not win
it, for a little patience and a little prudence is all that is required.
I came to Madrid without a single letter of introduction, and without
knowing an individual there. I have now some powerful friends, and
through the kindness of Sir Geo. Villiers, the British Ambassador at the
Spanish Court, I have had an interview with that most singular man,
Mendizabal, whom it is as difficult to get nigh as it is to approach the
North Pole. I have obtained his promise that when matters are in some
degree settled in this country, he will allow us to commence our
operations; but the preposterous idea, which by some means or other he
has embraced, that we have been endeavouring to foment disturbances
amongst the slaves of Cuba, prevents his looking upon us with favourable
eyes.

I now write for orders; if you have received my letters and journals
(copious extracts from which you had better print), you will see how
successful I have been in the Alemtejo, as our books are now for sale at
Evora and Elvas, the two principal towns, and the Gospel of Christ has
been preached to many who were ignorant of it even by name; you will see
what I have been doing at Badajoz, especially amongst the Spanish
Gypsies, whose dialect of the Rommany I have so far mastered as to be
able to translate into it with tolerable ease. Now, until my friends
here and myself can claim the fulfilment of Mr. Mendizabal's promise, do
you wish me to go to Granada, or back to Badajoz, and finish my
translation of St. Luke into Rommany, with the assistance of the Gypsies
of those places, who are far more conversant with their native language
than their brethren in other parts of Spain; or shall I return to Lisbon
and exert all my interest towards the execution of the plan which I
communicated first to Mr. Wilby, and then to yourself, namely, attempting
to induce the Government to adopt the Scriptures in the schools which
they are about to establish? Since I have been at Madrid I have obtained
letters to individuals of great importance at Lisbon, and I know that Don
Jose d'Azveto will do anything to serve me within the limits of reason.
Therefore let the Committee be summoned, and a resolution forthwith
adopted as to my next course. I think all our negotiations in the
Peninsula may be brought to a successful termination in a few months;
then you must send over an agent, a plain man of business, to engage
colporteurs and to come to arrangements with booksell