Spain
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Title: Spain
Author: Wentworth Webster
Release date: January 7, 2011 [eBook #34875]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34875
Credits: Produced by Chuck Greif, Michigan University Library and
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPAIN ***
Produced by Chuck Greif, Michigan University Library and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration: SPAIN
Edwd Weller]
London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.]
SPAIN
BY THE
REV. WENTWORTH WEBSTER, M.A. OXON.
WITH A CHAPTER BY AN ASSOCIATE OF THE SCHOOL OF MINES.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS._
London:
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET.
1882.
[_All rights reserved._]
LONDON:
PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED,
ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.
[etext transcriber's note:
No attempt has been made to correct, normalize or de-anglicize
the spelling of Spanish names or words.]
PREFACE.
There is a difficulty in writing a book of this character on Spain,
which does not exist, we think, to the same extent with any other
European country. In most European nations the official returns and
government reports may be accepted as trustworthy, and the compiler has
little more to do than to copy them; but in Spain this is far from being
always the case. In some instances, from nonchalance and habitual
inexactitude, in others, and especially in all matters of finance and
taxation, from designed misstatement, all such reports have to be
received with caution and scrupulously examined. The reader must
remember also that in Spain smuggling and contraband dealing in various
forms is carried on to such a vast extent as seriously to vitiate all
trade returns. Thus it is that Spanish statistics can be considered
only as approximate truths.
Another difficulty arises from the very varied character of the Spanish
provinces. Hardly any statement can be made of one province which is not
untrue of another. The ordinary descriptions of Spain present only one,
or at most two, types, the Castling and Andalusian, and utterly neglect
all the rest. The provinces of Spain have been well described as divided
into "five Irelands" whose habits and modes of thought, political
aspirations, and commercial interests and aptitudes, are often utterly
opposed to those of the capital. A brief survey of the whole of Spain is
attempted in the following pages.
In a work of this kind one other obvious difficulty is to know what to
omit. Some well-worn topics will be found to be absent from these pages.
No references are made to the great Peninsular War. This can be easily
studied in the admirable pages of Sir W. Napier in English, and of
Toreno in Spanish, or in compendiums of these, which again are filtered
down in every guide-book. For a like reason Prescott's brilliant works
are not alluded to.
For the chapter on Geology and Mining the reader is indebted to one of
the most distinguished Associates of the School of Mines, who has been
recently engaged in practical geological survey and mapping in Spain.
Much also of the present work is due to private information most kindly
furnished by Spanish friends of high position in the literary and
political world, and with whom some of the subjects treated have been
frequently discussed. To these the author offers his warmest and most
grateful thanks.
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF SPAIN.
PAGE
Boundaries of the Peninsula 1
Area and Coast-line 2
Six divisions of Spain _ib._
_Mountain chains_:
Pyrenees 3
Cantabrian, Asturian, and Galician mountains 4
Leon _ib._
Oca, Sierra Moncayo, and Idubeda chains 5
Central Plateau and its passes _ib._
Culminating water-shed of the Peninsula 6
Guadarrama range _ib._
Toledan range 7
Sierra Morena and passes _ib._
Central ranges and river basins 8
Sierra Nevada and offshoots _ib._
Minor ranges 9
_Rivers, river basins, and rainfall_:
Five great rivers 10
Rivers of Galicia and Asturias 11
Basque Provinces 12
Ebro and its tributaries and canals 12
Catalonia, streams of 14
Douro and its tributaries 15
Tagus " " 17
Guadiana " " and lakes 19
Guadalquiver, its tributaries, islands, and marismas 22
Segura and its irrigation 24
Jucar " " 25
Guadalaviar or Turia _ib._
Lakes and Albuferas 26
Water toponymy 27
Comparative table of principal rivers 28
Mineral springs and Salinas _ib._
CHAPTER II.
CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS.
Five climates of Spain 30
Temperature and rainfall of:
Galicia and the Asturias 31
Santander and the Basque Provinces 32
Aragon _ib._
Catalonia _ib._
Valencia 34
Alicante _ib._
Murcia 35
Cartagena to Almeria _ib._
Malaga, Motril, Seville, and Cordova _ib._
Granada 36
Cadiz, Gibraltar, &c _ib._
Elevation of Central Plateau _ib._
Temperature and rainfall of Madrid, Salamanca, and Soria 38
Agricultural products of:
Galicia and the Asturias 39
Basque Provinces and basin of the Ebro 40
Moorish agriculture and exotic flora of Southern Spain 41
Products of Valencia and Murcia 43
Palms at Elche 44
Aromatic mountain shrubs 45
Products and wines of Andalusia 46
Products of the Central Plateau _ib._
Estremadura and law of the Mesta 47
Locusts 48
Corn-lands of Castile and Sierras de Campos 50
Comparative Flora of Spain 52
_Fauna_:
Monkeys of Gibraltar _ib._
Beasts and birds of prey _ib._
Game birds and African visitants _ib._
Noxious and useful insects _ib._
Merino sheep 54
Horses, cattle, and beasts of burden 55
Fisheries 56
Estimated total production of Spain 57
CHAPTER III.
GEOLOGY AND MINES.
Peculiar interest of Spanish geology 58
Granite and Silurian rocks _ib._
Carboniferous formation 59
Secondary formations _ib._
Upper Cretaceous _ib._
Eocene tertiary 60
Miocene fresh-water _ib._
Pliocene _ib._
Influence of geology on populations _ib._
Statistics of Spanish geology 61
Volcanoes, recent _ib._
_Minerals of_:
Gneiss and crystalline schists 62
Metamorphic rocks _ib._
Cambrian formation _ib._
Silurian slates _ib._
Devonian sandstones _ib._
Carboniferous series _ib._
Permian 63
Triassic conglomerates _ib._
Jurassic limestones and marl _ib._
Cretaceous formation _ib._
Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene _ib._
Production and export of six chief minerals _ib._
Of argentiferous ore, cobalt, silver _ib._
Coal 65
Iron of the Bilbao district _ib._
Locality of principal mines 66
Mining laws 67
CHAPTER IV.
ETHNOLOGY, LANGUAGE, AND POPULATION.
Pyrenees, no true boundary of 69
Population of Spain, mixed 70
Iberi, Kelt-Iberi, Basques, and Kelts _ib._
Foreign races in Spain 73
Visigoths, Arabs, and Moors 75
Toponymy of Spain 76
Language of Spanish Jews 77
Existing dialects _ib._
Statistics of the Spanish language 78
Characteristics of " " 79
Population of Spain 80
Density of _ib._
Occupations of 81
Manufacturing and mining Provinces 82
Clergy _ib._
Distribution of property, great changes in 83
Abolition of Mesta and of feudal privileges _ib._
Sale of Crown and Church property 84
Actual distribution _ib._
Characteristics of the various populations 85
Galicians, Asturians, Basques, and Aragonese 86
Catalans, Valencians, and Murcians 86, 87
Andalusians 87
Manchegans, and Castilians 89
Gipsies, Maragatos, Passiegos, Hurdes, Sayagos, &c. 90
Contrabandistas _ib._
CHAPTER V.
DESCRIPTION OF PROVINCES.
Division of Kingdoms and Provinces 91
Galicia and its provinces, Corunna, Lugo, Pontevedra,
and Orense 92
Asturias 94
Santander _ib._
Basque Provinces, Biscay, Guipuzcoa, Alava 95
Navarre 96
Aragon and its provinces, Huesca, Saragossa, Teruel 97
Catalonia " Gerona, Barcelona, Tarragona, Lerida 100
Valencia " Castellon de la Plana, Valencia,
Alicante 103
Murcia " Murcia and Albacete 107
Andalusia, Mediterranean Provinces, Almeria, Granada,
Malaga 109
Atlantic: Cadiz, Huelva 117, 122
Inland: Seville, Cordova, Jaen 120, 123, 125
Estremadura, Badajoz, Caceres _ib._
New Castile and La Mancha, Provinces--Ciud ad Real,
Toledo, Madrid, Cuenca, Guadalajara 127
Old Castile--Avila, Segovia, Soria, Logrono, Burgos 133
Leon--Salamanca, Valladolid, Zamora, Palencia, Leon 137
Balearic Isles 141
CHAPTER VI.
HISTORY AND POLITICAL CONSTITUTION.
Early liberties, _behetria_, _fueros_ 145
Capitulations of Moors and Jews 147
Conquest of the South and its results 149
The _Santa Hermandad_ _ib._
The Austrian Dynasty 151
The Bourbon Dynasty 152
Modern Constitutional Spain 153
Cortes of Cadiz _ib._
Reign of Ferdinand VII., and loss of American colonies_ib._
" Isabella II. 154
First Carlist War _ib._
Ministry of Narvaez 156
" O'Donnell 157
Expulsion of Isabella II., and provisional government _ib._
Amadeo I. 158
Republic _ib._
Second Carlist War 159
Cantonalist insurrection _ib._
Alphonso XII. 160
Ministry of Canovas del Castillo 161
_Present Constitution and Administration of Spain_ 162
Cortes, Senate, Congress 163
Provincial administration 164
Municipal " _ib._
Religion 165
Rights of persons, natives and foreigners _ib._
_Military Administration_ 166
Army 167
Quality of Spanish soldiery, _pronunciamientos_,
&c. 168
_Naval Administration_ 169
Royal Navy _ib._
Mercantile Navy _ib._
_Judicial Administration_ 169
Legal Procedure 170
Prisons _ib._
Hospitals and lunatic asylums 171
Railways 172
Telegraphs _ib._
Letters and post _ib._
_Finances of Spain._
Public debt 174
Increase of, since 1868 175
Deficit of budgets _ib._
Sources of revenue 176
Expenditure _ib._
Imports and exports 177
Foreign tariffs _ib._
Protection and free trade 178
Empleomania and its results 179
CHAPTER VII.
EDUCATION AND RELIGION.
Universities, number of students, salaries of
professors 181
Theological seminaries 182
Course of university study 183
Provincial and special institutes _ib._
Secondary instruction, institutes and colleges 184
Number of students, and salary of masters 185
Course of instruction 186
University degrees _ib._
Primary education 187
_Church and Religion._
Early Church Councils 188
Roman and Mazarabic liturgy _ib._
Inquisition _ib._
Philip II., the Jesuits, and the Reformation 189
Expulsion of the Jesuits 191
Concordat of 1851 _ib._
Archbishops, bishops, and clergy _ib._
Mode of appointment of bishops 192
Spanish Protestants _ib._
CHAPTER VIII.
LITERATURE AND THE ARTS.
Praehistoric art and architecture 194
Roman and Visigothic _ib._
Arabic 195
Three periods of 196
Mudejar 201
Christian _ib._
Renaissance 202
Churrigueresque 203
Domestic architecture _ib._
Church furniture and minor arts 204
_Painting._
Characteristics of Spanish painting 205
Local schools 206
Murillo 208
Painters of Valencian school 209
" " Castilian " _ib._
" " Andalusian " _ib._
Modern painters 210
Industrial arts, goldsmith's work, iron, porcelain,
glass, wood, lace 212
Music _ib._
_Literature._
Early Romances 213
" Prose works 214
La Celistina and the _picaresque_ novels 215
Drama and _Autors_ 216
Lope de Vega _ib._
Calderon de la Barca 217
Cervantes _ib._
Quevedo 219
Historical writings 220
Poetry _ib._
Mystic writers 222
Classical and romantic schools _ib._
Modern writers: Poets--Espronceda, Zorilla, Becquer,
&c. 224
Novelists--Fernan Caballero, J. Valera, &c. _ib._
Dramatists--Hartzenbusch, Breton de los Herreros, &c. 225
Nunez de Arce 226
Historians--Conde Gayangos, De la Fuente, &c. _ib._
Geographers--Fernandez Guerra, Coello, Bowles _ib._
Geologists--Macpherson, &c. _ib._
Economists--Cardenas, Colmeiro, De Azcarate 227
Theologians--Balmes, Donoso Cortez, C. Gonzalez, &c. _ib._
Philologists--F. Fita, &c. _ib._
Orators 228
Provincial literature 229
CHAPTER IX.
EPILOGUE.
Spain not a worn-out country 231
Two hindrances to development _ib._
Protection and free trade 233
Cruelty and charities of Spain 234
Appendix I.--Census of Provinces 237
" II.--Chief historical events 239
" III.--Chief books used 241
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Caballeros 86
Dominique, the Espada 88
Gipsies at Granada 90
Leaning Tower of Saragossa 98
General View of Granada, with the Alhambra 110
Alhambra Tower by Moonlight 114
Fountain of the Four Seasons, Madrid 130
Port of Cadiz 153
Vespers 190
Giralda of Seville 197
Moorish Ornamentation 199
[Illustration:
PHYSICAL MAP
of
SPAIN
Edwd Weller
London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.]
SPAIN.
CHAPTER I.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF SPAIN.
Spain, with the neighbouring kingdom of Portugal, constitutes the most
westerly of the three southern peninsulas of Europe, and in Cape Tarifa,
latitude 36 deg. 1', it attains the most southerly point of the whole
continent. Separated from France and from the rest of Europe by the
chain of the Pyrenees, and surrounded on all other sides by either the
Mediterranean or the Atlantic, it presents at first sight the appearance
of an exceedingly compact and homogeneous surface. It seems strange that
this well-defined peninsula should contain two separate kingdoms, with
peoples who speak languages allied, yet so distinct as to be mutually
unintelligible to the uneducated classes.
The peninsula lies between latitude 43 deg. 45' and 36 deg. 1' N., and between
3 deg. 20' E. and 9 deg. 32' W. longitude. In shape it is thus nearly a square;
a diagonal line from the N.E. Cape Creuz to the S.W. Cape St. Vincent
measures 650 miles, while from Cape Ortegal, N.W., to Cape Gata, S.E.,
would be 525 miles. The whole area of the peninsula contains 219,200
square miles, of which 36,500 on the west belong to Portugal, and
182,700 to Spain.
The peninsular form of the country would lead us to expect that it would
partake of all the characteristics of a maritime climate; but such is
not the case. From the comparative evenness of the coast-line, unbroken
and unindented by any deep inlets except on the extreme north-west, in
Galicia, the coast-line bears a less proportion to the whole surface
than that of many lands less surrounded by the sea. It counts only 1300
miles, 700 of which are washed by the Mediterranean, and 600 by the
Atlantic; that is, 1 mile of coast-line to 134 square miles of area;
while Italy contains 1 to 75, and Greece 1 to 7. From the configuration
of the coast, and from the character of the great central plateau, a
large part of Spain has really an extreme continental climate.
For while it is distinctly separated from the rest of Europe by the line
of the Pyrenees, Spain is no less distinctly divided into different
districts in the interior--districts which differ most widely in climate
and elevation and products. Six of these are usually named: (1) The N.W.
Atlantic coast, comprising Galicia, the coast of which presents a
continuation of the Fiord system of Norway, and of the Firths of
Scotland and Ireland; (2), the northern slope of the Cantabrian
Mountains, and the narrow slip of land contained between them and the
Bay of Biscay, comprising the Asturias, Santander, and the Basque
Provinces; (3) the Valley of the Ebro, with Navarre, Aragon, and
Catalonia; (4) the great Central Plateau--Leon, Old and New Castile,
Estremadura, and La Mancha; (5) the Mediterranean Provinces, including
Valencia, Murcia, and the parts of Andalusia between the Sierra Nevada
and the Mediterranean; (6) the rest of Andalusia sloping towards the
Atlantic.
We will treat of these in order.
_Mountain Chains._
But first we must speak of the various mountain systems and river basins
of Spain, without which it is impossible to understand either the
physical conditions of the country, or the social and political state of
the various populations which has resulted from them.
First, on the north is the chain of the Pyrenees, a continuation of the
great Alpine system of Central Europe, stretching from Cape Creuz, 3 deg.
19' E., to the Bay of Biscay, 2 deg. 12' W., a distance of 320 miles, and
prolonging itself westward in lower chains of different denominations
until it finally sinks into the Atlantic at Cape Finisterre. The
culminating points of the Pyrenees are towards the centre of the chain,
in Mounts Maladetta, 11,150 feet, and the Pic de Posets and the Mount
Perdu, each about 11,000 feet, whence the heights gradually descend, on
the east to the Mediterranean and on the west to the Bay of Biscay. With
the exception of the little Bidassoa, which in the lower part of its
course forms the boundary between France and Spain, at the bottom of the
Bay of Biscay, all the other waters of the Spanish side of the Pyrenees
belong to the Ebro and to the Mediterranean. Parallel to the coast of
the Bay of Biscay the Pyrenees are prolonged, first, by the Cantabrian
Mountains, which run through the Basque Provinces, and the Province of
Santandar; thence by the Picos de Europa, 8300 feet--from the
south-eastern spurs of which the Ebro and Pisuerga take their rise--and
the Asturian Mountains, to the Sierra de Penamarella, at the junction of
the three Provinces of Leon, Asturias, and Galicia. The chain here
attains its greatest elevation, 9450 (?) feet, then descends to a
plateau of about 4000 feet, whence it sinks rapidly to the Atlantic,
forming the headlands of Ortegal, the extreme north-western, and of
Finisterre, the extreme western, point of Northern Spain. The mountains
of Leon form the western watershed, between the waters of the Ebro and
those which fall into the Atlantic. The line is continued eastward by
the Oca Mountains, the Sierra de Moncayo, and the Idubeda Mountains.
These mountain chains divide the basin of the Ebro from that of the
Douro. They also form the northern buttress of the great plateau of
Central Spain, which attains an elevation of from 2000 to 4000 feet. The
rise to the plateau from the Bay of Biscay is very abrupt. Within fifty
miles of leaving the coast the railways from the north attain a height
of 2000 feet, and reach the Central Plateau, at Quintanapalla, at an
elevation of 3000 feet; while La Canada, the highest point on the line
to Madrid, is nearly 4460 feet, or about sixty feet higher than the
tunnel of the Mount Cenis. From the eastern side the rise is less
abrupt, and the plateau is entered at the lower elevation of 2330 feet,
on the line from Alicante to Madrid. The famous Pass of Somosierra, on
the old northern coach-road from Madrid, is about 4700 feet above the
level of the sea. From these figures it is easy to perceive how very
different is the aspect of these buttress chains when seen from the
plateau, and when looked at from the plain from which they rise. Thus
the Sierra de Moncayo, 7700 feet, stands out with boldness from the
Valley of the Ebro, but viewed from the plateau of Castile it is
scarcely noticeable. From its summit, however, the finest view of the
whole range of the Pyrenees to be found anywhere on the Spanish side of
the chain, is to be obtained.
Turning thence towards the south and south-east, these mountain
chains--under the various names of the Sierras de Cuenca, de Molina, and
Albarracin--divide the river basins of the Mediterranean from the far
larger ones of the Atlantic. They have their culminating point in the
Muela de San Juan and the Cerro de San Felipe, nearly 6000 feet, at the
junction of the three provinces of Teruel, Cuenca, and Guadalaxara. From
the sides of these mountains the waters fall with rapid course, on the
north to join the Ebro, on the east and south to the Mediterranean;
while with gentler slope, but in far greater volume, the Douro, the
Tagus, and the Guadiana roll their waters to the Atlantic. From these
Sierras the plateau tilts gradually westward and southward, but is
intersected by mountain chains, peaks of which towards the west attain a
higher elevation than those which form the real culmination of this part
of the peninsula. The bare and bleak granite range of the Guadarrama,
which divides the basin of the Douro from that of the Tagus, and from
whose summits steals the icy wind so fatal to Madrid, attains in its
highest summit, Pena Lara, 7800 feet, near Segovia; while in its western
prolongation, the Sierras de Credos and de Gata, the Plaza del Moro
reaches 8700 feet. The chains which divide the valley of the Tagus from
that of the Guadiana are not nearly so well marked as are those more to
the north, and rise to a much less elevation above the plateau.
Beginning with a south-westerly prolongation of the Cerro de San Felipe,
under the successive titles of Montes de Toledo, Sierras de Guadaloupe,
Montanchez, and San Mamed, about 2000 feet, they reach the Portuguese
frontier near Portalegre. The highest point seems to be in the mountains
of Toledo at Villuercas, where a height of a little over 5000 feet is
attained. The mountains which separate the basins of the Guadiana and
the Guadalquiver, under the names of the Sierras de Alcaroz, Morena, de
Cordova, Guadacanal, and Aroche, and which form the southern buttress of
the central plateau, present a still greater difference than those of
the northern buttress when viewed from the plateau and from the plains
of Andalusia. From the former they appear only rolling undulations, and
the traveller scarcely notices the rise till he finds himself descending
one of the steep and savage gorges, like that of the Pass of
Despena-Perroz, on the road and rail between La Mancha and Andalusia.
