(Endorsed: recd. Sept. 28, 1838)
Madrid, 19 Sepr. 1838,
No. 16 Calle Santiago.
Revd. and dear Sir,—I write this to
inform you that for the last ten days I have been confined to my bed by a
fever. I am now better, and hope in a few days to be able to proceed
to Saragossa, which is the only road open.
I bore up against my illness as long as I could, but it became too
powerful for me. By good fortune I obtained a decent physician, a Dr.
Hacayo, who had studied medicine in England, and aided by him and the
strength of my constitution I got the better of my attack, which however
was a dreadfully severe one.
I hope my next letter will be from Bordeaux. I cannot write more
at present, for I am very feeble.
I remain, Revd. and dear Sir, truly yours,
G. Borrow.
Gentlemen of the Committee of the British and
Foreign Bible Society—
I beg leave to call your attention to the following statements.
They relate to my proceedings during the period which embraces my second
sojourn in Spain—to my labours in a literary point of view—to
my travels in a very remarkable country, the motive in which they
originated and the result to which they led—to my success in the
distribution of the Scripture, and to the opposition and encouragement
which I have experienced. As my chief objects are brevity and
distinctness I shall at once enter upon my subject, abstaining from
reflections of every kind, which in most cases only tend to embarrass,
being anxious to communicate facts alone, with most of which, it is true,
you are already tolerably well acquainted, but upon all and every of which
I am eager to be carefully and categorically questioned. It is
neither my wish nor my interest to conceal one particular of what I have
been doing. And with these few prefatory observations I commence.
In the first place, my literary labours. Having on my former visit
to Spain obtained from the then Prime Minister Isturitz and his Cabinet
permission and encouragement for the undertaking, I published on my return
an edition of the New Testament at Madrid, a copy of which I now present to
you for the first time. This work, executed at the office of Borrego,
the most fashionable printer at Madrid, who had been recommended to me by
Isturitz himself and most particularly by my excellent friend Mr.
O’Shea, is a publication which I conceive no member of the Committee
will consider as calculated to cast discredit on the Bible Society, it
being printed on excellent English paper and well bound, but principally
and above all from the fact of its exhibiting scarcely one typographical
error, every proof having been read thrice by myself and once or more times
by the first scholar in Spain.
I subsequently published the Gospel of Saint Luke in the Rommany and
Biscayan languages. With respect to the first, I beg leave to observe
that no work printed in Spain ever caused so great and so general a
sensation, not so much amongst the Gypsies, that peculiar people, for whom
it was intended, as amongst the Spaniards themselves, who, though they look
upon the Roma with some degree of contempt as a low and thievish race of
outcasts, nevertheless take a strange interest in all that concerns them,
it having been from time immemorial their practice, more especially of the
dissolute young nobility, to cultivate the acquaintance of the Gitanos as
they are popularly called, probably attracted by the wild wit of the latter
and the lascivious dances of the females. The apparition therefore of
the Gospel of Saint Luke at Madrid in the peculiar jargon of these people
was hailed as a strange novelty and almost as a wonder, and I believe was
particularly instrumental in bruiting the name of the Bible Society far and
wide through Spain, and in creating a feeling far from inimical towards it
and its proceedings. I will here take the liberty to relate an
anecdote illustrative of the estimation in which this little work was held
at Madrid. The Committee are already aware that a seizure was made of
many copies of Saint Luke in the Rommany and Biscayan languages, in the
establishment at which they were exposed for sale, which copies were
deposited in the office of the Civil Governor. Shortly before my
departure a royal edict was published, authorising all the public libraries
to provide themselves with copies of the said works on account of their
philological merit; whereupon, on application being made to the office, it
was discovered that the copies of the Gospel in Basque were safe and
forthcoming, whilst every one of the sequestered copies of the Gitano
Gospel had been plundered by hands unknown. The consequence was that
I was myself applied to by then agents of the public libraries of Valencia
and other places, who paid me the price of the copies which they received,
assuring me at the same time that they were authorised to purchase them at
whatever price which might be demanded.
Respecting the Gospel in Basque I have less to say. It was
originally translated into the dialect of Guipuscoa by Dr. Oteiza, and
subsequently received corrections and alterations from myself. It can
scarcely be said to have been published, it having been prohibited and
copies of it seized on the second day of its appearance. But it is in
my power to state that it is anxiously expected in the Basque provinces,
where books in the aboriginal tongue are both scarce and dear, and that
several applications have been made at San Sebastian and in other towns
where Basque is the predominating language.
