: Letters from Spain by White Joseph Blanco - Spain Description and travel

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Mistakes of Travellers.--Townsend's Accuracy.--View of Cadiz from the Sea.--Religion blended with Public and Domestic Life in Spain.--Customs relating to the Host or Eucharist.--Manners and Society at Cadiz.--Passage by Sea to Port Saint Mary's.--St. Lucar.--Passage up the Guadalquivir to Seville.--Construction and internal Economy of the Houses in that Town.--Knocking, and greeting at the Door.--Devotion of the People of Seville to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. p. 1-22

On Bull-fights, and other National Customs connected with those Amusements. p. 119-140

Memorandums of some Andalusian Customs and Festivals.--Saint Sebastian's Day: Carnival, p. 230.--Ash-Wednesday, p. 239.--Mid-lent, p. 243.--Passion, or Holy Week, p. 245.--Passion Wednesday, p. 251.--Thursday in the Passion Week, p. 252.--Good Friday, p. 258.--Saturday before Easter, p. 264.--May Cross, p. 267.--Corpus Christi, p. 268.--Saint John's Eve, p. 274.--Saint Bartholomew, p. 277.--Detached Prejudices and Practices, p. 280.--Funerals of Infants and Maids, p. 282.--Spanish Christian Names, p. 286.--Christmas, p. 288.

A Sketch of the Court of Madrid, in the Reign of Charles the Fourth, and the Intrigues connected with the Influence of the Prince of the Peace. p. 292-320

State of Spain at the time of the general Rising against the French, as observed in a Journey from Madrid to Seville, through the Province of Estremadura. p. 373

NOTES. p. 411

LETTERS FROM SPAIN.

I am inclined to think with you, that a Spaniard, who, like myself, has resided many years in England, is, perhaps, the fittest person to write an account of life, manners and opinions as they exist in this country, and to shew them in the light which is most likely to interest an Englishman. The most acute and diligent travellers are subject to constant mistakes; and perhaps the more so, for what is generally thought a circumstance in their favour--a moderate knowledge of foreign languages. A traveller who uses only his eyes, will confine himself to the description of external objects; and though his narrative may be deficient in many topics of interest, it will certainly be exempt from great and ludicrous blunders. The difficulty, which a person, with a smattering of the language of the country he is visiting, experiences every moment in the endeavour to communicate his own, and catch other men's thoughts, often urges him into a sort of mental rashness, which leads him to settle many a doubtful point for himself, and to forget the unlimited power, I should have said tyranny, of usage, in whatever relates to language.

See Espriella's "Letters from England."

He visited Spain in the years 1786 and 1787.

The inhabitants of Cadiz, being confined to the rock on which their city is built, have made the towns of Chiclana, Puerto Real, and Port St. Mary's, their places of resort, especially in the summer. The passage, by water, to Port St. Mary's, is, upon an average, of about an hour and a half, and the intercourse between the two places, nearly as constant as between a large city and its suburbs. Boats full of passengers are incessantly crossing from daybreak till sunset. This passage is not, however, without danger in case of a strong wind from the east, in summer, or of rough weather, in winter. At the mouth of the Guadalete, a river that runs into the bay of Cadiz, by Port St. Mary's, there are extensive banks of shifting sands, which every year prove fatal to many. The passage-boats are often excessively crowded with people of all descriptions. The Spaniards, however, are not so shy of strangers as I have generally found your countrymen. Place any two of them, male or female, by the merest chance, together, and they will immediately enter into some conversation. The absolute disregard to a stranger, which custom has established in England, would be taken for an insult in any part of Spain; consequently little gravity is preserved in these aquatic excursions.

I went by land to St. Lucar, a town of some wealth and consequence at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, or Boetis, where this river is lost in the sea through a channel of more than a mile in breadth. The passage to Seville, of about twenty Spanish leagues up the river, is tedious; but I had often performed it, in early youth, with great pleasure, and I now quite forgot the change which twenty years must have made upon my feelings. No Spanish conveyance is either comfortable or expeditious. The St. Lucar boats are clumsy and heavy, without a single accommodation for passengers. Half of the hold is covered with hatches, but so low, that one cannot stand upright under them. A piece of canvass, loosely let down to the bottom of the boat, is the only partition between the passengers and the sailors. It would be extremely unpleasant for any person, above the lower class, to bear the inconveniences of a mixed company in one of these boats. Fortunately, it is neither difficult nor expensive to obtain the exclusive hire of one. You must submit, however, at the time of embarkation, to the disagreeable circumstance of riding on a man's shoulders from the water's edge to a little skiff, which, from the flatness of the shore, lies waiting for the passengers at the distance of fifteen or twenty yards.

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