The Col of Despena-Perroz is nearly 2500 feet above the sea, and but few
summits along the ranges of the Sierra Morena and its prolongations
attain a greater elevation, the general range being about 2000 feet,
except towards the west and north of Seville, where the Sierra de
Aracena reaches 5550 feet. Eastward of the Guadalquiver the ranges which
divide its waters from those of the Segura, the Sierras de Segura, and
Sagra, attain a greater height, the former 6500 feet, the latter to 7800
feet.
Thus as supports to the great plateau, or on it, we have the following
successive ranges as we proceed from north to south. First, the Sierra
de Moncayo and the Idubeda mountains, dividing the basin of the Ebro
from that of the Douro; next the Guadarrama chain, with the Sierras de
Credos and de Gata, separating the Douro from the Tagus; then the
Mountains of Toledo, and the Sierra de San Mamed, between the Tagus and
the Guadiana; and lastly, the southern buttress, the Sierra Morena,
dividing the Guadiana from the Guadalquiver.
But it is south of the last stream that the culminating points of the
whole peninsula are to be found--in the mighty Sierra Nevada, which
separates the lovely valley of Granada from the Mediterranean, shielding
it from the scorching winds of Africa, and giving it its eternal
freshness and verdure. The highest of its summits are Muley Hacen and
Velate, lying to the south-east of Granada, the former attaining nearly
11,670 feet, and the latter 11,400. The altitudes diminish rapidly east
and west. Towards the east, outlying ranges, such as those of the
Sierras de Filabres and of Gador, attain heights of 6000 and 7000 feet
respectively; while in the westward prolongations, the Mesa de Ronda is
only 5000; and the chain gradually drops till it reaches the sea at Cape
Trafalgar, and the rock of Gibraltar, 1400 feet.
But besides these greater chains of mountains Spain is traversed by
numerous offshoots and lateral ranges, and a great portion of her
territory is more or less of a mountainous character. In districts where
rain is unfrequent these hills are absolutely bare of verdure for a
great part of the year, and remain untenanted and uncultivated. Among
the more elevated of these lesser chains are those of Monseni,
Monserrat, and Montagut, in Catalonia, which attain respectively 5500,
4000, and 3000 feet in height. On the borders of Leon and Galicia, and
in the latter province, there are numerous mountains and smaller ranges,
which vary from 3000 to 5000 feet. The whole frontier of Portugal is
covered by lower ranges, connecting the great chains of which we have
already spoken with hills of from 2000 to 3000 feet. From the great
eastern buttress two spurs, or rolling plateaux, run down to the
Mediterranean, and terminate in the different headlands--such as Cape
Gata in the south-east, Cape Palos near Carthagena, Capes de la Nao and
San Antonio near Denia, Peniscola, and others. Some of these smaller
ranges are exceedingly rich in minerals, and as they approach the sea
form sites of picturesque and enchanting beauty, such as can be
surpassed only by the better-known and historic glories of the coasts of
Italy or of Greece.
_Rivers of Spain._
Of the five great rivers of Spain only one, the Ebro, pours its waters
into the Mediterranean; the other four, the Douro, Tagus, Guadiana, and
Guadalquiver, discharge theirs into the Atlantic; but of these last the
Guadalquiver alone is wholly a Spanish stream. In the lower and more
valuable part of their course the Douro, Tagus, and Gaudiana, belong to
Portugal--a fact which must always be remembered when treating of the
internal commerce of Spain. But besides these larger streams there are
several of slightly smaller dimensions, of which we will treat in order.
Few countries present within so short a distance so great a difference
in rainfall and moisture as does Spain. In some parts of the Asturias
and Galicia the rainfall is probably as heavy as that of any part of
Europe--as much as 147-1/2 inches are said to have been measured in a
single year; and the average fall on the northern slopes of the
Cantabrian mountains is said to be sixty inches annually. Yet the
average of the whole basin of the Ebro--which rises from the southern
slopes of the Picos de Europa, one of the most rainy of the rainy
districts--is only eighteen inches annually, the last 300 miles of its
course being through almost barren districts, where rain seldom falls.
The principal river of Galicia is the Minho, with its tributary the Sil.
Each of these rises, though at some distance apart, from the southern
side of the Cantabrian mountains, much nearer to the waters of the Bay
of Biscay than to those of the Atlantic, into which they flow. They take
thence a southerly and south-westerly course, until they unite a few
miles above Orense. The lower part of the united course, which bears the
name of the Minho, forms from Melgaco to the sea the frontier between
the kingdoms of Portugal and Spain. The remaining rivers of Galicia are
numerous but of little importance: the Tambre is the largest of those
which fall into the Atlantic on the west; while on the north the sources
of the Eo and the Navia overlap those of the Minho, and take their rise
from the mountains which border on Leon. The whole country is
exceedingly well watered. Both in its agricultural character as a
grazing country, and in its flora and fauna, it resembles the milder
portions of southern Ireland and of Devonshire, but with occasional
products of a warmer zone. The rivers of the Asturias, Santander, and of
the Basque provinces, all partake of the same general character. In the
upper part of their courses they are mere mountain torrents, their
course is rapid but short, and they are of but little use for
navigation, though occasionally small but insecure harbours are formed
at their mouth. The only great exception to this is the Nervion, on
which Bilbao is situated, and which is navigable for eight miles from
its mouth. The waters of the Bidassoa, the Deva, and others, are,
however, utilized for the transport of ore from the mines and ironworks
along the course. The Bidassoa, for some ten miles before it enters the
Bay of Biscay at Cape Figueras forms the boundary between France and
Spain; about four miles from its issue, between Irun and Behobie, is the
celebrated Isle des Faisans, where, in 1659, the marriage was arranged
between Louis XIV. and the Infanta, which eventually placed the Bourbons
on the throne of Spain. The Bidassoa is the last of the northern rivers
of Spain which falls into the Atlantic.
The Ebro has its rise from the source, Fontibre, in the province of
Santander, and takes a south-easterly course of 466 miles, through the
provinces of Santander, Burgos, Navarre, and Aragon, almost parallel
with the Pyrenees, till it falls into the Mediterranean, through a sandy
delta stretching some fifteen miles into the sea below Amposta. The
descent for the first 200 miles of its course is exceedingly rapid, but
after that the fall is gradual till it reaches the sea. In its course
it receives the waters of many tributaries, both on the left from the
Pyrenees, and on the right from the Idubeda mountains and the sierras of
Southern Aragon. Were it not for these tributaries little of its waters
would reach the Mediterranean, so dry and arid are the Bardenas of
Navarre, and the Dehesas of Aragon, through which it flows. The
Spaniards have a proverb that it is the Navarrese and Aragonese
streams--the Arga, the Ega, and the Aragon--which make a man of the
Ebro. Farther down, the Gallego runs in near Saragossa; while the united
waters of the Cinca and the Segre at Mequinenza pour a far larger volume
of water into the parent bed than it contains itself. From the right,
the principal streams are the Xalon, with its tributary the Xiloca,
which joins the Ebro between Tudela and Saragossa, the Marten, and the
Guadalope near Caspe. The Ebro, notwithstanding its length, the number
of its tributaries, and the extent of its basin, 25,000 square miles, is
of little use for navigation. A magnificent canal--first projected and
commenced by the Emperor Charles V. (I. of Spain) then after a lapse of
more than two centuries taken in hand by Charles III., in 1770--runs
from Tudela to Saragossa; thence to the sea it still remains in project
only. The part already finished is falling into decay; and it is only
the excellent quality of the masonry, and of the cement or mortar
employed, that retards its utter ruin. The traffic is very small; and
even as a means of irrigation its waters are allowed greatly to run to
waste. At the apex of the delta from Amposta to San Carlos de la Rapita
a canal of eight miles has been cut for purposes of navigation; but the
formation of a bar, and the silting up of the bay, have rendered it
almost useless. The other rivers which flow into the Mediterranean,
between the lower course of the Ebro and the Pyrenees are the Fluvia,
which flows into the gulf of Rosas, the Ter, which passes by Gerona, and
the Llobregat near Barcelona. All are torrential streams, unfit for
navigation; but their waters, if all utilized for irrigation like those
of the Llobregat, would be sources of immense wealth to the country.
From the fact that the lower part of the course of the great rivers of
the plateau--the Douro, the Tagus, and the Guadiana--flow through
Portugal, their streams are hardly at all available as a means of
communication or of navigation for Spain; and from the nature of the
deeply cut beds which the waters have worn through the soil, flowing,
especially as they approach the frontiers of Portugal, through gorges
approaching in length and depth the canons of North America, the rivers
are little available for irrigation, although far more use might be made
of them for this purpose than is actually done. Owing to the prejudices
of the Spanish husbandman, and to his reluctance to accept any change,
however profitable, in his ancient routine, neither the little that has
been done in the present century, nor the remains of a wiser agriculture
in former times are used by the peasantry. In the province of Zamora,
for instance, both the ancient "acequias" and the modern canal of the
Esla are equally neglected. The rich results that have followed the
employment of the waters in the few cases in which they have been
intelligently directed, stirs no one up to follow the example. It is one
of the many contrasts between different parts of Spain, that the value
of irrigation should be so well understood in some parts and so utterly
neglected and under-valued in others. But we shall have more to say of
this when we treat of the eastern and southern streams: at present let
us return to the Douro, and to the other rivers of the plateau.
The Douro takes its rise in the Lago Negro, or Black Lake, on the
southern flanks of the Mount Urbion, in the north-western angle of the
province of Soria. It first runs eastward to the city of that name, the
ancient Numantia, then turns almost directly south as far as Almazan,
whence it runs westward to Portugal, receiving meanwhile the waters of
the Esla, below Zamora; at the frontier, again it turns south, through
deep gorges which form the boundary between Spain and Portugal, until
it receives the waters of the Agueda, where it finally enters Portugal,
and after a westerly course thence of about 100 miles, falls into the
Atlantic below Oporto.
The basin drained by the Douro is the most extensive of all those of the
rivers in Spain. Including the portion in Portugal, it comprises 35,000
square miles; the length of the river is about 500 miles; the average
rainfall is stated at twenty inches. The chief affluents of the Douro
descend from the north from the mountains of Burgos and the Cantabrian
range. The largest are the Pisuerga, which rises not far from the
sources of the Ebro among the Picos de Europa, and flows almost directly
south by Palencia and Valladolid until it joins the Douro, some miles
above Tordesilla; the Esla, which also rises from the western flanks of
the same chain, not far from Covadonga, takes a somewhat more westerly
direction, and after receiving several smaller streams unites with the
Douro below Zamora. These two rivers supply water for two of the most
successful canals in Spain, especially that along the Pisuerga, for over
ninety miles from Alar del Rey to Valladolid. There is a considerable
traffic on it, especially for passengers. It was planned in 1753 by
Ensenada, but completed only in 1832. The canal of the Esla, for
purposes of irrigation, begun by English engineers in 1864, and
finished in 1869, has hardly been so successful. The latest report
(June, 1880) states that the peasant proprietors, notwithstanding
examples of the great utility of irrigation, obstinately refuse to use
it. The principal affluents of the Douro on the west and south are the
Tormes, which flows by Salamanca, and joins it about midway in its
course as a frontier of Portugal; and the Agueda, which runs in just
where it takes its final departure for the west.
The Tagus, the central river of Spain, and which divides its territory
into two nearly equal portions, rises from a fountain called the Fuente
Garcia, or Pie, on the south side of the Muela de San Juan, between the
Sierras de Molina, Albaracin, and San Felipe, the knot of mountains
which, as we have indicated above, form the great watershed of the
peninsula, whence the waters flow northwards to the Ebro, east and
southwards to the Mediterranean, and westwards, in the Tagus and its
tributaries, to the Atlantic. Were the whole peninsula of Spain and
Portugal one kingdom, the Tagus would be perhaps the most important of
its rivers; but in the divided state it is of far more value to Portugal
than to Spain. Its swift and turbid current, flowing between steep
banks, and in a bed broken into rapids and encumbered by rocks, is
scarcely navigable above Abrantes. The basin of the Tagus contains an
area of nearly 30,000 square miles, and its length is estimated at
about 550. The rainfall is less than that of the Douro, being only
sixteen inches annually. The river, moreover, runs by no means in the
centre of its basin, but far to the southwards of a central dividing
line, and consequently the tributaries which it receives from the north
or left bank are of much greater importance than those which come from
the south or right. After flowing a few miles in a north-westerly
direction, the river gradually bends, first westerly, and then in a
slightly south-westerly direction, in a deep channel, through a bare
rolling country, where everything takes the prevailing colour of red
dusty uplands, until it arrives at Aranjuez, situated at the confluence
of the Jarama and the Tagus, a royal residence whose abundance of water
and of shade make it a true oasis in a desert. The Jarama, which rises
in the Guadarama, brings in also the waters of the Henares, and those of
the Manzanares, on which Madrid is situated. These streams have been the
subjects of many projects and attempts at canalization, either for
irrigation or for supplying the metropolis with water. Most of these
have failed, but a canal from Porcal to Aranjuez, of seventeen miles and
a half, is in working order. The canal of Cabarrus brings the waters of
the Lozoya to Madrid. But the great enterprise of the canal of
irrigation from the Henares, constructed by the same English company
which made the canal of the Esla, and which was to have been
twenty-eight miles in length, and to have irrigated 30,000 acres, is
suspended by lawsuits as to the ownership of the waters. The Alberche,
which rises to the north of the Sierra de Gredos, enters the Tagus near
Talavera de la Reyna. The Tietjar, and the Alagon, which joins the main
stream just above Alcantara, beside the frontier stream, the Heyas, are
the only Spanish waters of importance from the north before the Tagus
enters Portugal; and from the south the Salor and the del Monte, both of
which have their rise and course in the same province of Caceres alone
need mention. In the upper part of its course, however, the smaller
tributaries of both the Tagus and the Guadiana often overlap, and but a
very few miles separate the Tagus itself from the waters which flow into
the Guadiana.
The exact source of the Guadiana has been a subject of much debate and
of many fables. Its true origin seems to be in a series of lakes at the
junction of the provinces of Ciudad Real and Albacete, near Montiel, in
La Mancha. A picturesque stream, the Ruidosa, with many cascades and
broken water, connects these lakes; but after running a few miles in a
north-westerly direction, it disappears underground near Tomesillo, and
is believed to rise to the surface after about twenty miles, in the Ojos
(eyes) of the Guadiana, near Damiel. Very soon it receives from the
right the united waters of the Zancara and the Giguela, streams whose
contributions are much more scanty, especially in summer, than the
length of their course on the map would lead one to suppose; thence the
river flows in a westerly direction, passing near Ciudad Real, below
which the Javalon enters from the left, coming from the Campo de
Montiel; near Don Benito the Zuja, from the Sierra Morena, joins it, and
some miles lower down the Matachet. Flowing past Medellin, five miles
below Badajoz the river crosses the frontier of Portugal, changes its
course from westerly to south-west, and afterwards south and south-east,
till it again joins the frontier near San Lucar, and dividing the two
countries till its mouth, falls into the Gulf of Cadiz at Ayamonte. In
the lower part of its course the river, which before has been wide and
shallow, and often almost dry in summer, narrows its course, and rushes
with impetuosity through the rapids called the Salto del Lobo (the
wolf's leap), near Serpa, in Portugal. The whole length of the Guadiana
is estimated at 550 miles, and the area of its bed at 24,000 square
miles. The rainfall is about fourteen inches.
To the south of the rivers of the plateau the only considerable stream
is the Guadalquiver, with its tributaries. The character of this river
is entirely different to that of the former streams. Like the Ebro, it
forms a true valley, instead of merely cutting its way through rocks,
canons, and defiles. Its bed is on an average about 1200 feet below that
of the Guadiana in the greater part of its course. It is also the only
river in Spain of any utility for navigation; the tide is felt beyond
Seville, and vessels of 200 to 300 tons ascend to that city. There are
also several lines of steamboats trading thence directly with London,
Marseilles, Bilbao, Cadiz, and Gibraltar. The Guadalquiver takes its
rise from two sources--one, in the streams Guadalimar and Guadarmeno,
rises in the Sierra Alcaraz, and not very far from the sources of the
Guadiana; the other, which bears the name of the Guadalquiver, in the
south-west of the Sierra Sagra; this latter branch is soon joined by the
Guadiana Menor, coming down from the Sierra Nevada. The basin of the
Guadalquiver presents this peculiarity, that its boundary is not formed
by the line of the highest summits; on the contrary, many of its
tributaries take their rise on the farther side of the Sierra Morena on
the north, and of the Sierras de Granada and Nevada on the south, and
have cut their way through these higher grounds to join the Guadalquiver
in the plains of Andalusia. The upper part of its course is very rapid,
and the junction of the two rivers Guadalimar and Guadalquiver, in the
plains of Baeza, is about 5000 feet below the Punta de Almenara; but
from thence to the sea the fall is very slight. After the junction the
river passes by Andujar, Montoro, and Cordova, receiving on both banks
the waters of many streams of but little importance; but between Cordova
and Seville it is joined by its largest tributary, the Xenil, which
rises in the Sierra Nevada, and flowing through the celebrated Vega of
Granada, bursts through the Antequera mountains to enter the great plain
of Andalusia, and loses itself in the Guadalquiver. From Seville
downward the character of the stream is greatly changed; it wanders in
large meanderings through low and marshy grounds for two or three
leagues on each bank, mostly uninhabited, and used only for pasturing
cattle. These low lands, which are called _Marismas_, in dry weather are
covered with clouds of black dust, and in wet are an almost impassable
slough of mud; mid these the river divides, and its winding beds form
two islands--Isle Mayor and Menor, the former of which is wholly given
to cattle, while the latter is inhabited and well cultivated; The river
finally enters the Gulf of Cadiz, at San Lucar de Barameda, forcing its
way with difficulty through low hills of sand, like those of the Landes
in France. The marshes near the mouth are utilized as _Salinas_, for
making excellent salt; and on the hills which overlook the _Marismas_
some of the most renowned wines and fruits of Spain are produced. The
whole course of the Guadalquiver is about 340 miles and the area of its
basin 21,000: the rainfall is estimated at nineteen inches.
The other streams which fall into the Gulf of Cadiz--the Rio Tinto,
which runs into the Huelva basin, and the Guadalete at Cadiz--are of no
utility for navigation. The little port of Palos, whence Columbus sailed
to discover a new world, is almost entirely blocked up by sands brought
down by the former torrent.
The remaining rivers of Spain--those which, descending from the great
plateau, flow eastward to the Mediterranean--though all useless for
navigation, are among the most productive of all its streams. Flowing
through a country whose temperature exceeds that of the opposite coast
of Africa; where the rainfall is either scanty, or disastrous in
quantity from rare but terrible storms; and through districts in which
no rain falls for years together--the waters of these rivers, skilfully
applied to irrigation, have rendered what would otherwise be a barren
land one of fertility unparalleled in Europe. Unlike the peasants of
Castile, the cultivators of Murcia and Valencia have learnt to value the
use of water in agriculture; although even there, works which were first
constructed by the Moors have been allowed to fall into ruin, and are
yearly becoming of less utility. Of this we shall speak more at length
below. The three great rivers we have yet to notice are the Murcian
Segura, and the Jucar and Guadalaviar, in Valencia.
The river Segura takes its rise in the Sierra de Segura, between the
Sierras of Alcaraz and Sagra. The upper part of its course is that of a
mountain torrent, leaping from terrace to terrace of the mountains as it
descends, until after the junction of the Mundo, which rises from a
cirque in the Sierra Alcaras, like the cirque of Gavarnie in the
Pyrenees, and flows through a deep ravine from the north-east. Its
waters are dammed up, cut into numberless channels, and almost wholly
utilized for irrigation, so that only about ten per cent of them reaches
the sea; the rest are dissipated in the huertas of Murcia, Orihuela, and
part of Elche. Its tributary the Sangonera loses almost all its waters
in the plains of Lorca. With the little Vinalapo, almost 15,000 acres
are rendered productive by the waters of these streams in one of the
driest districts of Spain. The wheat of Orihuela is some of the finest
in Spain; and so certain is the crop as to give rise to the proverb,
"Rain or no rain, there is always wheat in Orihuela." The Segura has a
course of about 217 miles, and an area of about 850 square miles; the
average rainfall is estimated at about twelve inches, but the difference
is very great in different years, as the district is liable to rare but
most heavy and destructive floods.
