f the edition it must be disposed of, if
possible, in a different way--I may say the usual way; part must be
entrusted to booksellers, part to colporteurs, and a depot must be
established at Madrid. Such work is every person's work, and to any one
may be confided the execution of it; it is a mere affair of trade. What
I wish to be employed in is what, I am well aware, no other individual
will undertake to do: namely, to scatter the Word upon the mountains,
amongst the valleys and the inmost recesses of the worst and most
dangerous parts of Spain, where the people are more fierce, fanatic and,
in a word, Carlist,--parts where bookshops are unknown, and where none of
those means can be resorted to for the spread of the Bible which can be
used in the more civilised portions of the kingdom.

This is the plan which I most humbly offer to the consideration of the
Committee and yourself. I shall not feel at all surprised should it be
disapproved of altogether; but I wish it to be understood that in that
event I could do nothing further than see the work through the press, as
I am confident that whatever ardour and zeal I at present feel in the
cause would desert me immediately, and that I should neither be able nor
willing to execute anything which might be suggested. I wish to engage
in nothing which would not allow me to depend entirely on myself. It
would be heart-breaking to me to remain at Madrid, expending the
Society's money, with almost the certainty of being informed eventually
by the booksellers and their correspondents that the work has no sale.
In a word, to make sure that some copies find their way among the people
I must be permitted to carry them to the people myself; and what people
have more need of Christian instruction than the inhabitants of the
districts alluded to?

Ere the return of the _contrabandista_ to Cordova, I purchased one of the
horses which had brought us to Madrid. It is an exceedingly strong,
useful animal, and as I had seen what it is capable of performing, I gave
him the price which he demanded (about 11 pounds, 17s.). It will go
twelve leagues a day with ease, and carry three hundred-weight on its
back. I am looking out for another, but shall of course make no further
purchase until I hear from you. I confess I would sooner provide myself
with mules, but they are very expensive creatures. In the first place,
the original cost of a tolerable one amounts to 30 pounds; and they,
mo