Testament into Manchu. Borrow acquired the language and performed
his task with an almost incredible expedition. He also learned Russian,
and in the summer of 1835 proposed to the society that he should himself
distribute the work which he had seen through the press upon the confines
of the Far East. This scheme was scotched by the refusal of the Russian
Government to grant him the necessary authorization and passports. But
Borrow's energies were transferred to a project which scarcely, if at
all, less deserves the epithet Quixotic. It was to disseminate a
Castilian translation of the Vulgate (made by Father Scio at Valencia
between 1790 and 1793) in Spain and Portugal. To disperse Bibles in
Papua or in Park-lane were, it might be argued, an enterprise fully as
hopeful as to scatter them in Galicia or La Mancha; but this is neither
here nor there, and the stimulus that was lacking in other directions was
abundantly supplied to the society and their emissary by the fact that,
according to the _regla quinta_ of the old Index, all Spanish versions of
the Bible or of any part of it were absolutely forbidden, and that as a
necessary consequence the Bible was a book as unfamiliar in Spain as it
was held to be dangerous and revolutionary. Spain was to Borrow what the
Harley Ministry was to Swift. It seemed to develop in him an almost
superhuman activity and power; and, fond of cant as Borrow's employers
too often were, it is infinitely to their credit that they not only
tolerated but even applauded the unconventional epistles which he wrote
to them of his exploits during his three long journeys in Spain, which
with two brief intervals occupied him from November, 1835, down to April,
1840. These letters with the addition of a few chapters and a number of
insignificant changes made up "The Bible in Spain," which was published
by John Murray on December 10, 1812, when "El Gitano," as the
enthusiastic Ford dubbed the author, literally woke up to find himself
famous. His experience for a season was that of "the man Sterne"; he
dined with peers, Ambassadors, and Bishops, and, like Major Pendennis,
was particularly complacent with Bishops. We might here for a moment
compare his position to that of Johnson in 1763. He had gone down into
the arena and fought his wild beasts, and had come up triumphant, as
Johnson had done after the Dictionary. He still had difficulties to meet
and debts to face, for he had gradually become e