ngs_ as he was obliged to renounce when he took
possession of it.

From hence, by a road more wonderful than safe or pleasing, you are led
on a ridge of mountains to the lofty cell of _St. Onofre_. It stands in
a cleft in one of the pine heads, six and thirty feet (I was going to
say) above the earth; its appearance is indeed astonishing, for it seems
in a manner hanging in the air; the access to it is by a ladder of sixty
steps, extremely difficult to ascend, and even then you have a wooden
bridge to cross, fixed from rock to rock, under which is an aperture of
so terrifying an appearance, that I still think a person, not over
timid, may find it very difficult to pass over, if he looks under,
without losing in some degree that firmness which is necessary to his
own preservation. The best and safest way is, to look forward at the
building or object you are going to.--Fighting, and even courage, is
mechanical; a man may be taught it as readily as any other science; and
I would _pit_ the little timid hermit of _St. Onofre_ to a march, on
the margin of the precipices on this mountain, against the bravest
general we have in America. The man that would not wince at the whistle
of a cannon-ball over his head, may find his blood retire, and his
senses bewildered, at a dreadful precipice under his feet. _St. Onofre_
possesses no more space than what is covered in by the tiling, nor any
prospect but to the South. The inhabitant of it says, he often sees the
islands of _Minorca_, _Mallorca_, and _Ivica_, and the kingdoms of
_Valencia_ and _Murcia_. The weather was extremely fine when I visited
it, but there was a distant haziness which prevented my seeing those
islands; indeed, my eyes were better employed and entertained in
examining objects more interesting, as well as more pleasing. Going from
this hermitage, you have a view of the vale of _St. Mary_, formerly
called la _Vallee Amere_, through which the river _Lobregate_ runs, and
which divides the bishoprick of Barcelona from that of _De Vic_.

Lest you should think I am rather too tremendously descriptive of this
_upland_ journey, hear what a French traveller says, who visited this
mountain about twenty years ago. After examining every thing curious at
the convent, he says, "_Il ne me restoit plus rien a voir que
l'hermitage qui est renomme, il est dans la partie la plus elevee de la
montagne, & partage en treize habitations, pour autant d'hermites. Le
plaisir de le voir de