I now proceed to the subject of my travels in Spain. Before
undertaking them I was little acquainted with the genius of the Spanish
people in general, having resided almost entirely in Madrid, and I was
fully convinced that it was not from the inhabitants of one city that an
accurate judgment could be formed of a population of nine millions, thinly
scattered over a vast country so divided and intersected by mountain
barriers as is the Peninsula. With this population under all its
various circumstances and under all its various phases, the result of
descent from a variety of foreign nations, I was anxious to make myself
acquainted; for I reflected that he who builds a city on ground which he
has not fully examined will perhaps discover when too late that his
foundation is in a swamp, and that the whole of his labour is momentarily
in danger of being swallowed up. I therefore went forth not so much
for the purpose of distributing the Scriptures as to make myself acquainted
with the prefatory steps requisite to be taken in order to secure my grand
object. Before departing from Madrid I consulted with the many
friends, some of them highly distinguished, which I had the honour to
possess in that capital. Their unanimous advice, whether Catholics or
Protestants, was that for the present I should proceed with the utmost
caution, but without concealing the object of my mission which I considered
to be the simple propagation of the Scripture—that I should avoid
with diligence the giving offence to the prejudices of the people,
especially in the rural districts, and endeavour everywhere to keep on good
terms with the clergy, at least one-third of whom are known to be anxious
for the dissemination of the Word of God though at the same time unwilling
to separate themselves from the discipline and ceremonials of Rome. I
bore this advice in mind, which indeed perfectly tallied with my own ideas,
and throughout the two thousand miles of my peregrination during the summer
of last year, I performed much if not all of what I proposed, and am not
aware that in one single instance my proceedings were such as could
possibly merit reproof. I established depôts in all the
principal towns of the north of Spain, and in all gave notice to the public
of the arrival of the New Testament in a mild yet expressive advertisement
which I here exhibit, and which I beg leave to state is the only
advertisement which I ever made use of. The consequence was that the
work enjoyed a reasonable sale, and I experienced no
opposition—except in the case of Leon, a town remarkable for its
ultra-Carlism—but on the contrary much encouragement especially on
the part of the ecclesiastics. I visited Salamanca and Valladolid the
chief seats of Castilian learning, I visited Saint James of Compostella,
the temple of the great image of the Patron of Spain, and in none of these
cities was a single voice raised against the Bible Society or its
Agent. But I did not confine myself to the towns, but visited the
small and large villages, and by this means became acquainted with both
citizens and rustics; amongst the former I found little desire for sober
serious reading, but on the contrary a rage for stimulant narratives, and
amongst too many a lust for the deistical writings of the French,
especially for those of Talleyrand, which have been translated into Spanish
and published by the press of Barcelona, and for which I was frequently
pestered. I several times enquired of the book-sellers of the various
towns which I visited as to the means to be used towards introducing the
Scripture amongst the villagers; but to this question they invariably
replied that, unless the villagers came to the towns and purchased the
work, they saw no means of making it known amongst them, unless I made
friends in the villages in whose hands I could deposit copies for sale,
though in such a case the difficulty of recovering the money would be
immense. I therefore at last resolved to make an experiment, the
result of which fully corresponded with an opinion which I had for some
time formed—namely, that in the villages, sequestered and apart
amongst the mountains and in the sandy plains of Spain, I might at any time
be sure of a glorious harvest, far more rich than that which it was
possible for me to expect in towns and cities, unless I had recourse to
means unwarranted, nay forbidden, by the Book which I distributed, and
which means had been proscribed by the Society itself on my departure for
Spain. But now to proceed at once to the experiment, which I made at
different periods and in different provinces.
I twice sallied forth one morning alone and on horseback, and proceeded
to a distant village, bearing behind me a satchel of books. On my
arrival, which took place just after the siesta or afternoon’s
sleep had concluded, I proceeded in both instances to the market-place,
where I spread a horse-cloth on the ground, on which I deposited my
books. I then commenced crying with a loud voice: ‘Peasants,
peasants, I bring you the Word of God at a cheap price. I know you
have but little money, but I bring it to you at whatever you can command,
at four or three reals according to your means.’ I thus
went on till a crowd gathered round me, who examined the book with
attention, many of them reading it aloud. But I had not long to
tarry; in both instances I disposed of my cargo almost instantaneously, and
then mounted my horse without a question having been asked me, and returned
to my temporary residence lighter than I left it. This occurred in
Castile and Galicia, near the towns of Santiago and Valladolid.