The Jucar takes its rise not far from the sources of the Tagus, on the
south side of the Muela de San Juan, which we have before mentioned as
the culminating watershed of the peninsula. It flows first in a
south-westerly direction as far as Cuenca, whence it gradually turns
south and south-east, and at Jorquera, to the north-east of Albacete,
strikes eastwards for the Mediterranean, which it finally enters at
Cullera. Like the Segura and Guadalaviar, its waters are drained off for
irrigation; but its basin is narrower, and it can boast of no fertility
equal to the huertas of Murcia or Valencia. Its course is about 317
miles, the area of its bed 580, and the rainfall some twelve and a half
inches; the irrigated land is over 30,000 acres.
The Guadalaviar, or Turia, rises on the north side of the Muela de San
Juan, and descending rapidly, flows eastward past Albarracin and Teruel;
at which latter town it turns abruptly southwards till it enters the
province of Valencia, where it again takes a more easterly course,
flowing with ever-diminished stream through the rich garden of Valencia,
at which city it falls into the Mediterranean, with water which, except
in time of flood, scarcely rises above the ankle. The length of its
course is about 187 miles, the area of its basin 320 square miles; it
irrigates over 25,000 acres near Valencia.
Besides these larger rivers, there are on the Mediterranean slope
innumerable smaller streams, whose waters, though of little geographical
importance, are of the greatest utility to agriculture. In summer
scarcely a drop of their waters reaches the sea; all is either employed
for irrigation, or dissipated by evaporation; often they are dammed up
to form reservoirs or _pantanos_, sometimes employed for rice culture.
But small as these streams are, it is to them that this burning coast
owes its beauty and fertility, its almost tropical vegetation and its
rich products. The fair gardens of Castellon, of Gandia, of Murviedro
would be barren and valueless without these waters. Still farther to the
north the waters of the Llobregat, and the canal of Urgel in Catalonia,
are used for the same purpose.
The lakes of Spain are neither large nor numerous, but some are curious
from a geographical point of view. On the high plateaux whence the
Guadiana, the Guadalimar, the Segura, and the Jucar take their rise,
either a dam or a trench would suffice to turn the waters either to the
Atlantic or the Mediterranean; and here alone in Western Europe are
found temporary lakes with no outlet, and consequently salt from excess
of evaporation. For the same reason salt springs and brackish streams
abound in these highlands. All around the coast, both on the Atlantic
and Mediterranean, salinas, or salt-works for making salt, either from
the sea or from the brackish water of lagoons and tidal marshes, abound;
those of Cadiz, and of the coast between Cartagena and Alicante are
celebrated for the excellence of their salt. Besides these are the five
Albuferas, or lagoons, of Valencia, Alicante, Elche, Auna, and Oropesa.
Of these that of Valencia is far the largest, and feeds enormous
quantities of fish and of aquatic fowl of all kinds. The interior lakes,
as that of Sanabria in Zamora, Gallocanta in Aragon, and those from
which many of the rivers take their source, are noted only for their
picturesque beauty. We can hardly show the value of water in Spain
better than by directing the reader's attention to the number of places
which take their name from water of some kind: thus there are forty-four
villages or towns whose names are compounded of _Aguas_, waters; 238
into which the word _Fuente_, fountain, enters; 144 _Rios_, rivers; 54
_Arroyos_, brooks; 44 _Pozos_, wells; 30 _Salinas_, salt waters; 9 _Rio
Secos_, dry rivers; and about 600 _Molinos_ or water-mills. The
multiplicity of these last dates perhaps from the time when every
seigneur had his own mill, and obliged his vassals to grind their corn
there; but assuredly in a moister climate water would not have played so
great a part in the nomenclature, or toponymy, of the country.
We add the following table, deduced from Reclus' "Nouvelle Geographie
Universelle," 6 deg. Serie, p. 886, compared with an article in "La Revista
Contemporanea," December 30th, 1880:--
Area of Length of Mean Outfall compared
Rivers. basin. course. rainfall. with rainfall.
Sq. miles. Miles. Inches. Per cent.
Northern {Minho&Sil 10,000 190 47-1/2 50
Rivers. {Ebro 25,000 466 18 20
Rivers of {Douro 35,000 506 20 40
the {Tagus 30,000 556 16 33
Central {Guardiana &
Plateau. {Zancara 24,000 553 14 20
Andulasia Guadalquiver 21,000 340 19 30
Mediterranean {Segura 8500 217 12 10
Rivers. {Jucar 5800 317 12-1/2 15
E. & S.E. {Guadalaviar 3200 187 -- 12
The mineral springs of Spain are very numerous, as might be expected in
a mountainous country, at the junction of different strata in the
metamorphic fissures, and in the neighbourhood of extinct volcanoes.
Many of them were known and used by the Romans, and possibly by other
races before their time. The Moors made use of many, more especially in
the south. The majority of these springs are much neglected, and the
bathing establishments in their roughness are a striking contrast to
those of Germany and of France; there is, however, no reason to suppose
that the waters themselves are less efficacious. The best known springs
lie along the line of the Pyrenees, in Catalonia, Navarre, and
especially in the Basque provinces and Santander. Another noted group
are in the neighbourhood of Granada, and on the northern slopes of the
Sierra Nevada. Those in the Guadarrama range are more frequented, from
their vicinity to Madrid. Many of the Salados and Salinas in the higher
parts of the eastern range, as well as the springs in the neighbourhood
of Valencia, might be utilized with advantage. In this, as in many other
things, Spain has not yet recovered the threads of a lost civilization,
and in many points of material comfort and well-being is behind the
Spain of Roman and of Moorish times.
CHAPTER II.
CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS.
Spain may be roughly divided into five climates: (1) that of the north
and of the Pyrenees, where rain is abundant; (2) the west or Atlantic
climate, including Portugal; (3) the north-east or Mediterranean; (4)
the east and south, or African climate; and (5) lastly, the climate of
the great Central Plateau, or the Continental. All these are well
marked, and differ greatly in their temperature, in elevation, in
exposure, in rainfall, and in prevailing winds. To speak of an average
temperature, or of an average rainfall in Spain, is only to mislead. The
temperature of the south and south-east is higher than that of the
opposite coast of Africa, while the winters in Castile recall those of
Scandinavia in their bitterness. In some of the Asturian valleys there
is, perhaps, the heaviest rainfall in Europe; while the lower valley of
the Ebro is almost a desert, from want of rain; and in parts of Valencia
and Murcia, and even in Andalusia, not a drop will fall for years; yet
at times these provinces, and their driest portions, are visited--as in
1802, 1879, and 1881--by overwhelming and destructive floods. To strike
an average, then, even for the same spot, through several years, is
often merely deceptive.
We have remarked above on the similarity of the conformation of the
western coasts of Galicia to those of Norway, Scotland, and Ireland.
They partake also of the same Atlantic character in their climate and
productions. Galicia and the Asturias are essentially grazing countries;
and from the Galician ports, up to 1878, about 20,000 head of fatted
cattle were annually sent to England. Except in the more sheltered
valleys, where the productions of a warmer clime will flourish, the
native flora is not unlike that of the milder parts of Ireland and of
Devonshire. The average temperature of Santiago is about 55 deg. Fahr., with
a maximum of 95 deg., and a minimum of 28 deg.; Oviedo is given as 54 deg. average,
maximum 80 deg., and minimum 24 deg.; while the rainfall of the former is from
58 to 68 inches, and that of the latter varies from 38 to 50 in ordinary
years, but in 1858 it attained 80 inches. Proceeding eastward we meet
the northern or Pyrenean climate, where the rainfall is not so great,
and, except in the immediate vicinity of the highest mountains, lessens
gradually as we either go eastward or descend into the plains. The
moisture is condensed and wrung out of the clouds brought by the watery
western winds, and precipitated on the mountains of the west and north.
From the Picos de Europa, in the province of Santander, which may be
considered as the meeting-point of the two climates, the waters descend
on the one side by the Ebro to the Mediterranean, by the Pisuerga to the
Douro and the Atlantic, and by the shorter northern streams to the Bay
of Biscay. In the valley of the Cabuervega (Santander) the rainfall is
57-1/2 inches. Passing eastward we find Bilbao and San Sebastian, with
an average temperature of 56 deg. and 55 deg., a maximum of 93 deg., and minimum
23 deg., while the rainfall has diminished from 55 to 48 inches. At Vergara,
more inland, it is 52. At Huesca, in Aragon, notwithstanding its
proximity to the mountains, the rainfall is only 25 inches; at Balaguer,
in Catalonia, only 15-1/2. At Saragossa the climate becomes more
extreme; the average is 60 deg., the maximum 96 deg., and the minimum 20 deg., while
the rainfall descends to 14 inches. The equalizing influence of the
neighbourhood of the sea is felt in the Mediterranean climate at
Barcelona; for while the average is 63 deg., the maximum is only 88 deg., and
the minimum 32 deg., and the rainfall ascends to 24 inches. The difference
is still more marked if we compare the extreme oscillation between the
maximum and minimum temperatures. At Saragossa this is from 120 deg. to
130 deg.; at Barcelona from 90 deg. to 100 deg. Fahr.
The productions of this northern zone vary greatly according to
elevation and exposition. Those of the Basque Provinces still belong to
the north temperate zone climate--cattle, corn, and cider, as well as
wine. The olive, and the mulberry for silk, are almost unknown; but
maize is largely grown. As we approach Catalonia these products give way
to those of the Mediterranean region of Provence and of the Riviera--the
olive, the grape, the mulberry. A powerful red wine is made on the lower
southern spurs of the Pyrenees and of the Cantabrian Mountains, in the
Riojas, in Navarre, and in Aragon. Much of it would be excellent if more
attention were paid to the preparation, and especially to the conditions
of transport. Great quantities are at present exported to France by sea
from Bilbao and San Sebastian, and also by rail, for the purpose of
mixing with the thinner and poorer clarets of Bordeaux, to fit them for
the taste and market of England. In Catalonia the wine improves, and is
less used for mixing. The chief kinds are a red wine, like Rousillon,
and sweet, luscious wines, Rancio, somewhat like Muscat or Malaga. Of
late the manufacture of effervescing wines like champagne has been
carried on with considerable success. The wine made in Catalonia amounts
to one-fifth of the whole produce of Spain. Already the orange and the
palm appear.
Proceeding southwards from Catalonia, we gradually advance into the
south-eastern and southern climate of Spain, a climate which is rather
African than European in its character, and both whose products and
dryness have more relation to the African continent than to that of the
rest of Europe. It is here that the date-palm ripens--which it does not
on the opposite coast of Algeria--and the camel breeds, and can be used
as a beast of burden equally as in Egypt and the East. Sheltered by the
mountain ranges to the east and north from the cold winds which sweep
the plateau of Castile, exposed by the slope of the country to the full
influence of the southern sun and its powerful evaporation, the
characteristics of the climate are warmth and dryness, while the
vicinity of the Mediterranean partly tempers the extreme range of heat
and cold which might be found in lands more remote from the sea. Thus
the average temperature of Valencia is 65 deg., its maximum 102 deg., its
minimum 41 deg., and extreme range 100 deg.. Alicante, still further south, has
an average of 66 deg., a maximum of 100 deg., and a minimum of 35 deg.. The average
rainfall at Valencia is stated at 17, and that of Alicante at 18 inches;
but, as remarked above, in this south-eastern district of Spain averages
of rainfall are quite deceptive. In some years the quantity marked is
only a very few inches, 3 or 6, over the whole district, and there are
considerable portions where rain does not fall for years. The country
is rendered fertile and productive, not by its rains, but by irrigation
from the rivers, fed by the winter snows on the mountains which border
the great plateau. At times, however, as in 1802 and 1879, storms of
rain descend on the high lands of Murcia and the eastern sierras, and
floods rush down, sweeping away dams which have stood for centuries,
washing away towns and villages, and spreading destruction far and wide.
To compute the rainfall of such floods into an average is only to play
with figures. Murcia has an average temperature of 64 deg., maximum 112 deg.,
minimum 24 deg., and an extreme range of 120 deg.. The rainfall averages about
12-1/2 inches on the coast, but varies greatly; at Albacete it is said
to average 13 inches. The directly southern coast, from the Cabo de Gata
to Gibraltar, has a milder and more equable climate than that of the
south-eastern coast; but in the inland valley of the Guadalquiver the
range is more extreme, both for heat and cold. The dryness in the
eastern district still continues from Cartagena to Almeria; the rainfall
is said to be only 12 inches. At Malaga, while the average temperature
is 66 deg., about the same as that at Valencia and Alicante, the maximum is
said to be only 78 deg., and the minimum 53 deg.. At Motril, between Malaga and
Almeria, the maximum is 77 deg., and the minimum 52 deg.. In Seville on the
other hand, the average is 68 deg., with a maximum Of 118 deg., and a minimum of
30 deg.. Cordova, somewhat colder, has a maximum of 93 deg., and a minimum of
27 deg.. The rainfall is also more moderate at Malaga, 15-1/2 inches, and 23
at Seville. Granada, in its upland but sheltered valley, at an elevation
of 2681 feet, defended from the east and south by the snowy range of the
Sierra Nevada, and by the mountains of Granada to the north, has still
an average of 65 deg., with a maximum of 97 deg., and a minimum of 42 deg.. The
rainfall varies considerably in different years, and various geographers
give its average as 23-1/2 33-1/2, and the latest (Reclus) 48-1/2. Cadiz
has an Atlantic climate, which in temperature and greater rainfall, 37
inches, closely approximates to that of Madeira. Moving westward it
decreases, at Gibraltar, 34-1/2, San Fernando, 27; while at Huelva and
Tarifa, where the moisture of the north-west gales is intercepted by the
Portuguese mountains, it descends to 24-1/2. We have now only to treat
of the climate of the great central elevation, the plateau, which ranges
at an average height of some 2000 feet above the sea. Thus, Madrid is
2148, Segovia 2299, Burgos 2873, Soria 3504, and the Escorial, 3683 feet
above the sea-level. But even these altitudes do not wholly account for
the rigour of the climate in the latitude of Naples, Rome, and
Constantinople. We have seen how excellent is the climate of Granada at
a nearly equal elevation, only three degrees further south. The extremes
of heat and cold felt at Valladolid and Madrid are due more to the
uncovered mountain ranges to the north, the treeless, waterless plains,
over which the wind sweeps unchecked, than to mere elevation. The want
of rain is greatly owing to the ranges of mountains parallel to the
frontier and to the Atlantic in Portugal, which condense and wring all
the moisture from the rain-clouds of the Atlantic, and distribute it
almost wholly on the western slope. Thus at Lisbon the fall is 29, at
Coimbra 35, at Oporto 63, in the mountains of Beira and Tras os Montes
from 68 to 100 inches; while on the eastern slope, at Salamanca it is 9,
Valladolid 12, at Badajoz 12-1/2, Ciudad Real 14. From the bare granite
range of the Guadarrama steals down the treacherous icy wind so fatal in
Madrid--not sufficiently strong to extinguish a candle, but quite enough
to destroy human life. It is the dislike of the Castilian peasant to
trees, which would overshadow so much of his small property, the
destruction of the mountain forests, and the want of good agriculture,
which has embittered the climate of these plateaux. Were the hill-sides
clothed with wood, the country dotted with farms, the wide and bare
plains covered throughout the year with varied agricultural produce, the
climate would soon be modified and become sensibly warmer, and no
longer, as it at present is, an obstacle to civilization and to
improvement. In spite of all neglect these plains grow some of the
finest wheat in Europe, and the lower mountain ranges supply pasture in
the summer for the immense flocks which return to winter in the plains
of Estremadura. The average temperature of Madrid is 59 deg., its maximum
104 deg. to 107 deg., and its minimum only 7 deg.. That of Salamanca is said to be
57 deg., with a maximum of 97 deg., and a minimum of 12 deg.. The average rainfall
of Madrid is only from 9 to 14 inches, that of Salamanca 9, while Soria,
nearer to the mountains, in some years reaches 25 inches.
From the above sketch of the climate the reader will expect to find the
productions vary greatly in the different districts. The north and
north-west are the lands of cattle and of pasture. In Galicia and in the
Asturias the products are almost like those of the warmer parts of the
south-west of England and of Ireland, save that in the more sheltered
valleys the orange, citron, and pomegranate flourish; a palm is even now
and then to be seen; and the wine, especially on the confines of
Portugal, is excellent, and needs only more care in preparation to be a
rival to the famous Port of the neighbouring country. In the eighteenth
century, that of Ribadavia was considered to be the finest wine in all
Spain. Maize, too, is freely grown; but on account of their extreme
poverty, rye and spelt often replace both it and wheat as food for the
peasantry. The upland plateaux afford excellent pasture, especially for
cattle and horses; the hardy and sure-footed hacks of Galicia and the
Asturias are celebrated. The mountains here are often clothed with wood;
oaks of various kinds, and the edible chestnut, and the hazel-nut--of
which over 1000 tons, value 23,000_l._, are annually exported from
Gijon--grow on the lower spurs, giving food to herds of swine; beech,
and pine, and fir appear as we approach the tops. In the lower woods the
arbutus especially flourishes, and the young wild boars in autumn are
said to become half stupefied with its narcotic berries. As we proceed
eastward from Galicia to the Asturias the climate becomes sensibly
colder--the valleys face the north instead of the west; the orange is
less known, the mulberry will not flourish sufficiently well to pay for
silk cultivation, the olive will not grow, and the cork does not pay for
cultivation; the wines lose somewhat of their strength and lusciousness;
and cider, made from the excellent apples of the country, rivals the
juice of the grape in popularity. The mountains are covered with heath,
and fern, and furze, but the aromatic plants are fewer than in Galicia.
This description applies to the northern slope of the Cantabrian chain
and to the rolling hills and plateaux of the Basque provinces; but the
southern slopes of the chain, towards the Ebro, are again a land of vine
and olive, and of maize, which is everywhere the staple. In the Basque
provinces the plough is replaced by the ancient "laya," an instrument
as old, at least, as Roman times. It is a heavy two-pronged steel or
iron fork, with prongs one and a half to two feet long. A strong man
will work two of them at once, one in each hand, driving them into the
ground to their full depth, then with a backward strain turning up the
deep soil. Usually, four or five men work together, and raise their
arms, plunge the fork downwards, and heave, in perfect time. The
cultivation thus effected is excellent, but the expenditure of labour is
immense The productions do not vary greatly along the slopes of the
Pyrenees from those above described until we reach Catalonia; but in the
lower valley of the Ebro, where rain is rare, in the Bardenas reales of
Navarre, and in the monegros, or despoblados of Aragon, we meet with a
phenomenon only too frequent in Spain--tracts of almost utter
barrenness. The Bardenas reales are low spurs of the Pyrenees, with
table-lands, bluffs, and deep gorges, and these could scarcely be
brought under cultivation; but the "despoblados" (dispeopled lands) of
Aragon might be irrigated, either by the Ebro or by its tributaries, if
the water of the canal of Charles V. were but economically applied. The
sterility of some parts seems to have been the slow result of an
oppressive land tenure; for as Don Vicente de la Fuente has remarked,
the lands which belonged to the ancient senors (the feudal lords) lie
barren, while the lands of the comunidades, the free districts, are
still fertile. In treating, of the cultivation and the products of
eastern and southern Spain two facts become evident at once--how many of
the products are exotic, and how much of the cultivation is still
Arabian. We shall see in another chapter how deep a mark the Moor or
Arab has left on the population and toponymy of Spain; and the
agriculture of the greater part of central and southern Spain is still
Arabian. The methods of the Spanish peasant are almost all Arabian;
often he uses the Arabian hoe in preference to the Roman plough. The
_noria_, or water-wheel; the _sha'doof_, or swipe, the pole and bucket
for lifting water; the huge dams and reservoirs, the canals and ditches
(_acequias_), the regulations for the fair distribution of the
water,--all these, and even the very superstitions as to times of
sowing, the rotation of crops, the treatment of his animals--for all
these the Spanish peasant of the South is indebted to the Moors. The
treatise of Abu Zaccaria, with its traditions of Nabathean agriculture,
is still one of the manuals of agriculture in Spain. It is the Moors,
too, who first made the winter gardens in the sands near San Lucarde
Barameda, at the mouth of the Guadalquiver, and which supply Cadiz and
Seville with the earliest and latest vegetables. The Roman, with his
lofty aqueducts, brought water to the towns; but it was the Moor who
gave that blessing to the thirsty soil of the country districts of
Spain. And not only the methods of agriculture, but many of its fruits
and products were introduced by the Arab from the East, and some of
these are now the very staple of Spanish produce. It is they who brought
into Spain the cotton plant, rice, and the sugar-cane; mulberries, both
for fruit and for silk culture; sesame, the caper, the locust bean, the
castor-oil plant, alfalfa (lucerne), the pomegranate, almond, the walnut
and filbert, the chestnut and the ever-green oak, the wild olive, the
jujube, the pistacchio nut, the palm, several kinds of roses, the
wall-flower, with many another garden herb or flower. It was they who
improved the Andalusian steed into one of the most excellent in Europe
for riding, and the strain may still be traced even in the ponies of the
north. But the cultivated vegetation of the south which meets the
stranger's eye is perhaps still more indebted to the Americas.[1] It
needs an effort now to picture what Spanish agriculture and what Spanish
life was before the time of Columbus, when maize, and the potato, and
sweet potato, were unknown; when not a cigar was smoked or cigarette
made, or leaf of tobacco grown in Spain; when only garlic was known, and
those indispensable condiments of every dish, the tomato, and the
pimentos had not yet entered a Spanish kitchen, and chocolate had not
yet been sipped by Spanish ladies; when the hedges were bare of aloes,
and the prickly pear gave the beggar no fruit. And besides these common
gifts, there are the more luxurious ones of pine apples, grenadines (the
fruit of the passion-flower), abocado pears, chirimoyas, guavas,
earth-nuts, bananas, and many others, while the gardens are enriched
with magnolias and passion-flowers, and a wealth of creepers of all
kinds. The Australian eucalypti, also, are highly valued in Spain, both
as a febrifuge and for their prophylactic qualities in prevention of
malaria in marshy ground; and a decoction from their leaves has quite
passed into the popular pharmacopeia.
