In The Course Of Conversation, I Found That He
Had Been Much Persecuted Whilst The Old System Was In Its Vigour,
And That He Entertained A Hearty Aversion For It.
I told him that
the ignorance of the people in religious matters had served to
nurse that system, and that the surest way to prevent its return
was to enlighten their minds:
I added that I had brought a small
stock of Bibles and Testaments to Evora, which I wished to leave
for sale in the hands of some respectable merchant, and that it he
were anxious to help to lay the axe to the root of superstition and
tyranny, he could not do so more effectually than by undertaking
the charge of these books. He declared his willingness to do so,
and I went away determined to entrust to him half of my stock. I
returned to the hostelry, and sat down on a log of wood on the
hearth within the immense chimney in the common apartment; two
surly looking men were on their knees on the stones; before them
was a large heap of pieces of old iron, brass, and copper; they
were assorting it, and stowing it away in various bags. They were
Spanish contrabandistas of the lowest class, and earned a miserable
livelihood by smuggling such rubbish from Portugal into Spain. Not
a word proceeded from their lips, and when I addressed them in
their native language, they returned no other answer than a kind of
growl.
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