The above are incidents which I have hitherto kept within the privacy of
my own bosom and which I have confided to none; they were but experiments,
which at that time I had no wish to repeat, nor to be requested so to
do. I was perfectly aware that such a line of conduct, if followed
before the proper time, would give offence to the clergy, not only to the
Carlist but the liberal clergy, and likewise to the Government; and it
formed no part of my plan to be on ill terms with either. For I
remembered that I was a stranger and a labourer on sufferance in
Christ’s cause in a half-barbaric land, on which the light of freedom
and true religion was just beginning to dawn, and I was unwilling by
over-precipitance and for the sake of a mere temporary triumph to forego
the solid and lasting advantages which I foresaw, and had been told that
patience and prudence would assure. I resolved to use the knowledge
which I had obtained by these experiments only as a last resource, provided
any accident which it was impossible for me then to foresee should overturn
all the plans which my friends and myself had been forming for the quiet
and peaceful introduction of the Scriptures amongst the Spaniards with the
consent or at least with the connivance of the Government and clergy,
knowing well that a great part of the latter were by no means disposed to
offer any serious opposition to such a measure, they having sense and
talent enough to perceive that the old system can no longer be upheld of
which the essential part is, as is well known, to keep the people in
ignorance of the great sterling truths of Christianity. I now come to
the most distressing part of my narrative and likewise to the most
miserable of my own life.
I returned to Madrid from my long, fatiguing and most perilous journey,
in which I must be permitted to say that independent of a thousand
miraculous escapes from the factious and the banditti I had been twice
arrested as a spy, namely, once at Vigo and subsequently at Cape
Finisterre, in which latter instance I narrowly escaped with life, the
ignorant fishermen having determined upon shooting me and my guide.
Upon finding the booksellers of Madrid, with the exception of Razola, a man
of no importance, averse to undertake the sale of the New Testament I
determined upon establishing a shop of my own, a step to which I was
advised by many sincere friends of the Cause and of myself. Having
accomplished this, I advertised the work incessantly, not only in the
public prints but by placards posted in all the streets of the city; but I
wish it to be distinctly understood that the advertisement which I used was
the same quiet innocent advertisement, a copy of which you possess, and of
which I have availed myself in the provinces, an advertisement which had
never given offence nor was calculated to give offence if squandered about
the streets by millions. I make this statement in self-justification,
I having, in consequence of a letter in which I made some observations
respecting advertisements and handbills, received a paragraph in a
communication from home, in which I was checked with having made a
plentiful use of advertisements and handbills myself. It would have
been as well if my respected and revered friend the writer had made himself
acquainted with the character of my advertisements before he made that
observation. There is no harm in an advertisement, if truth, decency
and the fear of God are observed; and I believe my own will be scarcely
found deficient in any of these three requisites. It is not the use
of a serviceable instrument, but its abuse that merits reproof, and I
cannot conceive that advertising was abused by me when I informed the
people of Madrid, that the New Testament was to be purchased at a cheap
price in the Calle del Principe.
I had scarcely opened my establishment at Madrid when I began to hear
rumours of certain transactions at Valencia, said to be encouraged by the
British and Foreign Bible Society. As these transactions, as they
were reported, were in the highest degree absurd and improper, and as I was
convinced that the Bible Society would sanction nothing of the kind, I
placed little or no credit in them, and put them down to the account of
Jesuitical malignity. In less than a fortnight appeared in the
newspapers what I conceived to be a gross and uncalled-for attack upon the
Bible Society, appended to a pastoral of the Bishop of Valencia, in which
he forbade the sale of the Bible throughout his diocese. The
Committee are acquainted with my answer to that epistle; they are well
aware with what zeal and fervour I spoke against the spirit of Popery, and
defended the Society and their cause as far as my feeble talents would
permit. Yet I here confess that the said answer was penned, if not in
perfect ignorance of what had been transacted in Valencia, at least in
almost utter disbelief; for had it been my fortune at the time to have been
as well informed as I have subsequently been, so far from publishing the
answer in question I would at once have publicly disclaimed, as I
afterwards did, any participation or sympathy in transactions which were
not only calculated to bring the Bible cause into odium, but the Bible
Society into difficulties, into discredit, and worst of all, into
contempt. A helpless widow was insulted, her liberty of conscience
invaded, and her only son incited to rebellion against her. A lunatic
was employed as the repartidor or distributor of the blessed Bible,
who having his head crammed with what he understood not, ran through the
streets of Valencia crying aloud that Christ was nigh at hand and would
appear in a short time; whilst advertisements to much the same effect were
busily circulated in which the name, the noble name, of the Bible Society
was prostituted; whilst the Bible exposed for sale in an apartment of a
public house served for little more than a decoy to the idle and curious,
who were there treated with incoherent railings against the Church of Rome
and Babylon, in a dialect which it was well for the deliverer that only a
few of the audience understood. But I fly from these details, and
will now repeat the consequences of the above proceedings to myself; for I,
I, and only I, as every respectable person in Madrid can vouch, have paid
the penalty for them all, though as innocent as the babe who has not yet
seen the light.
