m had lately been discontinued, as
the schoolmasters experienced the greatest difficulty in obtaining their
salaries; but that he had heard that it was the intention of the
Government to establish schools in all parts of the country on the
Lancastrian system--which since my return to Lisbon I have discovered to
be a fact. He told me that he had a copy of the New Testament in his
possession, which I desired to see; but on examining it I discovered that
it was only the Epistles (from Pereira's version) with long Popish notes.
I asked him whether he considered that there was any harm in reading the
Scripture without notes; he said that there was certainly no harm in it,
but that simple people without the assistance of notes could derive but
little benefit therefrom, as the greatest part that they read would be
unintelligible to them. Whereupon I shook hands with him, and on
departing said that there was no part of Scripture so difficult to
understand as those very notes which were intended to elucidate it, and
that the Almighty would never have inspired His saints with a desire to
write what was unintelligible to the great mass of mankind.

For some days after this I traversed the country in all directions,
riding into the fields where I saw the peasants at work, and entering
into discourse with them; and notwithstanding many of my questions must
have appeared to them very singular, I never experienced any incivility,
though they frequently answered me with smiles and laughter. (I have now
communicated about half of what I have to say; the remainder next week.
G. BORROW.)

To the Rev. A. Brandram

(_Endorsed_: recd. Jan. 10, 1836)
EVORA IN THE ALEMTEJO, 15_th_ _Dec._, 1835.

At length I departed for Mafra; the principal part of the way lay over
steep and savage hills, very dangerous for horses, and I had reason to
repent, before I got back to Cintra, that I had not mounted one of the
sure-footed mules of the country. I reached Mafra in safety; it is a
large village, which has by degrees sprung up in the vicinity of an
immense building, originally intended to serve as a convent and palace,
and which next to the Escurial is the most magnificent edifice in the
Peninsula. In this building is to be seen the finest library in
Portugal, comprising books in all sciences and languages, and which, if
not suited to the place in which the building