Everything,
Indeed, In These Parts Of Andalusia, Is Perfectly Oriental.
Behold
the heavens, as cloudless and as brightly azure as those of Ind;
the fiery sun which tans the fairest cheek in a moment, and which
fills the air with flickering flame; and O, remark the scenery and
the vegetable productions.
The alley up which we were moving was
planted on each side with that remarkable tree or plant, for I know
not which to call it, the giant aloe, which is called in Spanish,
pita, and in Moorish, gursean. It rises here to a height almost as
magnificent as on the African shore. Need I say that the stem,
which springs up from the middle of the bush of green blades, which
shoot out from the root on all sides, is as high as a palm-tree;
and need I say, that those blades, which are of an immense
thickness at the root, are at the tip sharper than the point of a
spear, and would inflict a terrible wound on any animal which might
inadvertently rush against them?
One of the first houses at San Lucar was the posada at which we
stopped. It confronted, with some others, the avenue up which we
had come. As it was still early, I betook myself to rest for a few
hours, at the end of which time I went out to visit Mr. Phillipi,
the British vice-consul, who was already acquainted with me by
name, as I had been recommended to him in a letter from a relation
of his at Seville. Mr. Phillipi was at home in his counting-house,
and received me with much kindness and civility. I told him the
motive of my visit to San Lucar, and requested his assistance
towards obtaining the books from the custom-house, in order to
transport them out of the country, as I was very well acquainted
with the difficulties which every one has to encounter in Spain,
who has any business to transact with the government authorities.
He assured me that he should be most happy to assist me, and
accordingly despatched with me to the custom-house his head clerk,
a person well known and much respected at San Lucar.
It may be as well here at once to give the history of these books,
which might otherwise tend to embarrass the narrative. They
consisted of a chest of Testaments in Spanish, and a small box of
Saint Luke's Gospel in the Gitano or language of the Spanish
Gypsies. I obtained them from the custom-house at San Lucar, with
a pass for that of Cadiz. At Cadiz I was occupied two days, and
also a person whom I employed, in going through all the
formalities, and in procuring the necessary papers. The expense
was great, as money was demanded at every step I had to take,
though I was simply complying in this instance with the orders of
the Spanish government in removing prohibited books from Spain.
The farce did not end until my arrival at Gibraltar, where I paid
the Spanish consul a dollar for certifying on the back of the pass,
which I had to return to Cadiz, that the books were arrived at the
former place.
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