[1] For the converse of this, the plants and fruits introduced by the
Spaniards into America, see Markham's "Peru," in this series, p. 120.
The most common plant on the sun-dried hills of Valencia and Murcia, the
esparto-grass (_Stipe tenacissima_), after having been long used in
various native manufactures, has since 1856 become an article of
exportation, and an important addition to the wealth of Spain; but the
cultivation of the barilla plant for soda has much decreased. It is from
Valencia that the oranges come which are such favourites in Paris. The
tree is so valuable, both for fruit and flowers, that an acre will
sometimes give 600_l._ worth of produce. The dried raisins and almonds
so familiar in England, so eagerly looked for at Christmas time, and
the green preserved grapes, come from the districts of which we are now
speaking, the coast-lands from Valencia to Almeira and Malaga. The wines
are equally celebrated, from the strong red wines of Benicarlo, near the
frontiers of Catalonia, to the sweet wines of Alicante and of Malaga,
which are preferred by Continental taste to the drier and more fiery
sherries, wines of the Guadalquiver valley, which please the English
palate. Near the coast on the lower grounds, wherever there is
sufficient water, rice is grown; but, on account of the unhealthy
character of the cultivation, its culture is forbidden in the
neighbourhood of towns. Sugar-cane is extending on the southern coast.
In Andalusia alone more than 7000 acres are devoted to this culture, and
the total yield of the sugar-cane in Spain is estimated at nearly 20,000
tons. Palms are grown as an ornament and garden-tree from Barcelona to
Malaga, but in Murcia, and especially at Elche, they are planted for
production. Though the number seems declining, there are still some
40,000 palms together in the neighbourhood of Elche; in the last century
they are said to have numbered from 50,000 to 70,000. It is not for the
fruit alone, the date, but for the leaves (the so-called palm-branches)
that the trees are grown. In the winter these are tied into a close
bundle to exclude the rays of the sun, in order that they may become
white, and they are then exported to Rome and Italy, for use in the
Easter ceremonies of Palm Sunday. Oils and essences, extracted from many
plants and flowers, are also products of this region. The
liquorice-root, and many another flower, or fruit, or root of medicinal
value grows wild on the hills. The slopes of the eastern mountains are
covered with aromatic herbs, thyme, myrtle, box, rosemary,
southern-wood, mint, lavender, marjoram, nearly all the sweet-scented
herbs which were once carefully cultivated in the gardens of our
ancestors, are natives of these hills; and the flocks of goats returning
from their pastures bring the sweet odours into the tainted towns and
villages, and the first draught of milk from them is highly flavoured
thereby. On these treeless hills, and the warmer parts of the higher
plateaux, these aromatic herbs are often the only fuel which the peasant
can employ. The wealth of this portion of the Spanish soil, the variety
and beauty of its products, can be best seen in a visit to a fruit or
flower market in any of the towns of the south and east. The richness of
colour, the size and beauty of form, are amazing to the stranger; but
the quantity and the cheapness, the way in which these fruits and exotic
vegetables enter into the diet of the poor, is that which most
astonishes those from less generous climes. We have not space to
enumerate in detail a tithe of these productions; this must be sought in
more special treatises.
Almost equal in agricultural and garden wealth to that of the
coast-line, and superior to it as regards the culture of the vine, is
the valley of the Guadalquiver. The oranges of Seville (the civil
oranges of our forefathers, the main ingredient of marmalade), sack, and
sherry, are known in every English home of the middle and upper classes.
It is in the valley of the Guadalquiver, from San Lucar de Barameda to
above Cordova, that the finest sherries are produced. From San Lucar
comes the pleasant Manzanilla, the lightest and most wholesome of all
the sherries, but with a peculiar bitter taste and bouquet, like that of
the wild camomile-flower. In the neighbourhood of Jerez de la Frontera
the best sherries are produced, both brown and golden; the Amontillado,
the nutty-flavoured wine so much sought after, comes from Montilla, to
the south of Cordova. Several other kinds are manufactured, and have a
great local reputation. Comparatively very little of these strong and
fiery wines is consumed in Spain. Spaniards take them only as a liqueur,
not as the usual accompaniment of a meal or desert. Sherry, though grown
in Spain, is the foreigner's, and especially the Englishman's wine. The
red Valdepenas, from the northern slope of the Sierra Morena, replaces
it at the Spaniard's table. For the modes of preparation of the various
sherries, we must refer our readers to special treatises; of its
statistics as an article of commerce we shall speak in another chapter.
The first palm-tree introduced into Spain is said to have been planted
near Cordova. The olives of this district are considered the finest in
Spain. Comparatively little of the oil is exported, but the home
consumption is enormous. The cork forests, too, are abundant; their bark
forms an important article of commerce.
We have now only to speak of the great central plateau, the Continental
climate of Spain, and its productions. This is peculiarly the
corn-growing district of Spain, the land of wheat and maize, especially
in the Castiles. Estremadura and Leon are rather pastoral districts. It
is in these provinces that the laws of the _Mesta_, for the protection
of the celebrated merino sheep, ruled supreme, and which, though
modified at the close of the last century, and some of their worst
abuses done away with, were finally repealed only in 1835. By these laws
the sheep and cattle which fed in the winter in the plains of
Estremadura, and in the summer on the mountains of Leon, were privileged
to enter almost any property on their line of march, to feed or to pass
the night there. A space of ninety yards wide was reserved on each side
of the highways for their accommodation; no land, especially no
corn-field, was allowed to be enclosed; and right of forcible entrance
was given to all orchards and vineyards where pasturage might be found.
Wherever the flocks had once fed, the land could not be sold or
alienated to any other purpose. The shepherds who tended these flocks
became almost as savage and ignorant as the beasts they looked after;
their privileges produced in them a contempt and hatred of all kinds of
fixed property, and they were ever trying to extend their oppressive
right at the expense of the more settled and agricultural portion of the
community. Under the influence of these laws Estremadura, which, in the
time of the Romans and Moors had been one of the richest provinces of
Spain, became under their Christian conquerors not only one of the
poorest and most thinly peopled districts, but also a curse and source
of destruction to the rest. Not only were all the evils of the old Roman
"latifundia" reproduced in this mediaeval system, but the locust, which
never breeds in cultivated lands, or where the plough passes, was
enabled to make its home in the wilds and pastures of Estremadura,
whence it periodically sallied out to devastate the fairest and richest
portions of the land. In the years 1754 to 1757 it desolated the whole
of the provinces between Estremadura and the Mediterranean. In 1686 and
the following year it reached the principality of Barcelona, and, in
spite of exorcisms, ravaged the country till there was nothing more to
destroy. The provinces nearer to Estremadura are much more frequent
sufferers, and in recent years (in 1876 the crops in Ciudad Real were
utterly destroyed) a division of the army has been more than once
employed to destroy or to check them on their march. The only plant they
spare is the tomata, which they will not touch. Besides flocks,
Estremadura maintains huge herds of swine, which feed on the sweet
acorns and chestnuts of its woods, and whose flesh is renowned through
Spain. Owing to its situation on the borders of Andalusia, in which
province the Moors retained their powers long after they had lost the
rest of Spain, Estremadura was exposed to their frequent incursions;
every flock and herd was liable to be carried off, every fruit-tree to
be cut down, the farms burnt and crops destroyed; and in their
retaliation the Christian knights were almost as fatal as the Arab
horsemen. The country was never thoroughly peopled after the reconquest,
and the sense of insecurity remained long after the cause of it had been
removed. The laws of the Mesta and the emigration to the Americas (both
Cortes and Pizarro were Extramenos) finished the work of depopulation,
and left the province, as it has since remained, naturally one of the
richest, actually one of the poorest in Spain. The products, besides
those above mentioned, are cork, oak-bark and acorns for tanning,
honey, nuts, and chestnuts.
The bare plains of the Castiles are now the great corn-producing country
of Spain. But they have little or nothing of the beauty and variety of
cultivated land in other countries. There is no succession of crops, no
mixed husbandry, no scattered farm-houses, neither tree nor fence to
break the bare monotony. The hill-sides and mountains are given up to
pasture, the plains to wheat and maize. The husbandmen live in villages,
and ride out on donkeys in early morn to their distant fields, and
return home at night. A sense of insecurity seems still to brood over
the land, as if the peasant dared not trust himself outside the walls of
village or town. Only at harvest-time, in the warm summer and autumn
nights, he camps out among his crops, to thresh them on the spot, and
bring the produce home, a habit which often produces fever and ague.
Year after year the process is repeated; no improvement is ever made; if
rain falls the harvest is plentiful--so plentiful sometimes that the
lazy peasant will not reap his most distant fields, or procure new skins
or barrels for the over-abundant wine, though with the extension of
railways this evil is fast disappearing. There is hardly a greater
contrast than between the habits of the Castilian peasants and those of
the peasant-proprietors in the Basque provinces and in those of north
and north-west. In the Basque provinces the farms are scattered all
over the country, and travellers from other districts of Spain speak of
the whole district as if it were one city. The farm-house stands in the
midst of its grounds, with orchard, garden, trees and fences, meadow and
corn-land round it. To Englishmen this description is almost a matter of
course, and one must read the narrative of travellers from Castile fully
to appreciate the force of the contrast. There is, moreover, no natural
impediment whatever to a similar course of life in many districts of the
Castiles. Barren and dreary as they look, the plains called the "Sierras
de Campos," and some others, are watered by a kind of natural capillary
attraction; dry as the surface appears, water is always to be found at a
few inches below the surface, and the roots of the wheat and other
cereal crops penetrate to it. It is only the mixture of pride and
laziness and ignorance of the Castilian peasant, his senseless disdain
of all improvement, his want of ambition for anything better, that
prevents progress in this part of Spain. He refused to make use of the
machinery invented for him in the last century, nor will he avail
himself of the means of irrigation and the still better machines
provided for him now. Yet there is no agricultural country in which
machinery could be introduced to greater advantage.
Perhaps no better idea can be given of the productions of Spain, and of
the diversity of its climates and fruits, than by comparing those of
Murcia with those of the north-west and the centre. In January the bean
is in flower in Murcia, in April in Madrid; the vine and the wheat
flower in April in Murcia, but not till May or June in the province of
Madrid. The climate of Galicia, with its almost continual rain, and
Murcia with its droughts, are perhaps the most opposite climates of
Spain. The one is a land of pasture and of flax cultivation; its fruits
are the apple, the pear, the peach, strawberries, currants, and nuts of
all kinds; the predominant plant on the hill-sides is the furze, in
Murcia it is the Esparto grass. The fruits there cultivated in the
gardens are exotic, and have almost wholly replaced the indigenous
flora; the "huertas," the gardens or cultivated plains, are there almost
like oases in a desert.
The fauna of Spain--except in one particular, the monkeys (_Macacus
Innuus_) which inhabit the rock of Gibraltar, and which are the only
animals of their kind wild in Europe--does not greatly differ from that
of the rest of Southern Europe. In the highest part of the Pyrenees, in
the Sierra de Credos, and in the Sierra Nevada, the izard or chamois
still exists in considerable numbers. Whether the bouquetin is really
extinct, or still survives in the Spanish Pyrenees, is a disputed point.
In the forests which clothe the lower spurs, roe and fallow deer, wild
goats and wild boars, and in some districts red deer, are still to be
found. The beasts of prey are the bear, the wolf, the lynx, the fox,
wild cat, marten, ferret, weasel, &c.; and these are assisted by the no
less rapacious birds of prey--the vultures, eagles, hawks, falcons,
kites, harriers, pies, and jays. The game birds and animals are the
pheasant, now very rare, partridges of both kinds, bustards, both large
and small, sand-grouse, quails, which come in immense quantities to the
vineyards and maize-fields in the summer and autumn, woodcock, snipe;
wild duck, geese, all kinds of water-birds and waders, visit the marshes
of the rivers and the lagoons of the coast in winter; and on the
southern shores meet the flamingoes, pelicans, spoonbills, and other
birds from the African coast. From the same quarter come numerous and
brighter-plumaged birds of passage; orioles, bee-eaters, hoopoes, and
other natives of a warmer zone, are brought over by the hot south wind
so irritating to the nerves and temper of a southern Spaniard. It is
then that the shores of the Mediterranean are lined with sportsmen, when
the moon is near full, to take heavy toll of these winged travellers.
The entomology of Spain is probably very rich. We have spoken of the
locusts of Estremadura; and in the wilds where they breed--mere
solitudes in summer, when the flocks are absent in their northern
pastures--many a rare species of butterfly, cicada, and insect is
doubtless to be found. The insects of Spain, however, are not all
noxious or without value. Silk-worms are largely bred in the coast
provinces of the east and south, not only for their silk, but also for
the gut so precious to all trout and salmon fishermen. The cochineal
insect, which feeds on the leaves of the prickly pear, is cultivated for
its brilliant dye.
Of useful and domesticated animals, the sheep of Spain have always been
celebrated; the very name, "merinos," has been given to the softest kind
of wool or woolly tissue. It is said that the breed attained its
excellence through a present of English South Down rams by Edward I. to
the father of his Castilian bride, and that the wool has improved under
climatic influences. However this may be, the superiority has hardly
been maintained, and careless shepherding has sadly deteriorated the
breed; still the half-bred Spanish merinos are the favourite flocks
throughout the north of Spain and Southern France, and they are slowly
superseding the coarser native and local breeds. The Spanish cattle from
Galicia are well known in the English market, but they are not the
choicest of their kind. The bulls that are bred for the bull-fights are
reared chiefly along the marshy banks of the Guadalquiver, which, like
the delta of the Rhone, supports herds of half-wild cattle and
buffaloes. Cow's milk is little known or used in many districts of
Spain, and butter still less. Sheep or goat's milk supplies the place
of the former, and the olive-oil, excellent were it not too often kept
till rancid, that of the latter. Cheese and various kinds of curdled
milk or whey are also made from the milk of sheep. Since the advent of
the Arabs the Andalusian steed has been much celebrated. It is now
scarcely equal to its former fame, but, like many a horse of warmer
climes, its performances are better than its looks; hardy, sure-footed,
swift, and docile, if not over-weighted it will do more than one of many
a finer-looking but less enduring breed. The horse, however, is not the
true beast of burden in Spain; he is the charger, or the luxury of the
rich. The real work of the country is done by the humble mule or ass,
or, in some districts, by the ox. The fine Spanish mules are now seldom
bred in the country, but are procured from Poitou, or from the south of
France, where great attention is paid to their production, and where the
average price of a mule of six months old is higher than that of a horse
of the same age. For long journeys, and for carrying produce over the
mountain paths, or along the bad roads of the interior, the mule and
pack-saddle is still generally used. In fact, in some districts no other
mode of conveyance is possible; but the loss to commerce from want of
better communications is immense. It is this mode of carriage which
necessitates and continues the use of the tarred wine-skin, by which so
much excellent wine is rendered unsalable and almost undrinkable. It is
hard to recognize the delicious wine when tasted at the vineyard, in the
pitch-flavoured, half-fermented liquor which has travelled for days in a
skin exposed to the sun's heat by day, and the closeness and fetid
odours of the inns by night. Besides these, the camel, buffalo, and
llama, and vicuna have been introduced successfully as an experiment for
breeding, but not in sufficient numbers to affect the means of transport
in the peninsula.
The fisheries in Galicia and along the north-west Atlantic coast, and
also at Huelva and at Cadiz, are very valuable. Not only are they an
abundant means of support to the inhabitants of the coast and of Leon
and Northern Castile, but the fishermen engaged in them furnish the best
sailors to the Spanish navy. The chief kinds of fish are sardines and
pilchards, of which great numbers are preserved in oil, the tunny, and
the sea-bream, of which enormous quantities are annually taken. The
rivers, from the Minho to the Bidassoa, furnish trout and salmon. In the
Mediterranean, tunny, and the anchovies which replace the sardines, are
the chief fisheries, but many Spaniards are also engaged in the
coral-fishing off the coasts of Catalonia, of Algiers, and of Tunis.
The total production of Spain has been approximately valued at
Agriculture L80,000,000
Mines 6,271,000
Manufactures 63,480,000
CHAPTER III.
GEOLOGY AND MINES.
Even in geological features Spain is a land apart. Divided from the rest
of Europe by the regular Palaeozoic band of the Pyrenees, the rocks of
the Peninsula are only susceptible of separate study. Hence no
consistent geological history can be deduced from the fragmentary and
superficial observations that as yet form the basis of the geological
map of Spain. A few striking features and geological statistics may
however be presented; and the recently-published map of Botella, as well
as the mass of valuable matter already collected by the _Comision del
Mapa geologico de Espana_, are an earnest that Spanish geology will soon
occupy a place corresponding to its peculiar interest.
A mass of Granitic, Cambrian, and Silurian rocks forms the central
plateau of Spain, extending in a south-easterly direction from Galicia
to the valley of the Guadalquiver, and spreading to the north-east, as
shown by the chains of the Guadarrama and the mountains of Toledo, to
terminate in the Celtiberian range, running nearly parallel to the Ebro
by Soria and the Moncayo. In this mass the main folds of the strata
appear to run in a south-easterly, the main fractures in a
north-easterly, direction; whence the gridiron arrangement of the
mountain chains and river valleys, directed by these leading features of
the rocky structure. Great buttresses of the Carboniferous formation
occupy the corners of the central mass, to the north and south-west, and
occasional patches of its upper and coal-bearing beds are scattered over
the interior. The whole valley of the Ebro occupies a trough of
Secondary rocks, which extend in a south-easterly direction from the Bay
of Biscay to the Mediterranean, forming a wide boundary to the older
central mass, and running along the north coast towards Oviedo. The
Secondary formations of the Ebro sweep over the chain of the Moncayo on
to the central plateau by Burgos, Soria, and Calatayud; and their latest
member--the Upper Cretaceous--advances in two long tongues on to the
granite of the Guadarrama, and far to the east of Madrid, it being
probable that at least this member formerly extended over the central
plateau. Another wide band of Secondary rocks, running in a
north-easterly direction, forms the long strip of Andalusia south of
the Guadalquiver; and by Valencia and Cuenca this band is widely
prolonged to the Ebro basin; otherwise, a narrow and interrupted strip
along the south coast, and a bay-like expanse from the Atlantic, between
Lisbon and Oporto, are the only Secondary tracts of the Peninsula. These
Secondary rocks are however in great part concealed by Eocene Tertiary
beds, formed in marine gulfs in the valley of the Ebro and the
Guadalquiver, and overlaid by Eocene and Miocene fresh-water deposits;
the latter being also represented by vast lacustrine sheets, which
contemporaneously accumulated, and conceal the crystalline and palaeozoic
formations in the elevated river basins of the central primary plateau.
Patches of Pliocene sands and clays along the Mediterranean coast,
sheets of diluvial gravels below the mountains, and alluvial sands along
the larger rivers represent the local and most recent effects of water
and ice.
The consequences of this general structure are apparent on every hand.
The population of Galicia is in many respects similar to that of the
Portuguese mountaineers, who occupy the same band of naked granitic and
primary rocks. The inhabitants of the varied and fertile Secondary band
of Andalusia and Valencia have many traits in common. The Biscayans are
a race apart, like the labyrinth of Cretaceous precipices and green
rainy valleys which they inhabit. All are distinct from the Castilians,
whose monotonous and isolated existence on the vast treeless steppes of
crumbling Tertiary sands and marls that carpet the primary plateau 2000
feet above the sea has deeply influenced their character. Finally, the
inhabitants of the Ebro basin, a region where the dry Tertiary soil of
Castile is combined with many characteristics of the Secondary tracts,
afford a curious mixture of Castilian with Basque or Valencian traits.
