Sea, and always with success, who have
forced themselves by a treaty of commerce to drink its coarse and
filthy wines, which no other nation cares to taste, are the most
unpopular people who visit Portugal. The French have ravaged the
country with fire and sword, and shed the blood of its sons like
water; the French buy not its fruits and loathe its wines, yet
there is no bad spirit in Portugal towards the French. The reason
of this is no mystery; it is the nature not of the Portuguese only,
but of corrupt and unregenerate man, to dislike his benefactors,
who, by conferring benefits upon him, mortify in the most generous
manner his miserable vanity.
There is no country in which the English are so popular as in
France; but, though the French have been frequently roughly handled
by the English, and have seen their capital occupied by an English
army, they have never been subjected to the supposed ignominy of
receiving assistance from them.
The fortifications of Elvas are models of their kind, and, at the
first view, it would seem that the town, if well garrisoned, might
bid defiance to any hostile power; but it has its weak point: the
western side is commanded by a hill, at the distance of half a
mile, from which an experienced general would cannonade it, and
probably with success.
