CHAP. memorable exploits. The standards of Charlemagne LIII. have waved in its passes; the bugles of Roncesvalles 1808. have resounded through the world; the chivalry of the Black Prince, the skill of Gonzalvo of Cordova, have been displayed in its defence. The genius of Napoleon, the firmness of Wellington, have been exerted on its plains; and, like their great predecessors in the wars of Rome and Carthage, these two illustrious chiefs rolled the chariot of victory over its surface, and, missing each other, severally conquered every other opponent till their mutual renown filled the world, and Europe, in breathless suspense, awaited the issue of their conflict on another shore. 2. acter of its fare. From the earliest times the inhabitants of the Peninsula have been distinguished by a peculiarity of military Uniform and character and mode of conducting war which is very singular char- remarkable. Inferior to many other nations in the Guerilla war-firmness and discipline with which they withstand the shock of battle, they are superior to them all in the readiness with which they rally after defeat, and the invincible tenacity with which they maintain a contest under circumstances of disaster, when any other people would succumb in despair. In vain are their armies defeated and dispersed, their fortresses taken, their plains overrun, their capital subdued. Singly or in small bodies they renew the conflict; they rally and reunite as rapidly as they disperse; the numerous mountain chains which intersect their country afford a refuge for their broken bands; their cities make a desperate though insulated defence; and from the wreck of all regular or organised opposition emerges the redoubtable GUERILLA warfare. "Prælio victi Carthaginienses," says Livy, "in ultimam Hispaniæ oram, ad oceanum, compulsi erant-disparem autem ; quod Hispania, non quam Italia modo, sed quam ulla pars terrarum, bello reparando aptior erat, locorum hominumque ingeniis. Gens nata instaurandis reparandisque bellis brevi replevit exercitum, animosque ad tentandum de integro certamen fecit." It is a singular fact, strikingly illustra "The Carthaginians, conquered in battle, were driven into the farthest provinces of Spain next the ocean. But they were unlike all other places; for Spain is better adapted, not merely than Italy, but than any part of the world, for repairing defeat, not merely by the nature of the country, but the disposition of tive of the durable influence of common descent and physical circumstances on national character through all the varieties of time, religion, and political condition, that the system of warfare, thus deemed peculiar to Spain, of all nations in the world, in the days of Pompey and Sertorius, has continued to distinguish its inhabitants, without any interruption, to the present time. It was pursued without intermission for eight hundred years in their wars with the Moors, formed the characteristic of the struggle with Napoleon, and continues at this hour to be the leading feature of the savage contest between the aristocratic and democratic parties which has for so many years bathed the Peninsula in blood.* CHAP. LIII. 1808. 3. Physical con formation of the country which has led to these Durable characteristics of this kind attaching for ages to a nation, though its inhabitants have in the course of them become the mixed progeny of many different races of mankind, will invariably be found to arise from some peculiarity in its physical circumstances, which has imprinted a lasting character on all its successive inhabi- effects. tants. This is in an especial manner the case with Spain and Portugal. Their territory differs in many important particulars from any in Europe. Physically considered, it belongs as much to Africa as Europe. The same burning sun parches the mountains and dries up the valleys of both; no forests clothe their sides; naked, they present their arid fronts to the shivering blasts of the north and the scorching rays of a tropical sun. Vegetation in general spreads in proportion only as irrigation can be obtained. Aided by that powerful auxiliary, the steepest mountain sides of Catalonia and Arragon are cut into terraces and clothed with the most luxuriant vegetation : without it, vast plains in Leon and the Castiles are almost entirely destitute both of cultivation and inhabitants. So 47. Nap. i. extensive in consequence are the desert tracts of Spain, borde, i. 163. that the country, viewed from the summit of any of the Borrow's numerous mountain ridges with which its inland pro- Spain, ii. 117. vinces are intersected,1 in general exhibits only a confused the people. A nation born for restoring the fortune and repairing the losses of wars, speedily refilled the ranks, and inspired the spirit to renew the contest."— LIVY. * Written in 1837, during the heroic struggle maintained by the Carlists and the Basque provinces, against the government imposed on them by France and England. 1 Suchet's Mem. i. 42, 52, 53. La Bible in CHAP. LIII. 1808. 4. acter of the Peninsula. group of barren elevated plains and lofty naked peaks, intersected here and there by a few glittering streams flowing in deep valleys, on the margins of which alone are to be seen crops and flocks, and the traces of human habitation. A feeling of melancholy steals over the mind in traversing its wide and broken plains: the general sterility is allied to sublimity; and, amidst the desolation of nature, deep impressions are made, and a lofty character communicated to the mind. The whole Peninsula may be viewed as a vast mountainous promontory, which stretches from the Pyrenees General char- to the southward, between the Atlantic and Mediterranean seas. On the shores of the ridge to the east and west are plains of admirable fertility, which at no distant period have been submerged by the waves of the sea; but in the interior an elevated assemblage of mountain ridges and lofty desert plains is to be found, in the centre of which Madrid is placed in an upland basin at a height of eighteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. The