The inhabitants of the greater Spanish cities are of course products of
civilization, not of the soil.
Of the visible surface of Spain 37 per cent. is occupied by Crystalline
and Palaeozoic rocks, 34 per cent. by Tertiary, 19 per cent. by
Secondary, and 10 per cent. by Quaternary deposits. The Palaeozoic rocks
are greatly contorted and fractured, the Secondary scarcely less so, the
older Tertiary are crumpled up against the flanks of the mountain
chains, and even upturned Pliocene deposits testify in some places to
the late continuance of the movements that have contributed to the
production of the peculiar elevated character of the Peninsula. The
remains of undoubted volcanoes are confined to the insignificant groups
of Olot, Cabo de Gata, and Ciudad Real, but innumerable dykes and bosses
of igneous rock are scattered over the primitive plateau where
unconcealed by Tertiary sheets, and are also frequent in the Secondary
tracts. This abundance of igneous injections is intimately connected
with the exceptionally metalliferous character of Spain, while the
fractured and contorted condition of even the latest rocky formations
has contributed to a general diffusion of mineral wealth.
The granite and other igneous rocks form rounded bosses or prominent
pinnacles, according as they are more or less subject to atmospheric
decomposition; the pine and the Spanish chestnut flourish on their
slopes; iron, lead, copper, tin, graphite, phosphorite, kaolin,
steatite, and serpentine are among the products of these crystalline
masses. The gneiss and crystalline schists that in part probably
represent the Laurentian formation, contain silver, bismuth, molybdenum,
and tin; while metamorphic rocks of unknown age are amongst the richest
in mines, affording iron, lead, silver, copper, zinc, mercury,
manganese, and graphite. The Cambrian formation, a mass of lustrous
fissile slate, traversed by white quartz veins, furnishes lead, silver,
phosphorite, and gold. The Silurian slates and quartzites yield iron,
lead, silver, copper, mercury, manganese, antimony, cobalt, nickel,
anthracite, and gold. A few limited patches of Devonian sandstones,
quartzites, slates, marls, and limestones, afford iron, zinc,
phosphorite, cobalt, and nickel. The Carboniferous series, occupying
two per cent. of the surface, includes valuable coal-fields, the immense
masses of iron and copper pyrites of the Rio Tinto, Tharsis, and other
mines in the province of Huelva, besides iron, zinc, mercury, manganese,
antimony, cobalt, nickel, and phosphorite in other districts. The
silver-bearing metamorphic rocks of Cartagena, and a portion of the
slopes of the Sierra Nevada are classed in the Permian formation. The
Triassic conglomerates, sandstones, and variegated marls, which form the
usual base of the Secondary rocks, are rich in salt, gypsum, and iron,
and afford some copper and zinc. The Jurassic limestones and marls
contain asphalte and bituminous slate. The Cretaceous--mainly Neocomian
in the south, the Upper Cretaceous predominating in the north--contains
the immense iron deposits of Bilbao; valuable beds of lignite resembling
coal; lead, zinc, and asphalte mines in the northern provinces, and gold
in Granada. In the Eocene formation, which includes the Nummulitic
limestone that forms some of the highest summits of the Pyrenees, the
celebrated salt-mine of Cardona, in Catalonia, is usually classed. The
Miocene beds contain valuable sulphur deposits along the southern coast,
and great accumulations of sulphate of soda on the arid steppes of
Madrid and other provinces; while gypsum, in which Spain is probably
richer than the whole remainder of Europe, is abundant in this
formation. Lastly, some native silver is found in the Pliocene deposits
of Almeria, and in the Tertiary clays of Guadalajara, while the later
gravels of Galicia afford stream tin and gold, the last similarly
occurring in Leon and Caceres.
The quantity of mineral contained in the rocks of Spain is no less
remarkable than the exceptional variety of its distribution; but owing
to a series of adverse circumstances, the industrial production affords
a most inadequate idea of the capabilities of the mines, if developed by
a fair amount of capital and skill. The following figures, showing the
production in 1875, are derived from the last official reports issued by
the Spanish Government, and are certainly below the truth:--
Tons of ore Tons of metal
exported. produced in Spain.
Iron 336,000 37,000
Lead 10,000 119,000
Copper 362,000 6,620
Zinc 43,000 3,820
Manganese 14,000
Mercury 1,425
These figures do not include the bar iron produced directly from ore in
Spain, nor 160 tons of argentiferous copper ore, 89 tons of cobalt ore,
and 440 tons of nickel ore. The silver extracted in Spain amounted to
more than 16,000 lbs. troy, while four times that amount was contained
in exported argentiferous lead. The coal extracted amounted to 666,000
tons, lignite above 27,000, sulphur above 3000, and phosphorite above
12,000 tons. The year 1875 was, however, peculiarly unfavourable to
Spanish mining, and the working of the Bilbao mines, which now produce
nearly 2,000,000 tons yearly of excellent iron ore, was then practically
suspended by the Carlist war. All disadvantages cannot, however, arrest
the steady increase of mineral production in Spain, although under more
normal political circumstances the above figures would have been greatly
exceeded.
The chief coal district is that of Oviedo, Palencia, Leon, and
Santander. The coal-field of Oviedo, occupying an extent of 230 square
miles, and including a large number of workable beds, is of excellent
quality, but as yet little developed, owing to high railway tariffs, bad
condition of ports, traditional prejudices, want of skill and capital,
and of a local market for inferior qualities. These obstacles will
probably soon be overcome, and the development of the associated iron
ores afford an important field of enterprise.
The coal-field of Palencia, a continuation of that of Oviedo, is in
course of development by the Northern Railway Company. Smaller
coal-fields of great local importance exist in the provinces of Cordova,
Seville, Gerona, Burgos, Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Ciudad Real; that of
Gerona, although of small extent and very friable quality, has already
occasioned the construction of a railway of considerable length. Iron is
mainly obtained from Biscay, Oviedo, Murcia, and Almeria, but is
abundant in other provinces. Lead is worked chiefly in Murcia, Jaen,
Almeria, Badajoz, and Ciudad Real; the presence of antimony or of a
predominating admixture of blende is very common, but Spain is on the
whole the most important lead-producing country in Europe. Copper is
obtained mainly from the Rio Tinto mines and others in Huelva; also from
Seville, Palencia, Almeria, and Santander; but many other districts
contain veins yielding more or less of copper ore. Zinc has been chiefly
procured from superficial pockets of calamine in Santander and the
neighbouring districts; but in the form of blende it is widely
distributed in association with lead. Silver ores are worked in Almeria
and Guadalajara. The immense impregnation of cinnabar of Almaden, in
Ciudad Real, affords nearly all the mercury, but a little is obtained
from other mines in the same province and in Oviedo, Granada, and
Almeria. Manganese is obtained from Huelva, Oviedo, Teruel, Almeria,
Murcia, and Zamora. Nickel ore is worked in Malaga; cobalt in Oviedo and
Castellon. Tin occurs in a number of small veins in Galicia; and in the
rocks of Salamanca, Murcia, and Almeria, as well as in diluvial gravels.
The Spanish side of the Pyrenees contains numerous veins of
argentiferous lead, many of copper, and some of cobalt, nickel,
argentiferous copper, pyrolusite, &c., few of which are worked. The
lead-mines on the border between Catalonia and Aragon supplied the
Carlists with ammunition during the late civil war. The fact that more
than 12,000 concessions of mines already exist in Spain, while a large
number of lapsed concessions may be found, affords a better idea of the
mineral wealth of the country than the enumeration of the mines actually
worked.
That such enormous mineral resources should have as yet yielded no
greater results is easily explained. The Roman and Moorish workings,
although traditionally of fabulous yield, are of small depth, owing to
insufficient machinery for pumping. Till the present century, the
working of mines was forbidden by the Spanish Government, with the
object of favouring the development of the American colonies. The mining
laws of 1825 and 1849, suddenly placing the acquirement of mines within
the reach of every substantial peasant, produced a fever of speculation,
and a recklessness in the application of unskilled labour, which
naturally conduced to the discouragement of mining enterprise, while the
recurring civil wars excluded foreign capital and skill. Spaniards have
a mania for erecting smelting-works on the mines, a practice
occasionally justified by difficulties of transport, but which has
caused much loss of capital through inherent difficulties and want of
metallurgical skill. Endless litigation, arising from the defects of the
first mining laws, and the inexperience of the surveying engineers,
contributed to ruin the small capitalists who had attempted to work the
mines. Foreign capital is now the chief requirement. The existing mining
law, greatly improved since 1868, is the simplest in Europe; the expense
of a concession is almost nominal, and the royalties on ore are
extremely moderate. Large mining adventures in Spain rapidly develope
industrial conditions and profoundly affect the habits of the
population. Even in times of civil war a _modus vivendi_ between the
conflicting parties can be more easily secured than might be expected.
The development of means of transport, already considerable before the
last Carlist war, is being seriously resumed under the present
Government. The Spanish peasantry, when suitably treated, will be found
a fair-dealing, intelligent, and industrious class. It must, however, be
remembered that in the peculiar physical, political, municipal, and
fiscal conditions of Spain, no mining enterprise can safely be
undertaken without thorough investigation of all the external
circumstances, claims, and prospects concerned; since more mining
speculations have failed from inattention to such matters than from any
disappointment as regards the quality or quantity of ore.
P. W. S. M.
CHAPTER IV.
ETHNOLOGY, LANGUAGE, AND POPULATION.
On the first glance at a map of Spain and Portugal we are apt to think
that few countries could have so well-defined a frontier as that formed
by the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. In so compact a
country, and one so distinct and so shut off from the rest of Europe, we
should expect to find a more unmixed and a more homogeneous population
than in any of those states whose frontiers are more open and
conventional. But such is very far from being the case. Even at the
present time the Pyrenees are no boundary throughout their whole course,
either as to race or language. The Basque overlaps them at one end, and
the Provencal at the other. Moreover, they have been a political
boundary throughout their whole length only since the middle of the
seventeenth century. Navarre was united to the Spanish crown in 1515,
and Rousillon to France only in 1659. Ecclesiastically, both the
dioceses of Bayonne and of Narbonne advanced far into Spain. So far
from the population of Spain being unmixed and pure, the contrary is far
nearer the truth. As Senor Tubino has well observed, from its position
at the south-western angle of Europe, and the most westerly of
Mediterranean lands, beyond which lay only the impassable ocean, it must
early have become a very eddy of nations, where all the tribes and races
who have successively held command of the Mediterranean must necessarily
have halted, over which and in which all invaders who have crossed the
Pyrenees from Northern Europe, or have passed the Straits of Gibraltar
from Africa, must have surged in almost ceaseless conflict. To think of
Spain as ever having been at any given time occupied solely by any
single race or people is to lose the clue to her whole history. Of this
not only the social and political condition of the country, but the
toponymy and nomenclature of her map afford decisive proof.
We first hear of Spain in history about the sixth century before Christ,
as then inhabited by the "Iberi" and "Kelt-Iberi," with here and there
colonies of more unmingled Kelts. It is more than probable that both of
these races succeeded anterior ones, the existence of which we trace
only through the remains of praehistoric archaeology, in the flint, stone,
and bronze instruments, similar to those found elsewhere in Europe;
these were also probably followed by races whose remains we find in the
sculptors of the so-called "Toros" (bulls) of Guisando, and in the
builders of the Megalithic monuments, the dolmens, menhirs, and circles
which are found from Algeria to the Orkneys. For all purposes of history
we must take the "Iberi" and the "Kelts," with their mixed tribes, as
our starting-point. These we find scattered in much confusion throughout
the Peninsula. Either the tribes were constantly shifting their ground,
owing to petty wars and tribal dissensions or to unknown economic
conditions, or the successive Greek and Latin writers from whom we get
our information have not themselves been clear as to the distinction of
these races. Speaking loosely, we may say that the more purely Keltic
tribes held their ground in the north-west and west, in Galicia and
Portugal, with a few scattered colonies further south. Andalusia, parts
of the centre, the north and north-east were inhabited by the "Iberi;"
while the Kelt-Iberian tribes lay chiefly in the centre and on the
eastward slope. Both of these great races have left clear traces on the
maps of ancient Spain. There can be no reasonable doubt that the
"Illiberris" which we find in classical maps is a transcription of the
Basque "Iriberri," which we still find in the French Basque country and
in Navarre, meaning "New-Town," or more exactly, "Town-new;" that when
the Romans called a town which they built in Galicia "Iria-Flavia," in
honour of their then empress, they really used the Basque word "Iri," a
town or city, just as the colonists of the United States and Canada used
the French "ville" or English "town," and named a new city Louisville,
Charleston, Georgetown, in the North American colonies. So, too, any one
who compares the name "Pena," given to mountains and mountain-chains on
the map of Spain, together with the river names, "Tamaris," "Deva," and
the town and district of "Britonia" or "Britannia" in the north-west,
can hardly doubt that these names were given by the same Keltic race who
have left us so many "Pens" and "Bens" in Northern Britain, who gave the
names "Tamar" and "Dee" to Devonshire and Cheshire streams, and called
our own island Britannia, and themselves Britons. Which of these races
is the older? the Iberi, i.e. Basque, or the Keltic? How can we decide
this? Language is a deceitful tool as regards race. A people may utterly
forget their original language, and adopt that of their conquerors or of
some superior race with whom they have come in contact. Of this we have
not only numerous examples in the past, as in the Latin and romance
tongues superseding many a more ancient idiom, but we can see the same
change actually going on in our colonies and dependencies in our own
day. Still there is a certain rough chronology in language. A
monosyllabic language we may presume, in default of evidence to the
contrary, to have preceded one whose characteristic is agglutination;
and again, a language which agglutinates or incorporates its members is
presumably prior to an inflexional or analytic one. Now the Basque, the
modern form of some one of those tongues which the Greeks and Romans
called Iberian, belongs to the second of these classes, and the Keltic
to the third. Another mode of investigating the antiquity of a language
is to study the original names of the most necessary objects of daily
life, and see if they can reveal to us anything about the state of
civilization of those who used them before the language took a literary
shape or any books were written in it. A language in which we find all
the words expressing articles of greater civilization to be borrowed
from other tongues we may presumably deem older than the languages from
which it has borrowed them. Now in the Basque, Escuara, the undoubtedly
native words for cutting instruments seem all to have their root from
words signifying stone, or rock, and all such words which imply the use
of metal seem to be borrowed. The language as it were represents the
"stone" age, before the use of metals was known. It is also singularly
poor in collective and general terms; thus, while many of the names for
separate kinds of trees are native, the most common collective term
_arbola_, "the tree," is clearly borrowed from the Latin. Although the
arguments from anthropology, the form of the skull, &c., as compared
with other races, are of still more dubious value than those derived
from language, yet they all tend to the same conclusion. We may then
hold from these convergent lines of reasoning, at least as a provisional
hypothesis, that the Iberian or Basque race is older in Spain than the
Keltic, and consequently that in the representatives of the former we
have the remains of the oldest historical people of which we have any
record in the country.
We said above that, from its geographical position, the Peninsula would
necessarily be the final-halting-place in ancient times of all the
masters of the Mediterranean as they pushed westward. There we should
find their farthest outposts. Thus in Spain we have, at first dimly
seen, successive colonies of Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Greeks. There
it was that Carthaginians and Romans met to dispute the supremacy of the
Mediterranean and of the civilized world. When, after a long occupation,
during which it Latinized Spain more completely than any other country
except Italy, the Roman Empire fell, successive waves of barbarian
destroyers swept across the land, Sueves, Alans, Vandals, Visigoths, in
wild confusion and internecine strife, wrecked the civilization which
they could neither appreciate nor understand. The last of these races,
the Visigoths, who ruled the longest, strove hard to found an empire
from 450 to 710, but without success. The real power which held society
together then, and which wrought what little order and law still
existed, was the Church, and not the State. The Councils of the Church
were the true legislative assemblies, and the real representatives of
the people in those times. Yet, with all the power of the Church to
uphold it, the Visigothic Empire remained so weak that it fell at the
first shock of the Mohammedan Arabs. The Moors or Arabs landed in Spain
in the year 711. In ten years they had conquered all of the Peninsula
that they cared to hold; in eleven years more, 732, they had been
defeated at Poictiers by Charles Martel, and had withdrawn for ever from
France, except from the district of Narbonne. This rich province they
held for many years, and it would seem to them to be more than an
equivalent for the bare and humid mountains of Galicia and the Asturias,
or the higher Pyrenees, which alone in the Peninsula were exempt from
their sway. The Arabs and the Moors of Barbary are the last great race
that has occupied Spain. Jews and a few Gipsies are the only peoples
that have entered since. A few remnants of Berber tribes, isolated from
their countrymen by the rapid advance of the Christian army in the tenth
and eleventh centuries, like the Maragatos of Astorga, have remained in
North-Western Spain, and doubtful remains of other peoples are found
here and there, but none of these are in sufficient numbers to influence
the nation as a whole. No country was more completely Romanized than
Spain. In fact, after the Augustan age we might almost say that the best
Latin writers were Spaniards born; Seneca, Quintilian, Lucian, and
Martial were all natives of Spain. Hosius, the champion of Latin
Christianity in the early part of the fourth century, was a Spaniard.
The names of many of the towns are still Roman. Yet the Arabs have left
almost a deeper mark upon the toponymy of the country. Look at the map
of Spain, and we see, even up to the Pyrenees, how many Arabic names
there are, especially of rivers and mountains, upon the map of Spain.
Only in Galicia and the Asturias the Keltic and the Latin, in the Basque
Provinces the Basque, and in Catalonia the Romance names have held their
own. In all the rest the Roman names would have probably died away, but
that the language of the Church was Latin, and preserved the Roman names
of cities, monasteries, and shrines. Down even to the twelfth century it
might seem doubtful which language would prevail, so many Arabs wrote in
Spanish, and Spaniards in Arabic, or wrote Spanish in Arabic characters.
The struggle was decided by the sword; the expulsion of the Arabs was
also the expulsion of their tongue. Yet the Arabs have left far more
traces on Spanish than Spanish has done on Arabic. The Spanish Jews,
however, had forgotten their Semitic tongue, and to this day the sacred
language of the Jews of the Balkan Peninsula, and of many of the Syrian
Jews, even of those at Jerusalem, is not Hebrew but Spanish; their
liturgical works are written in that tongue, and they use it always in
the synagogue.
In spite, however, of all this mixture of races and of languages, Spain
and the Spanish language has perhaps fewer dialects than any other
European speech. From the Central Pyrenees to the Straits of Gibraltar
only one dialect is used, the Spanish or Castilian, the purest and
noblest of those which sprang from the decaying Latin. At the inner
angle of the Bay of Biscay Basque is still spoken by a population of
about 400,000 souls. The Galician dialect is far more closely allied to
the Portuguese than to the Spanish, and should be considered as
belonging to the former tongue. Between Galicia and the Basque Provinces
are the many Patois, or Bables, of Asturia, which alone of the Romance
tongues in the Peninsula have kept the three distinct genders, the
masculine, feminine, and neuter terminations of the Latin adjective. The
speech of Leon, too, may be classed as a separate dialect. In Catalonia,
Valencia, and the Balearic Isles a Provencal or Romance dialect is
spoken, the _Lemosin_ as it was called in mediaeval times, and which
stretched from the Loire to the frontiers of Murcia, and from the
western coast of the Bay of Biscay, with few interruptions, almost to
the Black Sea. In the thirteenth century the Catalan dialect more
resembled that of the Gascon Bearnais, or the Western Languedocian, than
of the neighbouring Provence, but centuries of intercourse have since
modified it, and the three dialects of Catalonia, Valencia, and the
Balearic Isles must now be classed as a Provencal speech.
The tongues of all these successive occupiers of the soil have doubtless
left traces in the noble Spanish language, but in very unequal
proportions. A very few words belong to the old Iberian speech, but it
is to that, perhaps, that Spanish owes the purity and the paucity of its
vowel sounds, as from the Arabic it has gained the gutturals which have
prevented its sinking to the effeminate softness of the Italian, and it
still preserves the lofty sonority of the Latin. Some few of the
elements of its vocabulary may be traced to the Keltic, less to the
Teutonic languages. From Arabic it has taken more, and those words of
more important character. But the bulk of the language still remains
Latin. It is essentially one of the Romance dialects which sprang from
the "lingua rustica," the country speech of the decaying Roman Empire.
