Before the loss of the colonies, taxation was light; the revenue being mainly supported through them. This loss was a severe and irrecoverable blow; and whether by the burthens which it has thrown upon land,--by drying up the former sources of revenue,--or by the extinction of the best and only sure market for Spanish manufactures, it is a blow felt throughout every department of Spanish industry. Before the loss of the colonies, there was in Granada an extensive manufactory of ribbons, which found in South America a wide, ready, and exclusive market,--no fewer than two thousand hands were employed in it; but since that event, it has entirely fallen. Many persons who were in that trade, and were accounted the richest in the city, have become bankrupts; others have closed their concerns, and turned their attention to agriculture; and hundreds of the artizans are in a state of perfect destitution, supported only by charity or thieving: to so great an extent has theft been carried, that in one night, while I was in Granada, twenty-six persons were arrested in the act. The export trade in oil has also suffered severely from the loss of the colonies: before that event, it fetched from eighty to one hundred dollars the arroba; and now, it cannot command more than from twenty to twenty-six dollars. The export wine trade from the southern provinces, has suffered the least: the imposition of import-duties has, of course, somewhat limited the demand, by increasing the price in America; but in articles of taste, such as wine, or any thing that is the exclusive produce or manufacture of a mother country, the separation of colonies but slightly affects the market: the colonists have acquired a taste for such produce, and they will continue to give a preference to it, notwithstanding a political separation. I will venture to say, that no city in Europe can boast of promenades so delightful as those of Granada. Besides the many romantic walks in the neighbourhood of the city--to the hill of martyrs; to St. Michael’s mount, and to the nearer ridges of the Sierra; there are two professed alamedas: one, along the banks of the Xenil; the other, by the margin of the Daro: the former is within the city, and is the most frequented; the other is a path above the Daro, which flows through a deep and finely wooded ravine. Nothing in Switzerland excels the romantic and striking scenery of the valley of the Daro,--for along with the picturesque views within the valley, magnificent glimpses of the glorious Alhambra, and the gorgeous city, are frequently caught beyond it.