EORGE BORROW.

To the Rev. A. Brandram.

(_Endorsed_: recd. May 21, 1839)
SEVILLE, SPAIN, _May_ 2, 1839.

REVD. AND DEAR SIR,--I have been in Seville one week. Perhaps on
learning this you will be disposed to demand the reason of my not having
written previously to this, knowing, as I do, the anxiety of my friends
to know the fate of their adventurer in his wanderings in wild Spain; but
believe me that I had several reasons for deferring, the principal being
an unconquerable aversion to writing blank letters. At present I have
something to communicate besides my arrival, indeed one or two odd
things. The courier and myself came all the way without the slightest
accident, my usual wonderful good fortune accompanying us. I may well
call it wonderful. I was not aware when I resolved to venture with the
mail that I was running into the den of the lion, the whole of La Mancha
with the exception of a few fortified places being once more in the hands
of Pollillos and his banditti, who whenever it pleases them, stop the
courier, burn the vehicle and letters, murder the paltry escort which
attends, and carry away any chance passenger to the mountains, where an
enormous ransom is demanded, which if not paid, brings on the dilemma of
four shots through the head, as the Spaniards say. The upper part of
Andalusia is becoming rapidly nearly as bad as La Mancha. The last time
the courier had passed, he was attacked at the defile of La Rumblar by
six mounted robbers; he was guarded by an escort of as many soldiers; but
the former suddenly galloped from behind a solitary _venta_ and dashed
the soldiers to the ground, who were taken quite by surprise, the hoofs
of the robbers' horses making no noise on account of the great quantity
of mud. The soldiers were instantly disarmed and bound to olive-trees,
with the exception of two who escaped amongst the rocks; they were then
mocked and tormented by the robbers, or rather fiends, for nearly half an
hour, when they were shot, the head of the corporal who commanded being
blown to fragments with a blunderbuss. The robbers then burnt the coach,
which they accomplished by igniting the letters by means of the tow with
which they light their cigars. The life of the courier was saved by one
of them who had formerly been his postillion; he was, however, robbed and
stripped. As we passed by the sce