From Elda and its vale, we passed through a wild country to Sax; a romantic town, overlooked by a castle perched upon the top of a rock as high as that of Alicant. There we only stopped to take in a supply of bread, for which Sax is famous, and proceeded towards Villena, still through a wild country. On the road, we met a coach filled with travellers, and escorted by five soldiers; and also a gentleman on horseback, with an escort of two soldiers; proving that I was not singular in the precaution I had taken. Villena has also its rock, and castle, and huerta, the latter larger than those of Elda or Sax, because Villena is a place of some size, containing several convents and churches, and nearly 8,000 inhabitants. The vine is extensively grown upon the lower acclivities of the neighbouring sierra, and is almost all converted into brandy. The population of this town appeared to me to present a singularly disreputable appearance--beggarly, idle, ragged, and ruffian-like; this, I was informed, was to be attributed to the great plenty and cheapness of brandy, which had produced its usual effects upon those who indulged in it without moderation. Leaving Villena, we entered the Sierra that lies between it and Fuente de Higuera; this is considered the most dangerous part of the road; and as it would be dusk before we could reach Fuente de Higuera, the soldiers new primed their guns, and armed me with a sabre, and we kept close together. We had a singular, and certainly very interesting rencontre, by the way. In travelling through a narrow valley covered with aromatic shrubs, I noticed upon one of the slopes, two figures in a stooping posture, whom I at first mistook for women; but upon coming near, I discovered them to be tawny Moors, clothed in the Moorish dress, and that they were engaged in searching for something on the ground: we passed within a hundred yards of them, and exchanged salutations; and I observed, that each carried a tolerably large basket. I did not learn the explanation of what I had seen till I reached San Felipe; every year, in Spring, and in Autumn, the Moorish physicians come to these parts from the shores of Africa, to gather medicinal plants,--a custom that may be called the only remaining tie between Barbary and Spain.