At Alicant I heard the worst accounts of the road to San Felipe. Every one agreed that there was the utmost danger of robbery, and urged upon me the necessity of taking an escort. I recollected that at Mr. Addington’s table at Madrid, I had been told by Captain C----k, a gentleman well known for his enterprise in scientific pursuits, and intimately acquainted with every part of Spain, that I should run the greatest risk of robbery in the neighbourhood of San Felipe, and between that town and Alicant; and being obliged to carry from Alicant a fuller purse than it would have been convenient to lose, I yielded in this one instance to the general opinion, and applied, through Mr. Waring, to the governor, for an escort of four soldiers to Fuente de Higuera. The danger of robbery upon this road is not by regular banditti, but by itinerant or idle, or ill-disposed peasantry, who have frequently been known to leave their work in the fields to intercept and rob a traveller, and then return to their occupation. I hired a tartana as usual, at the rate of three dollars a day; and left Alicant about seven in the morning, accompanied by my four soldiers, armed with guns, swords, and bayonets. The country, upon leaving Alicant, is at first very interesting; after passing some low hills about a league distant, we entered the little valley of Montforte, which, with its handsome church, and Moorish castle, dominates over its own fertile huerta. Between this place and Novilda, we passed a convent of the Franciscan order, of vast extent, and in which I was informed there are sixty monks. We also passed two men, whom the muleteer recognised as two notorious thieves, who had lately been released from prison. At Novilda we stopped, the muleteer to dine,--myself to take a cup of chocolate. The streets of this village were spread in many places with figs, drying in the sun, which any one appeared to have the liberty of making free with. I picked up one or two, but found them indifferent. From Novilda, we passed through a very partially cultivated country, but affording some picturesque views; particularly of the Castle of Luna, situated upon a very high rock; and soon after we descended into the vale of Elda, by a singularly wild approach in a chasm through barren gypsum hills. Walking in advance of the tartana, I observed in a deep hollow below, a spectacle in perfect unison with the scenery. It was the carcase of a mule, the possession of which was disputed by about a score of ravens, and four very large lean dogs. The discharge of one of the soldier’s muskets scarcely startled them; they were “too busy” to be easily disturbed.