My Sojourn At Salamanca Was Rendered Particularly Pleasant By The
Kind Attentions And Continual Acts Of Hospitality Which I
Experienced From The Inmates Of The Irish College, To The Rector Of
Which I Bore A Letter Of Recommendation From My Kind And Excellent
Friend Mr. O'Shea, The Celebrated Banker Of Madrid.
It will be
long before I forget these Irish, more especially their head, Dr.
Gartland, a genuine scion of
The good Hibernian tree, an
accomplished scholar, and a courteous and high-minded gentleman.
Though fully aware who I was, he held out the hand of friendship to
the wandering heretic missionary, although by so doing he exposed
himself to the rancorous remarks of the narrow-minded native
clergy, who, in their ugly shovel hats and long cloaks, glared at
me askance as I passed by their whispering groups beneath the
piazzas of the Plaza. But when did the fear of consequences cause
an Irishman to shrink from the exercise of the duties of
hospitality? However attached to his religion - and who is so
attached to the Romish creed as the Irishman? - I am convinced that
not all the authority of the Pope or the Cardinals would induce him
to close his doors on Luther himself, were that respectable
personage at present alive and in need of food and refuge.
Honour to Ireland and her "hundred thousand welcomes!" Her fields
have long been the greenest in the world; her daughters the
fairest; her sons the bravest and most eloquent. May they never
cease to be so.
The posada where I had put up was a good specimen of the old
Spanish inn, being much the same as those described in the time of
Philip the Third or Fourth. The rooms were many and large, floored
with either brick or stone, generally with an alcove at the end, in
which stood a wretched flock bed. Behind the house was a court,
and in the rear of this a stable, full of horses, ponies, mules,
machos, and donkeys, for there was no lack of guests, who, however,
for the most part slept in the stable with their caballerias, being
either arrieros or small peddling merchants who travelled the
country with coarse cloth or linen. Opposite to my room in the
corridor lodged a wounded officer, who had just arrived from San
Sebastian on a galled broken-kneed pony; he was an Estrimenian, and
was returning to his own village to be cured. He was attended by
three broken soldiers, lame or maimed, and unfit for service: they
told me that they were of the same village as his worship, and on
that account he permitted them to travel with him. They slept
amongst the litter, and throughout the day lounged about the house
smoking paper cigars. I never saw them eating, though they
frequently went to a dark cool corner, where stood a bota or kind
of water pitcher, which they held about six inches from their black
filmy lips, permitting the liquid to trickle down their throats.
They said they had no pay, and were quite destitute of money, that
su merced the officer occasionally gave them a piece of bread, but
that he himself was poor and had only a few dollars. Brave guests
for an inn, thought I; yet, to the honour of Spain be it spoken, it
is one of the few countries in Europe where poverty is never
insulted nor looked upon with contempt. Even at an inn, the poor
man is never spurned from the door, and if not harboured, is at
least dismissed with fair words, and consigned to the mercies of
God and his mother. This is as it should be. I laugh at the
bigotry and prejudices of Spain; I abhor the cruelty and ferocity
which have cast a stain of eternal infamy on her history; but I
will say for the Spaniards, that in their social intercourse no
people in the world exhibit a juster feeling of what is due to the
dignity of human nature, or better understand the behaviour which
it behoves a man to adopt towards his fellow beings. I have said
that it is one of the few countries in Europe where poverty is not
treated with contempt, and I may add, where the wealthy are not
blindly idolized. In Spain the very beggar does not feel himself a
degraded being, for he kisses no one's feet, and knows not what it
is to be cuffed or spitten upon; and in Spain the duke or the
marquis can scarcely entertain a very overweening opinion of his
own consequence, as he finds no one, with perhaps the exception of
his French valet, to fawn upon or flatter him.
During my stay at Salamanca, I took measures that the word of God
might become generally known in this celebrated city. The
principal bookseller of the town, Blanco, a man of great wealth and
respectability, consented to become my agent here, and I in
consequence deposited in his shop a certain number of New
Testaments. He was the proprietor of a small printing press, where
the official bulletin of the place was published. For this
bulletin I prepared an advertisement of the work, in which, amongst
other things, I said that the New Testament was the only guide to
salvation; I also spoke of the Bible Society, and the great
pecuniary sacrifices which it was making with the view of
proclaiming Christ crucified, and of making his doctrine known.
This step will perhaps be considered by some as too bold, but I was
not aware that I could take any more calculated to arouse the
attention of the people - a considerable point. I also ordered
numbers of the same advertisement to be struck off in the shape of
bills, which I caused to be stuck up in various parts of the town.
I had great hope that by means of these a considerable number of
New Testaments would be sold. I intended to repeat this experiment
in Valladolid, Leon, St. Jago, and all the principal towns which I
visited, and to distribute them likewise as I rode along:
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