I had much difficulty at Madrid, principally on account of the state of
political matters which absorbed the minds of all, in bringing the New
Testament into notice. However by dint of perseverance I contrived to
direct the public curiosity towards it, indeed I was beginning to average a
sale of twenty copies daily, when the shop was suddenly closed by order of
the Government in consequence of the complaints from Valencia, myself being
supposed to be the instigator and director of the scenes in that place
already narrated. For the next four months I carried on negotiations
with the Government through the medium of Sir George Villiers, who from my
first arrival in the Peninsula, had most generously befriended me.
But in his endeavours to forward my views he found exceeding
difficulties. The clergy were by this time, both Carlist and liberal,
thoroughly incensed against me, and indeed with much apparent reason; the
former denounced me to the populace as a sorcerer and a heretic, and the
latter spoke of me as an accomplished hypocrite. I was at last flung
into prison—into the pestilential Carcel de la Corte, where my
faithful servant Francisco caught the gaol-fever, of which he subsequently
died. But in this instance my enemies committed a very imprudent act,
an act which had very nearly produced the result for which I had been so
long unsuccessfully negotiating. My protector, Sir George Villiers,
informed the Spanish Prime Minister, Ofalia, that unless full satisfaction
was offered me, he should deem it his duty to cease any further
transactions with the Spanish Government, and to order all the British land
and sea-forces, co-operating with those of the Queen to terminate the
rebellion, to desist from further operations.
I was about to obtain all I wished, when at the critical moment the news
of the scenes at Malaga arrived at Madrid, and Sir George had little more
to say than that Satan seemed to mingle in this game. Nevertheless I
left prison, with the understanding that the Government would connive at
the circulation of the Scriptures in a quiet manner, not calculated to
produce disturbances nor to give scandal to the clergy.
But speedily followed the affair of the sectarian tracts of Carthagena,
which tracts were sworn to as having been left there by agents of the Bible
Society; and I instantly knew that I had nothing more to expect from the
Government. But some time previous I had formed an unalterable
resolution that, come what might, I would no longer bear the odium of
actions, which in whatever motive they originated had already subjected me
to unheard-of persecution, loathsome imprisonment, loss of friends, and to
the grief of seeing prudent and long-brooded plans baffled and brought to
nought, and the Society to which I belonged subjected to opprobrium as I
believed undeserved; and I therefore published in the journals of Madrid an
advertisement, in which I disowned, in my own name and that of the Society,
any sympathy with the actor or actors in those transactions, which had
given so much cause of offence to the authorities, civil and ecclesiastic,
of Spain.
My principal reason for taking this step originated from my having
become personally acquainted with the ex-priest Pascual Marin, who arrived
at Madrid the very day in which I was committed to prison. His
narrative served to confirm all the rumours which I had previously
heard. The Committee are fully aware with what unwillingness I formed
the acquaintance of that man, who was sent up to me in order that I might
provide for him, without my consent being obtained or even demanded; but I
now rejoice in the circumstance, without which I might still have been
playing the odious, disgraceful, and heart-breaking part which I had
supported so long. But by the decided step which I now took, the
burden of obloquy fell at once from my shoulders, as the bundle of sin from
the back of Christian, and rolling into a deep pit was seen no more.