It has been calculated that six-tenths of its words are Latin, a tenth
Gothic or Teutonic, one-tenth liturgical and Greek, one-tenth American
or modern borrowings, and one-tenth Arabic. But as to this last, we must
not forget that the different parts of the vocabulary of a language have
a very different value. Some could be well dispensed with, some are of
first necessity. There are words which we only see in print, and seldom
or never hear spoken; there are words which belong only to science or to
pedantry; but there are others which are in daily and hourly use, and
whose employment is many times more frequent than the whole number of
words in all the rest of the language put together. It is thus that the
contribution of Arabic to Spanish vocabulary is of far more importance
than is apparent by its numerical proportion; many of the most common
terms, especially of those used in the south of Spain, are of Arabic
origin.
Thus has been formed the noble Spanish tongue, the richest and most
dignified of all that have sprung from the decay of Latin. Marvellously
adapted to oratory and to verse, most incisive and mordant in the
tongues of the lowest class, stately and sonorous almost to a fault, it
is yet unequalled in grace and tenderness in the old romances and in the
mouths of women and of children. Italian is its only rival. While
reading its stately sentences, and marking the majestic rhythm of Scio's
grand translation of the Bible and of its other religious literature, we
can well understand why Spain's greatest emperor, the lord of many lands
and of many tongues, spoke Spanish only to his God. It is rare to find a
foreigner who has mastered Spanish, who does not ever afterwards delight
in its use above all other tongues except his own.
The population of Spain, according to the census of 1877, is 16,625,000,
including the Balearic and Canary Islands, and the North African
possessions. The number of inhabitants in Spain has fluctuated much at
different periods, according as war, emigration, or bad government have
affected the condition of the people. In the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries the population, according to the only estimates procurable,
was about 9,000,000; in 1621, at the close of Philip III.'s reign, it
had sunk to 6,000,000, the lowest point on record; it gradually rose
from 7,500,000 at the end of the seventeenth century to 10,500,000 at
the close of the eighteenth. The wars of Napoleon then lowered it by
500,000, but in 1821 it had recovered, and reached 11,600,000. A more
rapid increase then took place till 1832, when the population numbered
14,600,000. The Carlist and civil wars which marked the beginning of the
reign of Isabella II. reduced it by more than 2,000,000, if the returns
are exact. In 1837 and in 1846 it stood at 12,200,000. In 1857 at
15,500,000, whence it mounted rapidly to 16,800,000 in 1870, a total
which the late Carlist war and that in Cuba has reduced by some 200,000;
and at the last census, 1877, as said above, the returns were
16,625,000.
The number of inhabitants to the square mile is 90, just half that of
France, about a third that of Great Britain, and a fifth that of
Belgium. This comparative scarcity is easily accounted for when we
consider that nearly one-half (46 per cent.) of the territory still
remains uncultivated; and although a considerable portion of this
consists of mountain or of naturally sterile soil, a still larger
portion of it is susceptible of some kind of cultivation, and even the
portion under cultivation would under good husbandry, support a much
larger population than it actually does.
More than two-thirds (66.75 per cent.) of the whole working population
of Spain are engaged in agriculture, and the total produce, including
cereals and cattle of all kinds, wine and fruits, cork, woods, esparto
grass, &c., after supplying the demand for home consumption, leaves a
surplus of agricultural produce for exportation of the value of
14,000,000_l_. sterling. Those engaged in manufacturing industry and in
commerce are reckoned at 10-1/2 per cent, of the working population; but
in Spain, as elsewhere, the relative numbers are slowly changing,
following the conditions of modern European life; a greater
proportionate number are annually withdrawn from agriculture, and are
being added to the population of the great towns, and to the
manufacturing industries. Thus, until the last census the highest
population of Spain per square kilometre was to be found, not in the
manufacturing provinces of Barcelona and Valencia, nor in the great
mining provinces, but in the fishing and agricultural province of
Pontevedra, in Galicia. In 1870 Pontevedra numbered 107, Barcelona 98
inhabitants to the square kilometre. In 1877 it is Barcelona that
numbers 108, and Pontevedra 100 only. Next after these provinces come
the two Basque ones of Guipuzcoa 88, and Biscay 87. The one almost
wholly agricultural, the other mining and agricultural. The nearest
after them is the province of Madrid, with only 77 per square kilometre,
and Corunna and Alicante with 75. These figures will, we think,
sufficiently indicate the character of Spanish industry.
The chief centres of manufacturing industry are Catalonia and Valencia,
in which provinces nearly all the textile goods of Spain are produced.
The chief mining districts are those round Carthagena in Alicante,
Linares in Jaen, the Rio Tinto in Huelva, Somorrostro in Biscay, and of
quicksilver at Almaden in the province of Ciudad Rodrigo; but valuable
mines, as detailed in a former chapter, are found in many other
provinces of Spain. In fact, there is scarcely one without a mine of
more or less importance.
Those engaged in professions of all kinds--lawyers, doctors, artists,
journalists--are only about 10-1/2 per cent. of the whole working
population. The clergy, who once numbered, it is said, one-third of the
whole population, have greatly diminished during the present century,
and are still gradually declining. Including religious orders of all
kinds, inquisitors, and the secular clergy, they still numbered, at the
close of the last century, nearly 250,000, out of a population of
10,500,000. In 1826 they had sunk to about 60,000, in 1858 to 44,000, in
1862 to 40,000, and their present numbers are probably about 35,000.
Immense changes have taken place in recent times, and more particularly
in the present century, with regard to the distribution of land in
Spain. The large amount of property held by the Crown, the religious
orders, the clergy, and various municipal bodies, and the restrictions
imposed by the laws of the Mesta on the enclosure of land, rendered the
number of private proprietors formerly very few. Even in 1800 their
number was only 273,760. In 1764 it was estimated that the clergy
possessed one-sixth of the real property, and one-third of the movable
property of all Spain, and the property of the Church paid scarcely any
taxes, or none at all. From the beginning of the sixteenth century
protests were continually being made against abuses of Church property,
but only towards the end of the eighteenth century were measures of
reform seriously undertaken. Little, however, was really effected till
the Cortes of Cadiz in 1812-13, when the feudal dues on land, of
whatever nature, regal, ecclesiastical, or seignorial, were abolished.
The religious orders were also suppressed. In 1820 a law was passed
forbidding the Church to acquire any more real property. Tithes, of
which the clergy possessed 60 per cent, and the laity 40, were
diminished by half in 1821, and wholly suppressed in 1837. In 1836 the
possessions of the clergy were declared to be national property, and the
sale of them was begun. This, with various interruptions, according as a
liberal or reactionary Government has been in power, has been continued
to the present time. The Crown and municipal property had been sold at
an earlier period, from 1813 to 1855. The Mesta was totally abolished in
1837 as to its privileged rights on property, and in 1851 became merely
an agricultural association for the improvement of the breed of cattle.
The serfs in Galicia were declared to have become proprietors of their
land by prescription in 1763.
The result of these successive measures, and of these immense sales of
territorial property, has been to throw the land into the hands of a
much greater number of small landed proprietors, who now number
3,426,083, so that, in spite of some large estates still existing,
especially in Andalusia, the average quantity of land held in Spain by
each proprietor would seem to be only about some 30 acres. Yet in
Galicia alone does there seem to have been any suffering caused by a too
great subdivision of land, and this perhaps was caused more by the
perpetuation of habits acquired while the land was burdened with
seignorial dues, when the occupier could neither quit his land nor sell
it. In this district the people are still miserably poor, their food and
houses are equally wretched, and nothing but the large emigration that
has taken and is now taking place will restore the province to any real
prosperity.
From what has been said in the preceding pages as to their ethnology,
the reader will not be surprised to learn that the different populations
of Spain have very different characteristics. The Galicians and
Asturians are the hewers of wood and drawers of water in Spain. They are
often fine, stalwart men, brave, and make excellent sailors. It is they
who reap the harvests for the more lazy Castilians and gather the
vintage of Oporto; it is they who do nearly all the hard work in all the
chief towns, not of Spain only, but also of Portugal. They are
proverbially honest and trustworthy as servants, though slow and
somewhat lacking in intelligence. Abroad, and as emigrants, they are
trusted as men of no other race are: in the countries of La Plata in
South America, the town-house, during the summer absence of the
proprietor and his family, is given over to a Gallego, as it stands, to
be taken care of, and rarely indeed is an article missing. The Asturian
partakes of the same general characteristics as the Galician, though in
a less marked degree. In the Montaneses, the inhabitants of the province
of Santander, we have the favourite nurses and female servants of
Madrid. The Asturias and Santander are remarkable for the number of
statesmen and economists they have produced in proportion to the
population. In the Basque Provinces we find an entirely different race,
not perhaps of so muscular a build, but active, and capable of great
endurance. Intelligent and proud of their ancient race and liberties,
they almost always retain their self-respect, and are for the most part
free from that cruelty towards animals which is so disfiguring a trait
in the character of other Spaniards. The Basques are generally found
among the upper and more trusted servants in civil life, in the army and
navy they make excellent petty officers; as seamen they are among the
best of Spain; as soldiers they are brave, enduring, capital marchers,
and as light infantry second to none of any nation. The Aragonese, like
the Galicians, count among the hard workers of Spain; generally of
shorter build, and very thick-set, but somewhat dull and very obstinate,
they are employed in the heaviest work. In literature they are known as
jurisconsults and historians. In Catalonia and Valencia we have the
bright Provencal race. A race apt for commerce and for manufacturing
industries; pushing, energetic, they gather to themselves the greater
part of the commerce, manufactures, and shopkeeping of all kinds, as far
as these are done by Spaniards, throughout the kingdom. Fiery in temper,
and not to be implicitly trusted, especially in Valencia, their
weapon is the knife, which they use sometimes on slight provocation; the
hired assassins and bandits of Spain have always been recruited thence.
Socialists and Federalists in politics, they have ever been disaffected
towards the central government. In Catalonia this may be the result of
memories of former independence; but it is curious to remark that
Barcelona and the cities of the Mediterranean, as compared with Cadiz
and Ferrol on the Atlantic, have played analogous parts in Spanish
history to those of Marseilles and Bordeaux in French; the Mediterranean
in each case being the home of the ultra-democrat and the man of the
"Montagne," and the Atlantic of the constitutionalists and the
Girondins. More to the south we find undoubtedly a greater mixture of
Moorish blood. The Andalusian is almost oriental in character, he is
fond of song and dance and colour, yet lazy withal, and disliking
sustained labour. He delights to deck himself with finery, and his women
with flowers; and his taste though glowing is never utterly debasing.
Excelling in wit and repartee, the Andalusian _gamin_ is the most
amusing rogue in Europe. He has a wild, fierce, momentary energy, and is
courteous and gracious in speech; his proverbs and songs are
innumerable, and sparkle with a peculiar wit and charm; but he
altogether lacks the more solid qualities of the men of the north.
Philosophers, orators, and poets rather than men of industry and science
are the product of these provinces. The Andalusian barely keeps up the
works which the more highly civilized Moors had done for him in
agriculture and in vineyard, but he does not improve upon them; and both
in mining and in wine cultivation, in manufactures, and in coasting
shipping, he allows nearly the whole of the trade and commerce of the
south to pass into the hands of foreigners or of Catalans. The men of
central Spain, except in the towns, the men of Leon, of the Castiles,
and of La Mancha, and in a less degree the men of Estremadura, have
changed but little for the last few centuries. They are Spaniards of the
type generally conceived by foreigners as applying to the whole nation.
Grave and slow of speech, exceedingly courteous unless their prejudices
are offended, fond of formality and proud of it; they are bigoted (but
less so than formerly), prejudiced, ignorant to an extreme, each
thinking his own town or village the _elite_ of the universe; content
with few comforts and preferring semi-starvation to exertion, the
Castilian is half ashamed of honest labour, but by no means averse to
corruption in any shape, and sees no disgrace in beggary. Cruel in the
extreme, when his passions are aroused, it is one of the misfortunes of
Spain that from the advantage of their elevated central physical
position, the Castilians, as warriors and statesmen, at all times among
the least civilized of her people, have been able to rule and control
the more civilized and more advanced (especially in political freedom
and administration) communities of the sea-board. It is a want of
discernment of this fact which makes so many of the picturesque
histories of Spain utterly fail in explaining the origin and the
progressive causes of her present condition. There are a few other
tribes in Spain which it may be worth while to notice, such as the
Gipsies, who seem still to keep themselves tolerably distinct in
Andalusia and in the south, but who in more than one instance have
completely coalesced with the Basques in the north. The Maragatos, the
trusted _Arrieros_ or muleteers of Leon, a remnant apparently of a wild
Berber tribe, left behind when the more civilized Moors retreated
southwards before the advance of the Christian conquerors; the Passiegos
near Bilbao, the men of the Sayago, the Hurdes of the Batuecas, the
Chuetas of Majorca, these and several minor tribes, remnants, perhaps,
of older populations whose ethnic affinities have never been made out,
are too few in numbers to affect the general population; but are of
interest to the ethnologist from the survivals of ancient laws and
customs which are still observed among them. One class, not a tribe, the
wretched commercial policy of Spain has developed to a greater extent
than in any other country, that of the smuggler or contrabandista. He
differs greatly in different districts, and even on the same line of
frontier. In some parts contrabandista is almost synonymous with bandit,
in others he is honest in his illegal trade, and more to be trusted with
immense sums than the officials who arrest him. In a small way he is a
type of the many contradictions of Spanish character and of "the things
of Spain."
[Illustration: CABALLEROS.
_Page 86._]
[Illustration: DOMINIQUE, THE ESPADA.]
[Illustration: GIPSIES AT GRANADA.
_Page 90._]
CHAPTER V.
DESCRIPTION OF PROVINCES.
Spain was formerly divided into some fourteen separate provinces or
kingdoms, once ruled by distinct and independent sovereigns, and under
very different political conditions. It was not until the taking of
Granada, in 1492, that the whole nation became, even nominally, subject
to the joint sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella; and for long afterwards
Aragon and Catalonia preserved a semi-independence, while, even to our
own day, the Basque Provinces and Navarre were really an independent
republic united to the Spanish crown.
Since 1841, however, the whole country has been divided for
administrative purposes into forty-eight provinces, including the
Balearic Isles.
We shall now hastily sketch the chief features of the old kingdoms, with
the modern provinces included in each. Beginning from the north-west,
we have the kingdom of GALICIA, with its four provinces, _Corunna_,
_Lugo_, _Pontevedra_, and _Orense_. We have before remarked on the Frith
or Fiord-like character of the western coast of Galicia, a conformation
which gives it by far the finest harbours of the whole Spanish coast.
Thus, in the province of Corunna there are the harbour and city (33,000
inhabitants) of the same name, so well known by our forefathers under
the title of "the Groyne," and the scene of many a gallant fight both by
land and sea from the days of Queen Elizabeth to the fall of Sir J.
Moore, but now the chief port of the cattle-trade with England. Its port
is frequented by about 130,000 tons of British shipping annually; and
about 20,000 bullocks are exported annually, mostly in small schooners.
It has also a tobacco factory. A little to the north-east Ferrol
(23,000) has a still better harbour, and is one of the principal naval
establishments of Spain. It is capacious enough to almost contain the
united fleets of Europe; and its only drawback, a singular one in so
humid a climate, is the want of good water. But the most famous city in
the province, and indeed, in all Galicia, the pilgrim-town of Santiago
(St. James) de Compostella (24,000) owes its magnitude to devotion
rather than to commerce. The legend of the voyage of St. James to Spain,
the finding his body at Compostella, and his subsequent appearances in
battle as the champion of Spain, made this the most celebrated shrine
in Europe. Roads led to it from every land, and one of the popular names
of the "Milky Way" was "The road to Compostella." The wealth both of the
military order of Compostella and of the cathedral and chapter was
immense. Even now, after all its spoiling, the cathedral is rich in
precious goldsmiths' work, in architectural, and in literary treasures.
Pontevedra (8000) is the capital of the thickly-populated province of
the same name, whose inhabitants reap a harvest both from sea and land.
Vigo (6000) has an excellent harbour and roadstead, but its commerce has
greatly fallen off in comparison with that of Corunna. It was formerly
the port at which the galleons disembarked their treasures for Northern
Spain. The total tonnage of the harbour in 1878 was 208,000. _Orense_,
an inland province east of Pontevedra, has a capital of the same name
(11,000) on the banks of the Minho. It is the head of an agricultural
and pastoral district, and in it are produced some wines which were
considered in the eighteenth century the finest of all Spain. Here, too,
is one of the grand bridges of Western Spain, possibly of Roman
construction. _Lugo_, with its city (8000), faces north instead of west,
and has its harbours, Vivero and Rivadeo, on the Bay of Biscay; but the
near neighbourhood of Ferrol and of Corunna deprive them of all but
coasting trade.
The ASTURIAS, the home of the Spanish monarchy, and the only ancient
kingdom of which no part was subdued by the Moors (though they raided
once to Oviedo), contains but one province, called after its chief town
_Oviedo_ (34,000), with a cathedral, university, and a most pleasant
situation. In this province is Covadonga, where the Visigoth Pelayo, in
719, repulsed the Moors, and thus took the first step towards the
recovery of Spain. The whole country slopes rapidly from its southern
frontier, the summit of the Cantabrian Mountains, towards the Bay of
Biscay. Cangas de Tineo (22,000) is the centre of a mining district.
Owing to the great development of mining operations in this province
within the last ten years the small towns of Siero, Tineo, Grado, and
Villaviciosa have suddenly sprung into importance, and each now contains
over 20,000 inhabitants. The chief port is Gijon (30,000), of which the
chief trade is in hazel-nuts for England, of which over 1000 tons are
annually exported, to the value of 23,000 _l._ Here is one of the seven
government tobacco manufactories, and also important glass-works,
conducted chiefly by Swiss and French artisans; but it is far
outstripped in commercial importance by SANTANDER (41,000), the capital
of the neighbouring province, and the great port of outlet for the
agricultural riches of Leon and of the Castiles. Santander has also a
great trade with Cuba and Porto Rico, and possesses almost a monopoly
of the supply of cereals to those islands. A port of equal natural
excellence is Santona, which the first Napoleon would have made the
Gibraltar of Northern Spain, but which is now frequented only as a
bathing-place by the inhabitants of the interior. The mountain scenery
of these two provinces is most picturesque, both along the sea-board and
in the interior, where the snow sometimes lies on the Picos de Europa
until July or August. The coal-mines of the Asturias are rapidly
assuming importance. The output was, in 1878, 400,000 tons, at a cost on
board ship of 13_s._ per ton. The extent of the bed is estimated at
667,200 acres.
The BASQUE PROVINCES (Las Provincias Vascongadas) are _Biscay_,
_Guipuzcoa_, and _Alava_. The union of the three is often represented by
a symbol like the heraldic bearings of the Isle of Man; and they are,
with Navarre and the French Pays Basque, the home of the Basque race,
but only one province, Guipuzcoa, is _wholly_ inhabited by them.
_Biscay_ has for its chief town the busy mining city of Bilbao (32,000)
on the Nervion, with a commerce of over 2,000,000_l._ annual value,
notwithstanding an inferior harbour, exceeding that of Santander. The
chief mines, iron, are in the Somorrostro district, a few miles to the
east of the city, and they are worked mainly by English, French, or
German companies. In 1879 the exports from Bilbao amounted to 1,160,248
tons of iron minerals, while the imports included 72,196 tons of English
coke and coal, chiefly for the use of the mines. In this province is the
Oak of Guernica, where the Spanish sovereigns swore to observe the
constitutional privileges or _fueros_ of the Basques. The chief city of
_Guipuzcoa_ is San Sebastian (21,000), a sea-port with a strong citadel.
Of less commercial importance than Bilbao, it is much frequented in
summer as a city of pleasure; the town has been almost wholly rebuilt
since the siege of 1813. The province, though almost wholly
agricultural, and famous for its cider and apple orchards, contains also
some mines, and a few manufactures grouped round its old capital, Tolosa
(8000). Eibar and Plasencia, two small manufacturing towns on the Deva,
have preserved the art of inlaying iron with gold and silver, and are
noted for their manufacture of fire-arms. _Alava_ has but one town of
importance, Vitoria (25,000), a picturesque city at the foot of the
Cantabrian Mountains and the head of the fertile plains of the Upper
Rioja. These two districts, the Riojas, divided by the Ebro, are noted
for their wines, which need only more careful preparation to become an
important article of commerce; at present they are chiefly exported to
Bordeaux, for mixing with inferior French wines, to be re-exported as
claret to England. NAVARRE, the only other province where Basque is
spoken, once formed part of a petty kingdom which stretched on both
sides of the Pyrenees, and of which the Spanish portion was definitely
secured to Spain by the Duke of Alva in the reign of Ferdinand the
Catholic, in 1512, has Pampeluna (25,000), a fortified city of Roman
origin, for its capital. The upper part of Navarre is extremely
mountainous, but it contains some useful iron-mines, and a Government
foundry at Orbaiceta. The southern parts, along the banks of the Arga,
and in the valley of the Ebro, are extremely fertile; but at the
south-eastern corner in the Bardenas Reales, we encounter a series of
bare, stony hills, scored with deep ravines, and on which nothing will
grow, the first of the desert tracks so common in Spain. Tudela (9000)
on the opposite side of the Ebro, is united to the rest of the province
by a fine bridge; it is here the traveller first sees in operation the
_norias_ or water-wheels of the East.