great rivers in consequence flow for the most part to the east and west in long courses, and are fed by tributary streams, which meander at the bottom of ravines of surprising depth, shut in often by precipitous banks or very steep declivities. Three great chaussées only-viz. that leading from Madrid to Bayonne by the Somo-Sierra pass, that to Valencia, and that to Barcelona-intersect this great central desert region; in every other quarter the roads are little better than mountain paths, uniting together towns built for the most part on the summit of hills, surrounded by walls, environed by superb olive woods, but having little intercourse either with each other or 52, 53. La- with the rest of Europe. It may readily be imagined borde'sSpain, what extraordinary advantages a country of such natural strength and character must afford to insulated and defensive warfare.1 1 Suchet's Mem. i. 42, 49. Nap. i. i. 163, 169, Introd. Spain contains 23,850 square geographical leagues, or about 212,000 square geographical miles, being more than Statistics of double the superficies of the British islands. It was Spain. 5. inhabited in 1808 by eleven millions, which in 1834 had risen to 14,660,000 souls. Its revenue in 1826 was 105,000,000 francs, or £4,200,000; in 1833 162,000,000, or £6,500,000 sterling; and its public debt 4,000,000,000 franes, or £160,000,000. Its agriculture produces 1,847,000,000 francs, or £74,000,000 sterling annually. The total yearly produce of its industry, agricultural and commercial, is 2,250,000,000 francs or £90,000,000; facts indicating at once the disordered state of its finances, and the vast amount of its physical resources. The surface of the country, generally speaking, is arid, rocky, and sterile, unless aided by irrigation, which, however, whenever it can be obtained, produces under its genial sun luxuriant vegetation. In some alluvial plains, as those of Valencia, the Llobrigat in Catalonia, and the banks of the Guadalquiver in Andalusia, the soil is of surpassing fertility, and the crops rival those of Lombardy or the Campagna of Naples in variety and riches. Manufactures, with a few exceptions, are in every part of the country in a state of infancy.1 CHAP. LIII. 1808. Malte Brun, vi 665, 666. tain ranges In almost every quarter the country is intersected by long rocky and almost inaccessible mountain ridges, 6. which form a barrier between province and province, Great mounalmost as complete, not merely to hostile armies, but even of Spain and to the inhabitants of the country, as that interposed by Portugal. the Alps or the Pyrenees. Branching out from the great chain which separates France from Spain, one vast mountain ridge runs to the westward, forming in its course the Alpine nests and inaccessible retreats of Asturias and Galicia; while another, stretching to the eastward, covers with its various ramifications nearly the whole of Catalonia, and encloses in its bosom the admirable industry and persevering efforts of its hardy cultivators. In the interior of the hills which descend from the crest of the Pyrenees to the long vale of the Ebro, are formed the beautiful and umbrageous valleys of Navarre and Biscay, where, in mountain fastnesses and amidst chestnut forests, liberty has for six hundred years diffused its blessings, and the prodigy has been exhibited of independent privileges and democratic equality having been preserved untouched, with all their attendant security and general comfort, amidst an otherwise despotic monarchy. Beyond the 2 Malte Ebro, one great mountain range, stretching across from 647, 651, 659, the frontiers of Catalonia to the neighbourhood of Lisbon, forms the almost impassable barrier between the valleys 170. of the Tagus and the Douro,2 and the provinces of Old Brun, vii. 664. Laborde, i. 168, CHAP. LIII. 1808. 7. Mountain ridges in the South of Spain. and New Castile, Leon, and Estremadura. Its western extremity has been immortalised in history; it contains the ridge of Busaco, and terminates in the rocks of TorresVedras. Another, taking its rise from the high grounds which form the western limit of the plain of Valencia, extends in a south-westerly direction to Cape St Vincent in the south of Portugal, and separates in its course the outlines of the Tagus and the Guadiana. A third, also reaching in the same direction across the whole country, forms the boundary between the valleys of the Guadiana and the Guadalquiver, under the name of the Sierra-Morena, divides the province of New Castile from that of Andalusia, and has been immortalised by the wanderings of the hero of Cervantes. A fourth, detached by itself in the southern extremity of the Peninsula, forms the romantic mountains of Ronda, whose summits, wrapped in perpetual snow, withstand the genial sun which ripens oranges and citrons and all the productions of Africa on their sides. Two great and rich alluvial plains alone are to be found in Spain, the character of whose inhabitants differs from that of all the rest of the Peninsula: in the first of which, amidst water-melons, luxuriant harvests, and all Humboldt, the richest gifts of nature, the castanets and evening dances of the Valencians present the unforeseeing gaiety of tropical regions; while in the second, the indolent habits, fiery character, and impetuous disposition of the Andalusians attest, amidst myrtle thickets, the perfume of orange groves, and the charms of a delicious climate, the undecaying influence of Moorish blood and Arabian descent.1 1 Malte Brun, vii. 494, 500. Geog. de l'Espagne, in Laborde, i. 170, 175. Lord Caer narvon's Spain, ii. 234, 270. Spain has never been remarkable for the number or opulence of its towns: Madrid, Cadiz, Valencia, Barcelona, and Seville, the largest of which, after the capital, does not contain above an hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants, alone deserve the name of cities.* But it has *Madrid contained, in 1808, 190,000 inhabitants.-Edin. Gazetteer, Art. Madrid. The population of the principal Spanish towns in 1834 was as tollows: |