That advertisement gave infinite satisfaction to the liberal
clergy. I was complimented for it by the Primate of Spain, who said I
had redeemed my credit and that of the Society; and it is with some feeling
of pride that I state that it choked and prevented the publication of a
series of terrible essays against the Bible Society, which were intended
for the official Gazette, and which were written by the Licentiate Albert
Lister, the editor of that journal, the friend of Blanco White, and the
most talented man in Spain. These essays still exist in the editorial
drawer, and were communicated to me by the head manager of the royal
printing office, my respected friend and countryman Mr. Charles Wood, whose
evidence in this matter and in many others I can command at pleasure.
In lieu of which essays came out a mild and conciliatory article by the
same writer, which, taking into consideration the country in which it was
written and its peculiar circumstances, was an encouragement to the Bible
Society to proceed, although with secrecy and caution. Yet this
article, sadly misunderstood in England, gave rise to communications from
home highly mortifying to myself and ruinous to the Bible cause.
In the meantime my depôts had been seized in various parts of
Spain, depôts the greatest part of which I had established with
immense difficulty and peril, some of them being in the remote and almost
inaccessible province of Galicia, at the distance of almost four hundred
miles from Madrid. I now deemed that the time was at hand to avail
myself of my resource, and to sell at all risks the Testament amongst the
peasantry of Spain, by whom I knew that it would be received with transport
and with gratitude. I determined to commence with the Sagra of
Toledo, where resided an honest labourer of my acquaintance; my foot was in
the stirrup when I received a letter from home, which I can only consider
as having originated with the Enemy of mankind for the purpose of
perplexing my already harassed and agitated mind. In this letter I
was told, amongst other matter which I need not repeat, to prepare to quit
Spain. But by the shaft I knew the quiver from which it came, and,
merely exclaiming, ‘Satan, I defy thee,’ I hurried to Sagra,
and disposed of amongst the peasantry in one fortnight four hundred copies
of the New Testament. But it is hard to wrestle with the great Enemy;
another shaft arrived in the shape of a letter, which compelled me to
return to Madrid, whilst the cause of God was beckoning me to Aranjuez and
La Mancha, to which places I indeed hurried as soon as I had arranged
matters at Madrid.
Without losing time or being dispirited by the events of the last
journey, I repaired to Old Castile; here my success was almost miraculous,
nine hundred copies of the Holy Book being sold in less than three weeks,
but not in peace and tranquillity, as the province became suddenly a scene
of horrors which I shall not attempt to describe. It was not the war
of men, or even of cannibals, which I witnessed; it seemed a contest of
fiends from the infernal pit. But God guided me safe and unharmed
through this ‘valley of the shadow,’ and permitted me to regain
Madrid; where, upon finding myself formally recalled, I deposited the
Society’s property in as safe a place as I could find, and was about
to return home when a fever which had been long lurking in my blood at last
prostrated me, confining me to my bed for many days, at the expiration of
which, though very unfit for travel, I departed for England, where at last
by God’s will I am arrived in safety.
Before concluding, I have a communication to make, the importance of
which few, I believe, will be tempted to deny.
I have at various times stated that the Bible Cause had many and
powerful friends in Spain, though my statements up to the present moment
seem to have been hailed with little attention. I remember in one
particular letter recommending prudence, patience, and co-operation with
the liberal clergy, who were sincerely disposed to help us on, provided
that by intemperateness of conduct we gave them no reasonable ground for
offence. There is now a society formed at Madrid, determined upon
making the Word of God, without note or comment, known amongst the children
of Spain. The laws concerning the publishing the Scripture have been
diligently and minutely examined, and it has been discovered that by none
of the laws of Spain, ancient or modern, whether made by Cortes or by
kings, is the publication of the Scripture, in the whole or in parts, with
or without comment, forbidden—but merely and solely by particular
Bulls of various Bishops of Rome, which Bulls though respected by many of
the Spaniards form no part of the law of Spain. Provided resistance
be offered to the undertaking either by the Government or any portion of
the ecclesiastics, it has been determined to bring the matter before the
Cortes, from whom a favourable decision may be expected with
certainty. An individual has been selected as the ostensible manager
of this great and glorious undertaking, this individual is Mr. C. Wood,
whom I have already had occasion to mention, though it is in my power to
state that but for the manner in which the name of the Bible Society has on
various occasions been brought before the public, and almost invariably to
its disadvantage, myself its well-known Agent, would have been the person
selected. If it be here asked who are the respectable and influential
persons who are at the head of this undertaking and who patronise it, I
reply the Archbishop of Toledo, the Primate of Spain, and the Bishops of
Vich and Jaen.
