I should otherwise be helpless.From Cordova I must endeavour to obtain horses to Val de Penas (twenty leagues),which is half way to Madrid.Were I at Val de Penas,I should feel comparatively at ease;for from thence I know the road,having traversed it in my ways from Madrid to Grenada;it moreover runs through La Mancha,which,though infested with banditti,is plain open ground,and if I could obtain no guide or horses,or had been plundered of my money,I might hope to make my way on foot.But I am ignorant of the country between Seville and Cordova,and from Cordova to Val de Penas.The route is through the dismal and savage mountains of the Sierra Morena,where I should inevitably be bewildered,and perhaps,if not murdered,fall a prey to the wolves.Were the whole way known to me,I would leave my baggage here and dressed as a beggar or Gypsy set out on foot;strange as this plan may sound in English ears,it would be the safest course I could pursue.
Should I perish in this journey,keep the affair secret as long as possible from my dear mother,and when it should be necessary to reveal it to her,do me the favour to go to Norwich on purpose;should I reach Madrid,you will hear from me in about five weeks,from the time you receive this.It would be of no utility to write to you from Cordova;the letter would never reach you,I hope this will.
Gomez had not hitherto paid a visit to Seville;when I arrived here,he was said to be in the neighbourhood of Ronda.The city was under watch and ward,several gates had been blocked up with masonry,trenches dug,and redoubts erected,but I am convinced that the place would not have held out six hours against a resolute assault.Gomez has proved himself to be a most extraordinary man,and with his small army of Aragonese and Basques has within the last four months made the tour of Spain;he has very frequently been hemmed in with forces three times the number of his own,in places whence escape seemed impossible,but he has always baffled his enemies,whom he seems to laugh at.The most absurd accounts of victories gained over him are continually issuing from the press at Seville;the other day it was stated that his army had been utterly defeated,himself killed,and that 1200prisoners were on their way to Seville.I saw these prisoners;instead of 1200desperadoes,they consisted of about twenty poor lame ragged wretches,many of them boys from fourteen to sixteen years of age;they were evidently camp-followers,who,unable to keep up with the army,had been picked up straggling in the plains and amongst the hills.It now appears that no battle had occurred,and that the death of Gomez was a fiction.The grand defect of Gomez is not knowing how to take advantage of circumstances;after his defeat of Lopez he might have marched to Madrid and proclaimed Don Carlos there,and after sacking Cordova,he might have captured Seville.
There are several booksellers'shops in Seville,in two of which Ifound copies of the New Testament (our own 12mo edition of 1826);they had been obtained from Gibraltar about two years since,during which time six copies had been sold in one shop and four in the other.I have become acquainted with an elderly person,a Genoese by birth,who,should we succeed in bringing out an edition of the sacred volume at Madrid,may be of service to us,as a colporteur in this place and the neighbourhood,where he is well known.He has assured me of his willingness to undertake the task,and,if required,to visit Cordova,Grenada,or any part of Andalusia,town or country;he has been accustomed to bookselling,and at one time he also brought some of our Testaments from Gibraltar,all of which were however taken from him by the Custom House officers with the exception of one copy,which he afterwards disposed of to a lady for 30REALS (6s.6d.).Should the Bible Society be desirous to circulate the book in the rural districts of Spain,they must be prepared to make considerable sacrifices.In some of the towns,especially the sea-ports,it is probable that many copies may be disposed of,at a fair price;but can it be expected that amongst myriads,who are in want of the common necessaries of life,who are without food,fuel or clothing,and on whose wretched heads the horrors which civil war -and such a civil war -have principally fallen,[men]can have money for books?I am willing to visit every part of Spain,and to risk my life a thousand times in laying God's Word before the people,but I can promise no more.I have no extraordinary powers,indeed scarcely those allotted to the average of humanity;God,it is true,can operate wonders by any instrument,but we must bide His will.
I have had the good fortune to form the acquaintance of Mr.
Wetherell,an English gentleman,who has for many years been established in a very important branch of business at Seville.He takes a warm interest in my mission,and has frequently informed me that nothing will afford him greater pleasure than to further the cause at this place and in the neighbourhood;as he employs a vast number of individuals,I have little doubt that he has the power,as he certainly has the will.He is a virtuoso and possesses a singular collection of the ancient idols of Mexico,which bear a surprising resemblance to those used by the followers of the Buddhist superstition.In return for a translation of an Arabic inscription which I made for him,he presented me with a copy of the Cabalistic book Zohar,in the Rabbinical language and character,which on the destruction of the Inquisition at Seville (1820)he obtained from the library of that horrible tribunal.
Pray remember me to Mr.Jowett and Mr.Browne and my other friends.
May the Lord bless you,my dear Sir.
GEORGE BORROW.