A steam-boat leaves Seville every second day, for St. Lucar and Cadiz, alternately. It is a great convenience to the inhabitants of Seville, to be carried direct to Cadiz; because the journey over land from St. Lucar, is both tedious and dangerous; but as I was desirous of seeing the country, I preferred the steam-boat to St. Lucar. Between the city gate and the river side, I was obliged to pay three sets of custom-house officers, that I might escape the delay and inconvenience of having my baggage searched; and when I remonstrated the third time against the extortion, the officer candidly told me, it was all they had to depend upon. The boat started at nine; and so precise are its arrangements, that although it had not parted six yards from the shore, the master refused to take in four passengers who were running down the bank. Half a league from Seville, we passed an extensive line of Moorish walls and fortifications, crowning a height about a mile from the river; these now serve as the garden wall of the Franciscan convent, which is erected behind. The weather was, as usual, delightful, and the views from deck, were in the highest degree pleasing. The right bank of the river is covered with olive grounds, which slope upward to the adjoining elevations, covered with gardens and convents and villages. The left bank presents a constant succession of extensive orange groves; and on both sides, there is a carpet of the finest verdure. St. John’s Hill, about two leagues from Seville, is another fine object; this is the highest ground near Seville, and is a famous resort of parties of pleasure: the handsome and extensive convent of Hieronomites, and many little chapels and hermitages,--among others, the chapel of the Virgin, who insisted upon dwelling here,--crown the elevation; and a subject village straggles down the hill, and nestles at its foot. The passengers were numerous; and among them, was a fair sprinkling of friars of the Franciscan and Capuchin orders. These persons never forget that they have the reputation of poverty to support; and a contribution is accordingly always attempted, to pay their fares; and it generally succeeds. Before reaching St. Lucar, the master of the boat asked me if I wished to pay any thing for the friars; but my interrogatory in return, whether he charged them less than other passengers, prevented a repetition of the question. One passenger, however, subscribed liberally; this was a young officer, who, from the employment of king’s page, had been promoted to a commission in the army, and was on his way to join his regiment at Cadiz. Whether Ferdinand had presented his page with a purse at parting may be doubted; but the young officer produced a purse marvellously well loaded, and presented a small gold piece of the value of two dollars, to the captain of the vessel, towards the expenses of the friars. Something, I think, may be gathered from this, as to the education of those who are brought up at court.