Now merely one word in conclusion. I have related facts, and to
attempt to contravene them would be as futile as to endeavour to breast the
billows of the Atlantic. For the fact that I have throughout my
residence in Spain conducted myself as becomes a gentleman, a Christian and
an Agent of a Christian Society, I can at all times command the evidence of
Sir George Villiers. For the fact that no act of mine has given
offence to the Spanish Government, or was calculated to do so, I can, if
required, produce a communication from Count Ofalia, who has in writing
expressed to Sir George Villiers his full reliance in my prudence and good
faith. For the fact that the establishment at Madrid was closed, not
in consequence of my own imprudence, but on account of certain proceedings
at Valencia, I can receive, if I need it, a testimonial from Count
Ofalia. For the fact that proceedings of a highly objectionable
nature were transacted in the south of Spain, I have the affidavit of the
unhappy ex-priest Pascual Marin, who can likewise afford, when called upon,
information on various points. For the fact that my depôts in
various provinces of Spain were seized in consequence of doings with which
I had no connexion, I can cite official correspondence. For the fact
that my advertisement, in which I disowned in the name of the Society and
in my own any sympathy with the scenes alluded to, was productive of
infinite benefit to the Cause, I can at any time produce incontestable
evidence. And lastly, for my zeal in the Bible Cause, whilst employed
in the Peninsula, I can have the evidence not only of some of the most
illustrious characters resident in Madrid, but likewise that of the
greatest part of Spain, throughout which I believe my name is better known
than in my native village in East Anglia.
London,
Novr. 1838.
Having been requested to commit to paper my opinion respecting the mode
most advisable to be adopted for the propagation of the Word of God in
Spain, provided the Committee of the Bible Society should consider it their
duty to resume operations in that country, I shall as briefly as possible
communicate the results of an experience which three years’ residence
has enabled me to acquire. The Committee are already aware that I
have traversed the greatest part of Spain in all directions, and have lived
for a considerable time in Madrid and other large towns. I have
therefore had opportunities of forming a tolerably accurate idea as to the
mode of thinking upon religious subjects of the Spaniards, whether of town
or country, and of their character in general. I need not enter into
a repetition of my labours during my last sojourn in Spain. It is
well known that, after printing the New Testament at Madrid, I endeavoured
to distribute it in the principal towns, and also in the rural
districts. Particular circumstances prevented my experiencing in the
former the success which I had hoped for, and with some reason, at the
commencement of my Biblical labours; and indeed I did not find the minds of
the inhabitants of the great cities which I visited so well disposed as I
could have wished, for receiving and relishing the important but simple
truths of the Bible. I cannot say that a spirit of fanatic bigotry
was observable amongst them, except in a very few instances, but rather of
lamentable indifference; their minds being either too much engrossed by the
politics of the period to receive the doctrine of the Bible, or averse to
it owing to the poison of infidelity imbibed from the deistical writings of
the French. My success among the peasants was however very different,
nearly two thousand copies having been disposed of in an extraordinarily
short space of time, and under much disadvantage owing to the peculiarly
unhappy situation of those parts which it was my fortune to visit. I
will now, without further preamble, state the line of conduct which I
should wish to see pursued in Spain under existing circumstances.
As the minds of the inhabitants of the cities, from the causes above
stated, do not appear to be exactly prepared for the reception of the
Scripture, it seems most expedient for some time to come to offer it
principally to the peasantry, by the greater part of whom there is so much
ground for believing that it will be received with gratitude and joy.
True it is that the Spanish peasantry are in general not so well educated
as their brethren of the cities, their opportunities of acquiring a
knowledge of letters having always been inferior; nevertheless it would be
difficult to enter a cottage of which at least one of the inmates could not
read, more or less. They are moreover a serious people, and any book
upon religious subjects is far more certain of captivating their attention
than one of a lighter character, and, above all, their minds have hitherto
never been tainted by those unhappy notions of infidelity too prevalent
amongst the other class. There is one feature which I wish to mention
here, which is indeed common to the Spanish people in general but more
particularly to the peasantry, namely, that whenever a book is purchased,
whether good or bad, the purchaser entertains a firm intention of reading
it, which he almost invariably puts into execution. I do not make
this observation merely upon hearsay—though I have frequently heard
it from quarters which I am bound to respect—many examples tending to
substantiate the fact having come under my own knowledge. It is at
least a great consolation to the distributor of the Word of God in Spain,
that the seed which he casts around him is in general received by the earth
beneath the surface, from which he is induced to trust that it will some
day spring up and produce good fruit.
