched down,asking various questions about England.A man dressed something like an English sailor,who sat on the other side of the hearth,confronting me,said:'I hate the English,for they are not baptized,and have not the law'(meaning the law of God).Ilaughed,and told him,that according to the law of England no one who was not baptized could be buried in consecrated ground;whereupon he said;'Then you are stricter than we.'He then asked:
'What is meant by the lion and the unicorn which I saw the other day on the coat of arms over the door of the English consul at St.
Uves?'I said that they were the arms of England.'Yes,'he replied;'but what do they represent?'I said I did not know.
'Then,'said he,'you do not know the story of your own house.'Ianswered:'Suppose I were to tell you that they represented the lion of Belem (Bethlehem)and the horned monster of the flaming pit in combat as to which should obtain the mastery in England,what would you say?'He replied:'I should say that you gave a fair answer.'This man and myself became great friends;he came from Palmella,not far from St.Uves;he had several mules and horses with him,and dealt in corn and barley.