An emporium of Phœnician trade--From Padron to London--Iria Flavia--Landing of St. James--Drive from Santiago to Padron--A sacred mountain--_La Virgen de la Esclavitud_--Santa Maria de Iria--A Byzantine statue--The rock beneath the altar--Where St. James preached--The monastery of Herbon--Statue of St. Francis of Assisi--Cæsar’s bridge--The Ulla mentioned by Ptolemy--An interesting conversation--The house where Rosalia Castro died--Changing scenery--The towers of Augustus--A village festival Very few of the pilgrims who journeyed to Santiago de Compostela during the Middle Ages failed to include in their pilgrimage a visit to Padron. There is an ancient refrain which says-- “Quien va á Santiago E non va al Padrón O faz romeriá ó non.” Padron, _Iria Flavia_, is a town with a long history. Not only can she boast of having been a flourishing Roman settlement in the days of Augustus, but she is believed by Spanish archæologists to have been the site of one of the great emporiums of Phœnician trade.[223] The town is situated on the right bank of the river Ulla and on the left bank of the river Sar, nineteen kilometres from Santiago and sixteen from the sea, with which it is connected by a ria (loch). In 1836, Borrow found it a flourishing little port, with rather an extensive commerce, “some of its tiny barks occasionally finding their way across the Bay of Biscay, and even as far as the Thames and London.” A story was in circulation that some twenty years before Borrow’s visit, certain Padron fishermen, who had found their way to England, had been converted to Protestantism during their stay there, and not only brought Bibles back with them, but actually began to speak with irreverence of the bones of St. James, with a result that a commission was despatched to punish them and burn their books. We often speak of separation caused by the sea, but in reality it has always been a far closer link than land. The Roman name for Padron was _Iria Flavia_, and it belonged to the _Convento Lucense_; it was raised to the rank of a municipal town by the Emperor Vespasian in the year 69. Flavia was Vespasian’s family name; it occurs a number of times in Galicia. Iria is mentioned in the Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus, and Ptolemy also speaks of it; there is also a reference to this town in the _Ravenate_, the anonymous manuscript of Ravenna. Pliny mentions a river and a town of the name of Iria in Italy.[224] Several interesting Roman inscriptions have been found in the neighbourhood of Padron; there is one which tells that a senator of Iria died at the age of fifty.[225] A stone with an inscription to the Emperor Gratian (375-379) has also been discovered, and another bearing the name of Sulpicius Severus.[226] Coins of the reigns of Augustus and Constantine have recently been turned up with the soil; it is more than probable that extremely interesting excavations might be made there.[227]