oriano to
Caramanchel, a village at the distance of half a league from Madrid, the
only one towards the west which had not been visited last year. He
stayed there about an hour and disposed of twelve copies, and then
returned, as he is exceedingly timid and was afraid of being met by the
thieves who swarm on that road in the evening. In a few days I depart
for Guadalajara and the villages of Alcarria.

(UNSIGNED.)

To the Rev. A. Brandram

(_Endorsed_: recd. Mar. 15, 1839)
NAVAL CARNERO, NEW CASTILE,
_March_ 4, 1839.

REVD. AND DEAR SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your kind
letter of the 6th ult., which I hope to be able to answer in all points
on another occasion. I am now in a small town on the road to Talavera,
to which place it is possible that I may proceed. I take up the pen in
order to give you a brief account of what has taken place since I last
wrote. I have that to communicate which I am confident will cause
yourself and the remainder of my dear friends in Earl Street to smile;
while at the same time it will not fail to prove interesting, as
affording an example of the feeling prevalent in some of the lone and
solitary villages of Spain with respect to innovation and all that
savours thereof, and the strange acts which are sometimes committed by
the rural authorities and the priests, without the slightest fear of
being called to account; for as they live quite apart {392} from the rest
of the world, they know no people greater than themselves, and scarcely
dream of a higher power than their own. In my latest communication I
stated that I was about to make an excursion to Gaudalajara and the
villages of Alcarria; indeed I merely awaited the return of Vitoriano to
sally forth: I having despatched him in that direction with a few
Testaments as a kind of explorer, in order that from his report as to the
disposition manifested by the people for purchasing, I might form a
tolerably accurate opinion as to the number of copies which it might be
necessary to carry with me. However I heard nothing of him for a
fortnight, at the end of which period a letter was brought to me by a
peasant, dated from the prison of Fuente La Higuera, a village eight
leagues from Madrid, in the _campina_, o