Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible SocietyBorrow, George
Religion
Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society
Borrow, George
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence; British and Foreign Bible Society; English letters
I returned to the hostelry, and sat down on a log of wood on the hearth
within the immense chimney in the common apartment. Two men were on
their knees on the stones; before them was a large heap of pieces of
iron, brass, and copper; they were assorting it and stowing it away in
various large bags. They were Spanish _contrabandistas_, or smugglers of
the lowest class, and earned a miserable livelihood by smuggling such
rubbish from Portugal into Spain. Not a word proceeded from their lips,
and when I addressed them in their native language they returned no
answer but a kind of growl. They looked as dirty and rusty as the iron
in which they trafficked. The woman of the house and her daughter were
exceedingly civil, and coming near to me crouched down, asking various
questions about England. A man dressed something like an English sailor,
who sat on the other side of the hearth, confronting me, said: 'I hate
the English, for they are not baptized, and have not the law' (meaning
the law of God). I laughed, and told him, that according to the law of
England no one who was not baptized could be buried in consecrated
ground; whereupon he said; 'Then you are stricter than we.' He then
asked: 'What is meant by the lion and the unicorn which I saw the other
day on the coat of arms over the door of the English consul at St. Uves?'
I said that they were the arms of England. 'Yes,' he replied; 'but what
do they represent?' I said I did not know. 'Then,' said he, 'you do not
know the story of your own house.' I answered: 'Suppose I were to tell
you that they represented the lion of Belem (Bethlehem) and the horned
monster of the flaming pit in combat as to which should obtain the
mastery in England, what would you say?' He replied: 'I should say that
you gave a fair answer.' This man and myself became great friends; he
came from Palmella, not far from St. Uves; he had several mules and
horses with him, and dealt in corn and barley.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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