The kingdom of ARAGON contains three provinces, _Huesca_, _Saragossa_,
and _Teruel_. The kingdom is almost bisected by the Ebro, towards which
it slopes on both sides, from the highest summits of the Central
Pyrenees on the north, and from the Idubeda Mountains and the Molina de
Aragon on the south. Aragon divides with the Asturias the honour of
having been one of the cradles of the Spanish monarchy. In 795 Don Asnar
defeated the Moors near Jaca, in the province of Huesca. But the
progress of the reconquest was very slow; from 714 to 1118 the Moors
held possession of the town and kingdom of Saragossa, and it is from
this occupation of four centuries that the traveller first meets here
distinct remains of Moorish architecture. A still more lasting note of
their sway is found in the nomenclature of the country. The rivers
Guaticalema, Alcanadre, Guadalope, the names of the sierras, Alcubiere,
and of many of the lesser towns and villages, sufficiently attest the
former presence of the race who gave those names.
_Huesca_ (10,000), the capital of the province of the same name, is an
episcopal and university town, the bishop's palace being on the site of
an old mosque. The upper part of this province is exceedingly
mountainous, and is entered from France by the Central Pyrenean road,
that of Somport, originally constructed by the Romans. The only other
towns are Barbastro (7000), Monzon (4000), and Jaca (3500), nearer the
mountains. _Saragossa_ (84,000), on the Ebro, formerly the Caesar Augusta
of the Romans, then for four centuries the capital of a Moorish kingdom,
rivals Santiago de Compostella as a place of pilgrimage to the shrine of
the Virgen del Pilar. The worship has, however, much declined of late
years, and her devotees are not now a tithe of those who frequent the
more recent shrine of Notre Dame de Lourdes on the other side of the
Pyrenees. The art treasures of the cathedral were sold in 1870, when
many fine examples of jewellery and art were acquired for the Kensington
Museum. Saragossa, though now fallen as a place of commerce, must again
become important if the railway project is carried into effect, which
will place it on the most direct line between Paris and Madrid. The
Ebro, from its shallowness, is of no service for navigation; and, from
neglect, the canals of Charles V. and of Tauste do not render the
services they might, either for transport or for irrigation. Hence the
despoblados and desiertos in the valley of the Ebro, both above and
below the town. _Calayatud_ (12,000) was one of the four _comunidades_
of Aragon, and is in the midst of a mineral district, the wealth of
which seems at present almost wholly undeveloped. _Teruel_ (7000) is the
capital of a very mountainous province which slopes towards the
north-west from the Sierras de Molina and Albarracin, the mountain
ranges which form the eastern boundary of the great watershed of the
peninsula. Excepting the mines in these sierras, the province is almost
wholly agricultural, but with no towns of importance. The historian Don
Vicente de la Fuente has remarked that while the lands of the
_comunidades_, the four free towns of Aragon, Calayatud, Teruel, Daroca,
and Albarracin, have remained fertile under their more liberal
government, the lands of the Seigneurs in the valley of the Ebro, where,
almost alone in Spain, feudalism received its full development, have
been for centuries barren and _despoblados_.
[Illustration: LEANING TOWER OF SARAGOSSA.
_Page 98._]
CATALONIA.--The ancient principality of Catalonia is now separated into
four provinces, named after their chief towns, _Gerona_, _Barcelona_,
_Tarragona_, and _Lerida_. The first three lie along the shores of the
Mediterranean--the last, inland, and stretches from the Ebro to the
Pyrenees. To the north of Lerida, and buried in the mountains, is the
so-called republic of Andorra, which owes its practical independence to
the singular fact of a double _seigneurie_. Both the Counts of Foix, in
France, and the Prince-Bishops of Urgel, in Spain, were supreme Lords of
Andorra. On paper its constitution is by no means so free as that of
several other Pyrenean communities; but by skilfully playing off the
jealousies and rivalries of its two lords, and preventing either from
getting absolute power, this little state of twenty-eight miles by
twenty has remained unsubdued, and unattached to either nationality. The
chief trade of the republic may be said to be smuggling. _Lerida_,
except in the valley of the Segre, is extremely mountainous, and like
all the hill country of Catalonia is rich in minerals, especially in
salt, near Solsona. The rest of its products are chiefly agricultural.
The province is but thinly peopled; its chief town contains 20,000
inhabitants. Balaguer (5000), Urgel (3000), Solsona (2500), are the most
populous of the remaining. With _Gerona_ we enter the Mediterranean or
Provencal region and climate, and come in contact not only with
picturesque and glowing scenery, with a gorgeous variety of natural
productions, but also with traditions and remains of the great works of
all the races that have dominated this inland sea. From the Pyrenees to
Carthagena the names of the chief towns recall classic reminiscences,
and bring before us the struggles of ancient nations, contending on her
soil for a far mightier empire than that of Spain. The province of
Gerona contains Cape Creuz, the extreme north-easterly point of the
peninsula, not far from the old Greek cities of Rosas and Emporium
(Ampurias). Of its towns, Gerona, on the Ter, and Figueras have each
8000, but are surpassed by Olot, 10,000, around which town are grouped
the most recently extinct volcanoes in Spain. Coal is found in San Juan
de las Abadesas. Here the Spanish gravity is mingled with the fire and
dash of the Provencals, and the inhabitants both of Gerona and
Barcelona, are more Provencal than Spanish, in language, political
character, and in commercial and industrial aptitudes. The natural
productions, and the flora too, are almost identical with those of the
more sheltered parts of Provence and of the Riviera. Palm trees are seen
as common ornaments in gardens and public squares, oranges and olives
flourish, the mulberry is cultivated and silkworms are reared, and all
announces a warmer zone than any that we have hitherto traversed.
_Barcelona_ (250,000) the first industrial and commercial city of Spain,
and the second in point of population, is also the capital of the most
thickly inhabited province. The greater part of the trade and navigation
of the whole Spanish sea-board from Catalonia to Cadiz, or even to
Seville, is in the hands of its merchants. The cotton industry of
Catalonia employed in 1870 a capital of 6,000,000_l._, and 104,000
workmen, distributed in 700 factories. The chief of the other
manufacturing towns are Gracia (33,000), and St. Martin de Provensals
(24,000). The annual commercial movement of Barcelona is estimated at
about 11,000,000_l._ sterling. The British imports, chiefly of coal and
iron, amount to nearly 1,000,000_l._ sterling; but the exports are a
mere trifle, 10,000_l._, most of the ships returning in ballast; while
on the contrary, the exports of Tarragona, Palamos, Mataro, and
Villamena, and the smaller ports amount to nearly 1,000,000_l._, chiefly
in wine, and the imports are only half that amount. Irrigation is
successfully carried on in the valley of the Llobregat. _Tarragona_
(23,000) is rich in Roman remains, in the picturesque beauty of its
site, in its Gothic architecture, in the mildness of its climate, and in
the goodness of its wines; but it is surpassed both in wealth and
population by the neighbouring manufacturing city of Reus (27,000), and
also by Tortosa (24,000) on the Ebro, to which town all the river
transport converges. The Ebro below Tortosa forms a sandy delta, and its
channels are continually silting up. The canal of San Carlos, to connect
Amposta with the sea by the port of Alfaques, has had but little
success.
VALENCIA includes the three provinces of _Castellon de la Plana_,
_Valencia_, and _Alicante_, all three lying along the Mediterranean, and
facing east and southwards from the mighty buttress sierras which form
the eastern wall of the great central plateau. It is in these provinces
that we gradually pass from the Mediterranean climate to the "_Tierra
caliente_," the warm lands and African products of south-eastern Spain.
Here too we meet with the finest Roman remains; and Moorish architecture
begins to form a prominent feature in the characteristics of each city.
The speech is still a dialect of the Provencal, and the fiery Provencal
nature is still apparent in the political history of the cities of
Valencia. The hill-sides, bare of trees, are covered either with the
esparto grass or with strongly aromatic herbs and shrubs. The rainfall
gradually lessens; the streams all assume a torrential character, nearly
dry in summer, swollen with rapid floods in winter; but they are greatly
utilized for irrigation. By this means are formed the "_huertas_,"
gardens, and "_vegas_," plains, oases of beauty and fertility lying in
the bosom of the barren hills, which serve as frames to pictures as
valuable for their productiveness as they are enchanting in their
beauty. The chief towns in the province of _Castellon_ are Castellon de
la Plana (23,000), Vinaroz (9000), Villareal (8000), both near the
Mediterranean; Segorbe on the Palancia, and numerous smaller towns in
the interior. Benicarlo and Vinaroz, on the coast to the north of the
province, are noted for their excellent red wines, quantities of which
are exported to France for mixing with inferior French vintages, whence
they find their way to England as Rousillon or Bordeaux. _Valencia_, a
city of 143,000 inhabitants, and with a fine artificial harbour called
the "_grao_," is the third city in population in Spain; but its commerce
is little more than that of Santander and Bilbao, cities only one fourth
of its size. The value of British imports, chiefly of coal, cod-fish,
guano, and petroleum, in 1878, was 136,450_l_., and of exports, chiefly
of fruits to Britain, 524,984_l_. The "_huerta_" of Valencia, with its
canals for irrigation, its "_acequias_," "_norias_," and other devices
to draw the waters of the Guadalaviar, is one of the most successful
examples in Spain of regulated application of water to agriculture. The
quantity of water allotted to each property, the hour of opening or
closing the sluices, are regulated according to laws and customs
descended from Moorish times. So great is the drain upon the streams
that the waters of some of the smaller rivers are entirely absorbed in
the summer, and even of the Guadalaviar but little then reaches the sea.
It is from the _huerta_ of Valencia that the oranges come which form the
delight of the population of Paris at the new year; hence are the
raisins and the almonds and candied fruits equally dear to the British
housekeeper. Rice is successfully cultivated on some of the lower
grounds near the coast, and fruits and vegetables of every kind abound;
but the Spaniards complain that they lack the richness and lusciousness
of flavour belonging to those grown in other parts. "In Valencia," say
they, "grass is like water, meat like grass, men like women, and the
women worth nothing." The district was formerly noted for its
silk-growing and stuffs of silk; also for the fine pottery known as
Majolica ware from its carriers to the Italian ports, the sailors of
Majorca and the Balearic Isles. It was also the earliest place of
printing in Spain, and celebrated as a school of poetry and the arts;
but nearly all this ancient fame is lost. To the south of Valencia is
the large lake or lagoon of Albufera, the most extensive of the many
lagoons along the Mediterranean coast, about nine miles long and
twenty-seven miles round; it is full of fish, and frequented by wild
fowls, and its varied inhabitants recall those of the Nile rather than
those of any part of Europe. In the north of the province is Murviedro
(7000), the ancient Saguntum, with its port almost entirely blocked up.
Considerable remains of the older city still exist, with inscriptions in
idioms yet unknown, and are a treasure to archaeologists. The largest of
the other cities are Alcira (13,000) on the Jucar, and Jativa (14,000).
The southern coasts of Valencia and the neighbouring districts of
Alicante abound in sites of picturesque beauty, and the position of many
of the ruined monasteries, built generally on the hills with a distant
prospect of the sea, can hardly be excelled.
_Alicante_, whose _huertas_ and _vegas_ with their appliances for
irrigation rival those of Valencia, has but 34,000 inhabitants.
Orihuela, in its rich wheat-growing district of never-failing harvest,
has 21,000, and Alcoy 32,000. The smaller towns are numerous, and from
the little ports in the north of the province, round Cape Nao, a good
deal of coasting trade is done with the neighbouring Balearic Isles.
From Denia, Tabea, and Altea, nearly 100,000 tons of raisins are shipped
every year, chiefly for Great Britain. At Elche (20,000) is the
celebrated forest of palms of which we have before spoken, and the
leaves of which are sent to Rome for the ceremonies of Easter week. The
number of the trees is gradually declining, as the produce hardly repays
the great amount of labour required. In the church at Elche religious
plays or mysteries are occasionally performed, with an enthusiasm and
solemnity both of actors and spectators equal to that of the
Passionspiel of Ober-Ammergau.
MURCIA contains the two provinces, _Murcia_ and _Albacete_. The first
faces the Mediterranean; the second, besides comprising the Sierras of
Alcazar and Segura, climbs those boundary mountains, and advances far
into the plateau of La Mancha, and thus contains within its limits the
sources of the Guadiana as well as those of the Mundo and the Segura.
_Murcia_, in its higher parts, is very thinly peopled, and in spite of
the fertile plains in the lower course of the Segura and the Sangonera,
and the rich mining district round Cartagena, has only two-thirds as
many inhabitants to the square mile as Valencia. Murcia is perhaps the
driest province of Spain, and the one in which the want of water is the
most generally felt, yet it is in this province that the floods are the
most pernicious and destructive. Year by year the irrigation works
become less effective. Ancient dams broken down by the floods are not
restored. Since 1856, however, a new source of wealth has been opened to
this province by the export of the esparto grass, which grows on all the
low hills, and which, in addition to its use in the country for numerous
native fabrics, is now largely exported for paper-making. The export
began only in 1856. In 1873 it had reached 67,000 tons for England
alone; in 1875 the money value of the whole export was 400,000_l._, but
it declined to 30,000_l._ in 1877, and 284,000_l._ in 1878, since which
date it has gradually lessened. Murcia, the chief city, is an irrigated
plain on the Segura, has a population of 91,000. It is one of the chief
seats of silk cultivation in Spain. Lorca (52,000), on the Sangonera,
offers another example of the extreme fertility that can be obtained by
irrigation in a suitable climate. Cartagena (75,000), with its grand
harbour and docks, is one of the three naval arsenals in Spain; but has
greatly fallen from its ancient wealth and importance. Like Barcelona
and Valencia it has distinguished itself by its extreme democratic and
cantonalist opinions, and has revolted against the republic equally as
against the monarchy. In its neighbourhood are some of the richest lead
and silver mines in Spain, and which have been worked since Carthaginian
and Roman times. The coal imported from England for smelting purposes
amounts to 80,000 tons yearly. The tonnage of British vessels employed
was over 200,000 in 1877. Along the coast are various lagoons and
salt-lakes (salinas), where salt is made on a considerable scale; it is
exported chiefly to the Baltic. The Barilla plant, for making soda, is
also cultivated along the coast; and, of the plants in the salinas, it
is computed that at least one-sixth of the species are African.
_Albacete_ (16,000), situated at the junction both of road and railway
from Murcia and Valencia to Madrid, is chiefly celebrated for its trade
in common cutlery. It is here that the large stabbing knives (navajas)
are made, and for the use of which both Valencians and Murcians have an
unenviable notoriety. On the plateau of this province (Albacete) are
found (Salinas) salt-lakes formed by evaporation, the only examples of
this kind in Western Europe. The only other town of any importance in
the province is Almanza (9000), on the edge of the plateau before making
the descent into Valencia. The numerous names compounded of "pozo,"
well, and "fuente," fountain, in this province, attest its arid
character, where fresh water is scarce enough to make its presence a
distinguishing mark to any spot.
ANDALUSIA embraces the whole of southern Spain from Murcia to the
frontier of Portugal. Its seaboard includes both the Mediterranean and
the Atlantic. In Cabo de Gata, 2 deg.10' W., it has the extreme
south-easterly point of Spain; and in Cabo de Tarifa, 36 deg.2' N., the
extreme southerly point, not only of Spain, but of Europe. One chain of
its mountains, the Sierra de Nevada, contains the highest summits of the
peninsula; and its river, the Guadalquiver, from Seville to the ocean is
the only stream of real service for navigation in the whole of Spain.
Its wines and olives, its grapes and oranges, and fruits of all kinds,
are the finest, its horses and its cattle are the best, its bulls are
the fiercest, of all Spain. The sites of its cities rival in their
entrancing beauty those of any other European land; while, wanting
though they may be in deeper qualities, its sons and daughters yield not
in wit or attractive grace or beauty to those of any other race. The
Moor has left a deeper mark here than elsewhere, even as he kept his
favourite realm of Granada for centuries after he had lost the rest of
Spain. And when the sun of Moorish glory set, it was from Andalusia that
the vision of the New World rose upon astonished Europe. The year of the
conquest of Granada (1492) was also that of the discovery of America.
All things take an air of unwonted beauty and of picturesque grace in
this land of sun and light; even the gipsy race, avoided and abhorred in
other countries of Europe, at Granada, as at Moscow, becomes one of the
attractions of the tourist. The province is not entirely of one type. It
unites many kinds of beauty; even in Andalusia are "_despoblados_" and
"_destierros_," dispeopled and deserted wastes, under Christian hands,
but once fertile and inhabited under Moorish rule. Savage wildness and
barrenness reign in its lofty mountain chains as much as softer beauty
does in the "_huertas_" and "_vegas_." But from the minerals the one
district is equally valuable as the other. The province possesses the
richest mines, as well as the richest fruits and wines, of the whole of
Spain. ANDALUSIA, is divided into the provinces of _Almeria_, _Granada_,
_Malaga_, on the Mediterranean; _Cadiz_, _Seville_, _Huelva_, on the
Atlantic coast; and _Cordova_ and _Jaen_ inland, along the upper waters
of the Guadalquiver.
[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF GRANADA, WITH THE ALHAMBRA.
_Page 110._]
In _Almeria_ (40,000) the flat-roofed houses are built round a central
court, the "_patio_," wherein is often a fountain, and palm and vine for
shade; while oranges, myrtles, passion-flowers, and other gay or
odoriferous shrubs or flowers, add their colour and perfume. The type
and the manners of the inhabitants tell us that we are already in the
land of the Moors. Almeria has declined from what it was when one of the
chief ports of transit between the Moors of Africa and their brethren of
south-eastern Spain; but from the growing importance of the Spanish
colony in Oran, its trade is now fast reviving. The exports are lead and
silver ore from the mines of the neighbourhood, fruits of all kinds, and
a little wine. The tonnage of British shipping employed at Almeria was,
in 1875, 117,123 tons; 1876, 85,840 tons; 1877, 89,988 tons. The chief
exports in 1877 were about 10,000 tons of esparto grass, 280,000 barrels
of grapes, 10,000 tons of minerals, and nearly 10,000 of calamine. The
sugar-cane is also grown here. The whole province is mountainous,
covered with the spurs and offshoots of the mighty Sierra Nevada, the
Sierras de Gador, de Filabres, de Cabrera, de Aljamilla, all which have
their terminations in headlands which run into the Mediterranean. The
basins of the rivers of the region are often cleft by these smaller
ranges, and thus they receive their waters from both the northern and
southern slopes of the Sierra Nevada. The only other towns of importance
are Cuevas de Vera (20,000), and Velez-Rubio (13,000), in the north of
the province on the road between Murcia and Granada, where some
lead-mines have been lately opened. The ports, except Almeria, are all
small; Dalias, on the confines of Granada, is noted for the magnificent
grapes and raisins shipped there.
