To the Rev.A.Brandram (ENDORSED:recd.July 30th,1836)MADRID,JULY 19th,1836.
REVD.AND DEAR SIR,-As I believe you have no account of my proceedings at Badajoz,I send you the following which will perhaps serve for your 'Monthly Extracts.'I have corrected and improved my translation of the Lord's Prayer into Rommany,and should it be printed,let it be done so with care.Perhaps in a few days Ishall send a general account of what I have been about since my arrival at Madrid,but I am at present very feeble and languid,and can scarcely hold a pen.There is nothing new here,all is quiet,and I hope will continue so.My time does not pass very agreeably,I am without books or conversation,for all my acquaintance have left the place to escape from the intolerable heat.I often sigh for Russia,and wish I was there,editing Mandchou or Armenian;pray remember me kindly to Mr.Jowett and to my other friends.Iremain,etc.
G.BORROW.
About one o'clock in the afternoon of the 6th of January,1836,Icrossed the bridge of the Guadiana,a boundary river between Portugal and Spain,and entered Badajoz,a strong Spanish town containing about 8000inhabitants,and founded by the Romans.Iinstantly returned thanks to God who had protected me during a journey of five days through the wilds of Alemtejo,the province of Portugal the most infested by robbers and desperate characters,and which I had traversed with no other human companion than a lad,nearly idiotic,who was to convey back the mules which carried myself and baggage.It was not my intention to make much stay at Badajoz,and as a vehicle would set out for Madrid the day next but one after my arrival,I proposed to depart therein for the capital of Spain.
The next morning I was standing at the door of the inn where I had taken up my residence;the weather was gloomy,and rain seemed to be at hand.I was thinking of the state of the country I had lately entered,which was involved in bloody anarchy and confusion,and where the ministers of a religion,falsely styled Catholic and Christian,were blowing the trump of war,instead of preaching the love-engendering words of the blessed Gospel.Suddenly two men wrapped in long cloaks came down the narrow and almost deserted street.They were about to pass me,and the face of the nearest was turned full towards me.I knew to whom the countenance which he displayed must belong,and I touched him on the shoulder.The man stopped and his companion also;I said a certain word,to which after an exclamation of surprise he responded in the manner which Iexpected.The men were of that singular family,or race,which has diffused itself over every part of the civilized globe,and the members of which are known as Gypsies,Bohemians,Gitanos,Zigani,and by many other names,but whose proper appellation seems to be 'Rommany,'from the circumstance that in many and distant countries they so style themselves,and also the language which they speak amongst each other.We began conversing in the Spanish dialect of this language,with which I was tolerably well acquainted.Upon inquiring of my two newly-made acquaintances whether there were many of their people at Badajoz and in the vicinity,they informed me that there were nine or ten families residing in the town,and that there were others at Merida,a town about nine leagues distant.I asked by what means they supported themselves,and they replied that they and their brethren gained a livelihood by jobbing in horses,mules,etc.,but that all those in Badajoz were very poor,with the exception of one man,who was exceedingly MUBALBALLOor rich,as he was in possession of many horses and other beasts.
They removed their cloaks for a moment,and I saw that their undergarments were rags.