I now beg leave to repeat from a previous communication the manner in
which I made my first attempt to distribute the Scriptures amongst the
peasantry. I must here remind the Committee that until [I] myself
solved the problem of the possibility, no idea had been entertained of
introducing the Bible in the rural districts of countries exclusively
Papist. This remark, which I make with the utmost humility, merely
springs from an idea that a similar attempt, if made with boldness and
decision, might prove equally successful in Italy, Mexico, and many other
countries, even pagan, which have not yet been penetrated, particularly
China and Grand Tartary, on the shores of which the Bible labours under
great disadvantage and odium from being put into the hands of the natives
by people seemingly in connection with those for whom it is impossible they
can entertain much respect, as they are well known to contribute largely
towards the corruption of the public morals. But I now return to my
subject, and proceed at once to the experiment which I made at different
periods and in different provinces.
I twice sallied forth alone and on horseback, and bent my course to a
distant village. On my arrival, which took place just after the
siesta or afternoon’s nap had concluded, I proceeded in both
instances to the market-place, where I spread a horse-cloth on the ground,
upon which I deposited my books. I then commenced crying with a loud
voice: ‘Peasants, peasants, I bring you the Word of God at a cheap
price. I know you have but little money, but I bring it you at
whatever you can command, at four or three reals, according to your
means.’ I thus went on till a crowd gathered round me, who
examined the books with attention, many of them reading aloud, but I had
not long to wait. In both instances my cargo was disposed of almost
instantaneously, and I mounted my horse without a question being asked me,
and returned to my temporary abode lighter than I came. These
instances occurred in Castile and Galicia, near the towns of Santiago and
Valladolid.
It is the firm conviction of the writer from subsequent experience that
every village in Spain will purchase Testaments, from twenty to sixty,
according to its circumstances. During the last two months of his
sojourn in Spain he visited about forty villages, and in only two instances
was his sale less than thirty copies in each. The two villages which
he alludes to were Mocejon in the Sagra of Toledo, and Torre Lodones about
four leagues from Madrid in the road which leads to the Guadarama
hills. The last village is indeed a mere wretched assemblage of huts,
the inhabitants of which labour under the most squalid poverty, owing to
the extreme niggardness of the neighbouring soil, which consists almost
entirely of rock from which scarcely anything can be gathered, so that the
people are proverbially thieves. Only three copies of the sacred
volume were purchased in this unhappy place, and only nine in the
comparatively rich village of Mocejon—which, it is true, was visited
on the day of a festival, when the inhabitants were too much occupied with
dancing and other amusements to entertain any serious thoughts.
There are at the present moment about two thousand copies of the New
Testament in Madrid. It appears to the writer that it would be most
expedient to distribute one-half of these books in La Mancha, commencing
from the town of Ocaña, and concluding with Argamasilla at the other
end of the province; the remaining thousand might be devoted to the many
villages on the road towards Arragon, especially to those of Alcarria where
the people are honest, mild and serious. The writer would by no means
advise for the present an attempt to distribute the entire Bible amongst
the peasantry, as he is of opinion that the New Testament is much better
adapted to their understandings and circumstances. If it be objected
to the plan which he has presumed to suggest that it is impossible to
convey to the rural districts of Spain the book of life without much
difficulty and danger, he begs leave to observe that it does not become a
real Christian to be daunted by either when it pleases his Maker to select
him as an instrument; and that moreover if it be not written that a man is
to perish by wild beast or reptiles, he is as safe in the den even of the
cockatrice as in the most retired chamber of the king’s palace; and
that if on the contrary he be doomed to perish by them, his destiny will
overtake him notwithstanding all the precautions which he, like a blind
worm, may essay for his security.
In conclusion the writer begs leave to remind the Committee that a
society of liberal Spanish ecclesiastics is being formed for printing and
circulating the Scripture without note or comment. He does not advise
the entering into an intimate alliance and co-operation with this society,
but he ventures to hope that if it continue to progress, there will be
found Christian hearts in England to wish it success and Christian hands to
afford it some occasional assistance. If the work of the Lord be
done, it matters little whether Apollos or Paul be the labourers.
George Borrow.