_Granada_ (76,000) is one of the most celebrated spots of Europe, a city
of enchantment and of romance. It is one of the few places of renown,
the sight of which does not disappoint the traveller. The natural
advantages of its position would be sufficient to mark it as a city of
unusual beauty, were there no masterpieces of art and of architecture,
or storied memories, connected with it. It is situated in an upland
valley, at an elevation of 2200 feet above the sea level--sufficiently
high in that climate to prevent the summer's heat from being
oppressively exhausting, and not too high to hinder the choicest
semi-tropical fruits and flowers from growing in the open
air--surrounded, yet not too closely, by mountain ranges, of which those
to the east are the very highest in Spain--Mulhacen (11,700), Alcazaba
(11,600), and Veleta (11,400). The ice and snow on their summits not
only cool the hot winds which blow over them from Africa, but provide
the means of making the iced water which is the Spaniard's greatest
luxury. Its climate is second in its equable range only to that of its
coast towns, Motril and Malaga. It is watered by the united streams of
the Darro and the Jenil, which meet within the city, both hurrying from
their mountain home to join the Guadalquiver between Cordova and
Seville; and with their fertilizing waters dispersed in irrigation they
make the "Vega," or plain, of Granada one of the noted gardens of the
world. Granada is worth all the praise that has been sung or written of
it. On an isolated hill to the east, cut off from the town and from the
Generalife by the ravine through which the Darro flows, and enclosed
with a wall flanked by twelve towers, stands the celebrated group of
buildings known by the name of the Alhambra, perhaps the fairest palace
and fortress at once ever inhabited by a Moslem monarch. Almost
unrivalled in the beauty of its site, it outstrips all rivals in the
beauty of its Arab architecture. The mosque of Cordova is grander, and
the tombs of the Caliphs at Cairo may be in a purer style, but they lack
the variety and richness of these diverse buildings. The Alhambra hill
is to Arabic what the Acropolis of Athens was to Hellenic art; only to
the attractions of the plastic arts were added in the case of the
Alhambra the triumphs of the gardener's skill. Shrubs and flowers
delighted the eyes with colour, or gratified the sense of smell with
sweetest odours, while water, skilfully conducted from the neighbouring
hills, purled among the beds, or leaped in fountains, or filled the
baths with purest streams. Thus every sense and taste was gratified, and
Granada was indeed an earthly paradise to the Moor. Even in its decay,
and seen in fragments only, it is one of the world's wonders, a
treasure and delight to pilgrims of art from every land. But we must not
waste our space in detailing the beauties of Granada; its trade, sadly
diminished from what it was formerly, is chiefly in fruits and silk and
leather stuffs. Next to Granada, the chief city in the province is Loja
(15,000), near the Jenil, and the little port of Motril (13,500),
sheltered under the highest summits of the Sierra Nevada, is said to
possess the most equable climate of the Spanish Mediterranean ports. It
is here, in the extensive alluvial plain stretching from Motril to the
sea, that the sugar-cane is most extensively cultivated, producing in
1877, 113,636 tons of cane. Far inland, and separated from Motril by the
mountain mass, is Baza (13,500). The mineral riches of the Sierra Nevada
have never been adequately explored; from specimens used in the
construction of Granada, it must possess marbles of rare beauty; metals,
too, abound, but few of its mines are worked. In picturesque beauty,
when seen near at hand, these mountains are not nearly equal to the
Pyrenees and to many minor chains; with rounded summits, they are bare
and denuded of wood, and are entirely without the glacier forms, and the
lakes and rushing streams, which delight us in the Alps.
[Illustration: ALHAMBRA TOWER BY MOONLIGHT.]
_Malaga._--The greater part of this province lies in an amphitheatre of
mountains, stretching from the Sierra de Almijarras on the east to
those of De la Nieve and of Ronda to the west. It faces the full
southern sun, but is watered and irrigated by torrential streams from
the mountains, at times almost dry, at others, as in December, 1880,
rushing down in most destructive floods. The city, with over 110,000
inhabitants, boasts not only the finest climate in Spain, on which
account it is greatly frequented by invalids in the winter, but its
commerce is second in value to that of Barcelona. Its wealth and exports
are almost wholly agricultural, consisting of luscious wines--which,
however, have a greater reputation on the continent than in
England--oil, fruits, and especially dried raisins; oranges, olives,
figs, sugar, and sweet potatoes. Bananas, and all other tropical and
semi-tropical products of Spain are here found in perfection. Upwards of
2,000,000 boxes of raisins, 3,000,000 gallons of oil, and 1,100,100
gallons of wine, besides other fruits, esparto grass, and minerals
(chiefly lead), are annually exported. The tonnage of British vessels in
1878 was about 158,000 tons. It has been a city and port from great
antiquity; but though a favourite residence of the Moors, they have left
fewer remains here than at Granada, Seville, Cordova, Toledo, and many a
place of lesser note. Antequerra (25,000), on the Guadaljorce, on the
northern slope of the sierras, guards the defile leading to Malaga, and
was formerly of great military importance. The Cueva del Menjal, in the
neighbourhood, is a fine dolmen. Ronda (20,000), the chief town of the
sierra of the same name, is remarkable for its position on both sides of
an enormous fissure (el Tajo) from 300 to 600 feet deep, and which is
spanned by a magnificent bridge, constructed by the architect Archidone,
in 1761. Velez Malaga (24,000) is a small sheltered port to the east of
Malaga, with a trade in fruits and wines.
_Cadiz_, the most southerly province of Spain, includes the capes of
Trafalgar and Tarifa, and the Punta de Europa, or the English Rock of
Gibraltar. This province is also the principal seat of the great sherry
trade. The town (65,000) and port have greatly fallen from their former
importance, when Spain possessed nearly all the Americas south of
California, and but for the Transatlantic steamers to Cuba and the West
Indies, and to the Philippine Islands in the East Indies, would probably
decline still more. The application of steam, allowing ocean vessels to
ascend the Guadalquiver rapidly to Seville, has arrested there a great
deal of the produce which formerly came to Cadiz, but which is now
shipped at the former town. The total tonnage of the port is now about
800,000; the imports over 2,000,000_l._, of which about one-sixth is
British; but of the exports, which are about the same in value, fully
two-thirds go to Great Britain. Cadiz itself is undoubtedly one of the
oldest ports of Western Europe, and is situated on a narrow promontory,
formed into an island by the channel of San Pedro. Unlike most of the
southern cities of Spain, its houses are of great height and of several
stories, the contracted space of its site having occasioned this
architectural modification. The city is excellently supplied with fish;
the market is noted both for the quantity and the variety of its supply,
which amounts to nearly 900 tons annually. Round the Bay of Cadiz are
situated towns and harbours of considerable size, whose united commerce
is almost equal to that of Cadiz itself. Of these, Puerto de St. Maria
(22,000), on the northern side of the bay, is the great harbour for the
shipment of sherry wines. Immense quantities of salt are made, chiefly
for exportation, in the Salinas between Puerto Real and San Fernando
(26,000), and Chiclana (20,000), on the San Pedro canal, which cuts off
the Isle of Leon from the mainland. The export of wine from the whole
Bay was, in
Gallons. Butts.
1858 3,600,000, or 33,028
1862 5,600,000, " 51,376
1871 8,300,000, " 77,064
1876 " 61,609
1877 " 68,246
Xeres de la Frontera (64,000), situated about thirty miles from Cadiz,
surrounded by vineyards, is a city of Bodegas, or wine-cellars, the
principal of which, as well as of the vineyards, are in the hands of
foreigners. It is one of the busiest of Spanish commercial towns, and,
like Barcelona, is on that account less peculiarly Spanish than many
others. The exportation of sherry wines from the district, and those
shipped at Port St. Mary, amounted, in 1873, to 98,924 butts; 1874,
65,365 butts; from Jerez alone, in 1875, 43,727 butts; 1876, 42,272
butts; 1877, 41,660 butts; 87 per cent, of which goes to Great Britain
and her colonies. The decrease in later years is probably caused by the
greater amount of lighter French wines now consumed in England. San
Lucar de Barrameda (22,000), at the mouth of the Guadalquiver, is noted
for its winter-gardens, which are said to date from Moorish times, and
which supply Cadiz and Seville with their earliest fruits and
vegetables. From its vineyards, too, comes the stomachic Manzanilla
sherry, flavoured with the wild camomile, which grows abundantly in its
vineyards. Arcos (12,000), on the Guadalete, is the only other Spanish
town of importance in the province; but to the south lies the isolated
rock and fortress of Gibraltar (25,000), captured by the Earl of
Peterborough in 1704. Though held only as an English garrison (5000),
and made almost impregnable as a fortress, it is yet of considerable
commerce from its position as a port of call for vessels passing the
Straits of Gibraltar, and also from its contraband trade with Spain,
which is a source of constant irritation between the two nations. In
natural history, it is remarkable for its apes (_macacus inuus_), as the
only spot in Europe where any species of monkey lives, and it is
doubtful whether even these would survive without the aid of occasional
importations from Morocco.
_Seville_ is the typical province of Andalusia, and its city of 133,000
ranks fourth in population of the cities of Spain. The Moors have left
deeper outward traces at Granada, but here they have fused more
thoroughly with the population, and have given it the Oriental grace and
culture which is lacking in the former place; their wit belongs to
themselves. Seville is peculiarly the home of Spanish art; the greatest
of her painters, Murillo and Velasquez, were born there, and Zurbaran
painted his best pieces to adorn her walls. Her writers are scarcely
less noted. The most celebrated novelist of modern Spain, Cecilia Bohl
de Faber (Fernan Caballero), had her home there. There Amador de los
Rios composed his chief works. The Becquers--both the painter and the
novelist--were born there. It is a city of predilection for all of
artistic tastes. The Giralda, a tower of Moorish architecture, rivals,
if it does not surpass, in its exquisite proportions the _campanille_
of Italian art. The Alcazar is a home of beauty. The _patios_, or inner
courts, of many of the houses have remains of Moorish decoration. The
Cathedral shows that Christian lags not far behind Moslem architecture.
But Seville, on the Guadalquiver, is not a mere city of pleasure. Like
Paris, its gay exterior contains a great deal of real work and commerce
within. Since the invention of steam, allowing sea-going vessels to
breast with ease the current of the Guadalquiver, it has drawn to itself
a great deal of the traffic which formerly passed through the harbours
of the Bay of Cadiz. The tonnage of its shipping amounts to about
120,000 tons, and the value of its imports to over 2,000,000_l_., and of
its exports to 1,750,000_l_., one-half of which belongs to Great
Britain. Among its manufactories, one of porcelain, carried on by a
British company, but employing Spanish methods, is celebrated; and its
tobacco manufactory, with its 1000 women workers, is the largest
government establishment of the kind in Spain. The city long enjoyed
almost a monopoly of West Indian and of Manilla productions; the wealth
brought by the galleons was deposited here, and here are still preserved
the "Archivos de las Indias." It possesses both a university and a mint.
The lower part of the Guadalquiver runs through marshy lands, which in
places present almost impenetrable jungles. In these are bred the bulls
which supply the bull-fights with their victims, and which make Seville
the great school of _tauromachia_ in Spain. The finest Andalusian horses
are also produced in this province, and the wines, though not equal to
those of the neighbouring provinces of Cadiz and Cordova, are still
highly esteemed. Besides Seville, the chief towns are Ecija (24,000) on
the Jenil, a place of large trade; Carmona (18,000); Ossuna (16,000).
Utrera, Lebriga, and Marchena would be considerable towns in other
provinces, but we can only indicate them here. From the absence of
mountains Seville has not the mineral wealth of some other provinces,
but coal is worked at Villanueva del Rio, and the copper-mines at
Arnalcollar yield 20,000 tons of ore; other outlying deposits of the
Huelva beds are found in this province, and a great part of the lead
from the Linares mines is shipped here.
_Huelva_, the last maritime province of Spain, conterminous with
Portugal on the west and with Seville on the east, with its capital of
10,000, is one of the richest mining districts in Europe. Worked in
prehistoric times, and in the mythical dawn of history, by Iberians,
Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans, the mines of Tharsis and of
the Rio Tinto were strangely neglected by the Spaniards until purchased
by an Anglo-German company in 1873 for 3,850,000_l_., but with the
certainty of a rich return. There are now over 7000 men employed by
this company, and 906,600 tons of copper ore were extracted in 1879 from
the south lode only; about 10,000 tons of hematite iron were also sold.
The mines contain sulphur, copper, iron, and silver. In fact, the
mountains round the source of the Tinto seem to be almost one mass of
mineral ore. From the working of these mines the development of the
riches of this province has been most rapid of late years, and the
tonnage of shipping from the port of Huelva will probably soon rival, if
not surpass, that of Cadiz: in 1873 the foreign shipping was 180,000
tons; this had ascended to over 300,000 tons in 1877. The imports were
valued in 1873 at 168,000_l_., of which 112,000_l_. were British; and in
1877 to over 300,000, of which not quite one-half was British. The
exports are of far greater importance, ranging from 750,000_l_. in 1873,
of which 667,000_l_. were British, to 1,236,243_l_. in 1877, of which
1,132,782_l_. went to Great Britain. Except in minerals, the province is
not rich; but a trade which will probably increase, has lately sprung up
in wines, fruits, and cork. The frontier stream the Guadiana is of
little use to Spain, and the little port of Palos, whence Columbus set
out to give a new world to Spain, is now completely silted up.
_Cordova._--The interior provinces of Andalusia are _Cordova_ and
_Jaen_, both on the Guadalquiver, the latter embracing the sources and
upper part of the course, the former the central portion before it
enters the province of Seville. The northern part of the province of
Cordova is covered by parallel ranges of low mountains running east and
west--the Sierras de Cordova and de Pedroches within the province, and
the Sierras de Almaden and Morena, which form the boundary of Castile.
_Cordova_, the capital, contains now but 49,000 inhabitants in place of
the 1,000,000 who dwelt there when it was the seat of the western
khalifat. Its mosque, almost the sole remnant of its former splendour,
with its 1200 columns, is to Islam what the temple of Karnac at Thebes,
and that of Karnac in Brittany, with their 100 pillars, are to the
religions of Egypt and of prehistoric Europe. It is perhaps the grandest
building for worship ever raised by Moslem hands; its materials were
pillaged without scruple from shrines of older civilizations, but were
wrought into new and fairer forms of beauty by the magic of Arabian art.
As a Christian city, Cordova is of only second rank. It is chiefly noted
for its leather work, and for its commerce in wines and fruits. It is to
Cordova that the Amontillada sherry--the most prized of Spanish
wines--comes, from the vineyards round Montilla (15,000). The only other
town of importance in the province is Lucena (16,000), to the south.
_Jaen_, like Huelva, at the opposite extremity of Andalusia, is a mining
province, and like those of Huelva its mines are chiefly in the hands of
Englishmen and of foreigners. Linares (36,000), north of the
Guadalquiver, is the centre of the mining district, and is far the most
populous town in the province. Nearly 11,000 men, women, and boys were
employed in the lead-mines in 1877, and the ore raised amounted to
70,000 tons. It has been calculated that the production of the world is
about 300,000 tons of lead, of which Spain furnishes 100,000 tons and
the United Kingdom 100,000 tons. The capital, Jaen, south of the great
river, has only 24,000 inhabitants; Ubeda and Baza, close together, a
little south of Jaen, have each 15,000. Andujar (11,000), with its old
bridge over the Guadalquiver, is noted for its porous pottery, the
cooling water-jars used throughout the whole of Southern Spain. In the
north of this province is the celebrated Pass of Despena-perros, through
the Sierra Morena, one of the wildest gorges through which the traveller
passes in any part of Europe; a few miles to the south of it is Las
Navas de Tolosa, the field of the battle in 1212 which first proved how
fast the power of the Moors was waning in Southern Spain.
ESTREMADURA, conterminous on the west with Portugal and on the south
with Huelva, is the wildest and least peopled of all the provinces of
Spain, and has been almost sufficiently described in a former chapter.
It is divided into the two modern provinces of _Badajoz_ and _Caceres_,
through which run respectively the two rivers, the Guadiana and the
Tagus. Desolate as it is now, the numerous Roman remains at Merida
(6000) and Trajan's mighty bridge at Alcantara tell what it was in Roman
times; but in Moorish days it suffered more from war than any other
province, and the curse, the "_mesta_," the only means the Christian
conquerors had of utilizing their vast and thinly-peopled properties,
has ever since rested upon it. Besides its flocks and herds its chief
wealth consists in acorns and bark for tanning, and cork for other
purposes. The rivers run in deep gorges, almost canons, and are useless
for either navigation or for irrigation. Badajoz (22,000), on the
Guadiana, one of the frontier fortresses of Spain towards Portugal, is
by far the largest city. Higher up the river are Merida and Medellin,
but Don Benito (15,000) is of greater commercial importance than either.
_Caceres_, a province still more thinly peopled than Badajoz, having
only fifteen inhabitants instead of nineteen to the square kilometre,
has 12,000 for its chief town; Plasencia, on the Xerte, an affluent of
the Alagon, has only half that number. In the north-east of this
province, on the southern spurs of the lofty Sierra de Gredos, stands
the monastery San Juste, to which the Emperor Charles V. retired on his
resignation of his many crowns. The shepherds of Estremadura,
notwithstanding the scanty population, gave numbers of emigrants to the
New World; Cortez and Pizarro were swineherds, the one of Medellin, the
other of Truxillo. The town of Alcantara gives its name to one of the
three great military orders of Spain.
NEW CASTILE and LA MANCHA comprise the five modern provinces of _Ciudad
Real_, _Toledo_, _Madrid_, _Cuenca_, and _Guadalajara_, which all take
their names from their chief towns. The province of _Ciudad Real_, which
lies between the Sierra de Morena and the mountains of Toledo, is
traversed by the Guadiana. It is the most thinly populated of all the
provinces of Spain, having only thirteen inhabitants to the square
kilometre; but it is by no means the least wealthy. It contains within
it the quicksilver-mines of Almaden (9000), the richest deposit in the
world before the late discoveries in California. They were a source of
revenue to the Spanish crown for centuries, with an annual rent of over
a quarter of a million. They were however mortgaged by the Government
for thirty years in order to raise a loan of 2,318,000_l._ at five per
cent., to be extinguished in 1900. The average annual extract is
estimated at 12,000 tons of mercury. The vineyards round Valdepenas
(11,000) supply the red wine which is the favourite beverage of the
Spaniards throughout the centre and the south, and the home consumption
of which is far beyond that of the sherries. Almagro (14,000) is known
for its lace manufacture; but Ciudad-Real, the capital (12,000), is
fallen from its ancient importance. Damiel (13,000) and Manzanares
(9000) are the only other towns that need mention.
_Toledo_ (21,000), watered by the Tagus, was for centuries the most
important city of Spain. It is here that the great councils which really
regulated the civil as well as the ecclesiastical administration of
Spain, from the fourth to the eighth centuries were held. Here too was
one of the centres of Arabic civilization: the waterworks, clocks, and
observatory of Toledo were among the wonders of the world from the tenth
to the twelfth centuries, and even after its capture by the Christians,
in 1085, the conqueror seemed for a while to have fallen under the same
spell. The court of Alfonso X., the Wise, was a semi-Moorish court, and
his tolerance excited the indignant wonder of travellers from other
parts of Europe. Moorish and Christian architecture is still most
strangely blended in many of its buildings, and Moorish architects were
long employed to keep in repair not only the structures which their
ancestors had raised, but even the Christian churches. The skill of its
ironworkers and the temper of its sword-blades were renowned throughout
Europe. The superiority of its steel was said to be due to some peculiar
virtue of the water of the Tagus used in tempering; but the best of the
iron was taken from the mines of Mondragon, in Guipuzcoa. The
manufactory has greatly fallen from its ancient splendour, but some good
weapons are still made, though they cannot compete in price with British
or foreign goods. The insurrection of its inhabitants under the
"Comuneros" in 1520, in defence of the ancient constitutional liberties
of Castille probably determined the selection of the more obsequious
town of Madrid as the capital of Spain by the Emperor Charles V. Toledo,
with its narrow streets and semi-Moorish houses, is emphatically the
city of Old Spain; the purest Spanish is said still to be spoken there,
and for native poets and romancers it seems to have an attraction beyond
that of any of the cities of Andalusia. The only other town of
importance in the province is Talavera, with its fifteenth-century
bridge of nearly a quarter of a mile in length.
_Madrid._--The province of Madrid lies between the Sierra de Guadarrama
on the north and the Tagus on the south. The city, which now contains
almost 400,000 inhabitants, was a third or fourth-rate town until
Charles V., and after him Philip II., chose it for the capital of Spain,
in place of either Toledo or Valladolid. Its recommendations seem to
have been its central position, and the absence of any strong traditions
of ancient constitutional liberties, such as might hamper the sovereign
in developing his new despotism. A city which owed its creation
entirely to the sovereign, and its riches to to the presence of his
court, would be certain to be obedient to its rulers. If Charles V. and
Philip II. did not make it the centre of a free and constitutional
government, they at least enriched it with all the treasures of art
which the rulers of the greater part of Europe could collect from the
various parts of their vast dominions. It is at the museum of Madrid,
which owes its existence to Ferdinand VII., that not only Spanish, but
also many of the Flemish and some of the Italian painters can be best
studied; and by a happy chance the royal palace, built in the eighteenth
century, is one of the least faulty and most impressive structures of
that age. At the west end of the city, on the banks of the Manzanares,
are the royal gardens; at the opposite extremity the promenades of the
Prado and the gardens of the Buen Retiro. These artificial parks and
walks in some way compensate for the dreary and almost desert aspect of
the country round Madrid; for there are "_despoblados_" and
"_destierros_" almost within sight of the greatest city of Spain
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