Myself. - Your history must be a curious one, I would fain hear it.
Stranger. - My history I shall tell to no one. I have travelled
much, I have been in commerce and have thriven. I am at present
established in Portugal, but I love not the people of Catholic
countries, and least of all these of Spain. I have lately
experienced the most shameful injustice in the Aduana of this town,
and when I complained, they laughed at me and called me Jew.
Wherever he turns, the Jew is reviled, save in your country, and on
that account my blood always warms when I see an Englishman. You
are a stranger here. Can I do aught for you? You may command me.
Myself. - I thank you heartily, but I am in need of no assistance.
Stranger. - Have you any bills, I will accept them if you have?
Myself. - I have no need of assistance; but you may do me a favour
by accepting of a book.
Stranger. - I will receive it with thanks. I know what it is. What
a singular people? The same dress, the same look, the same book.
Pelham gave me one in Egypt. Farewell! Your Jesus was a good man,
perhaps a prophet; but . . . farewell!
Well may the people of Pontevedra envy the natives of Vigo their
bay, with which, in many respects, none other in the world can
compare. On every side it is defended by steep and sublime hills,
save on the part of the west, where is the outlet to the Atlantic;
but in the midst of this outlet, up towers a huge rocky wall, or
island, which breaks the swell, and prevents the billows of the
western sea from pouring through in full violence. On either side
of this island is a passage, so broad, that navies might pass
through at all times in safety. The bay itself is oblong, running
far into the land, and so capacious, that a thousand sail of the
line might ride in it uncrowded. The waters are dark, still, and
deep, without quicksands or shallows, so that the proudest man-of-
war might lie within a stone's throw of the town ramparts without
any fear of injuring her keel.
Of many a strange event, and of many a mighty preparation has this
bay been the scene. It was here that the bulky dragons of the
grand armada were mustered, and it was from hence that, fraught
with the pomp, power, and terror of old Spain, the monster fleet,
spreading its enormous sails to the wind, and bent on the ruin of
the Lutheran isle, proudly steered; - that fleet, to build and man
which half the forests of Galicia had been felled, and all the
mariners impressed from the thousand bays and creeks of the stern
Cantabrian shore.
