if he had obeyed his orders, he would have deposited
in the office of the Civil Governor. So intently indeed was he engaged
in his reading that he did not at first observe my entrance; when he did,
however, he sprang up in great confusion, and locked the book up in his
cabinet; whereupon I smiled and told him to be under no alarm, as I was
glad to see him so usefully employed. Recovering himself he said that he
had read the book nearly through, and that he had found no harm in it,
but on the contrary everything to praise, adding that he believed that
the clergy must be possessed with devils (_endemoniados_) to persecute it
in the manner which they did.

It was Sunday when the seizure was made, and I happened to be reading the
Liturgy. One of the _alguacils_ when going away made an observation
respecting the very different manner in which the Protestants and
Catholics keep the Sabbath, the former being in their houses reading good
books, and the latter abroad in the bull ring, seeing the wild bulls
tearing out the gory bowels of the poor horses. The bull amphitheatre at
Seville is, as you perhaps may have heard, the finest in all Spain, and
is invariably on a Sunday, the only day in which it is open, filled with
applauding multitudes.

I am happy to be able to say that the soil of Spain is now tolerably well
broken up, and to a certain degree prepared for the labours of any future
missionaries bearing the blessed Bible, who may visit this interesting
part of the world. We have had considerable difficulty hitherto in
circulating Testaments, and we have merely been enabled to scatter about
the thousands, which are now being read, by very extraordinary exertions.
Nevertheless when I take a large view of the subject I feel inclined to
believe that we were right in commencing our labours in the interior of
Spain by printing an edition of the New Testament at Madrid. I much
doubt whether the astonishing demand for the Bible, which almost
compelled me to leave the capital, and which now shows itself at Seville
and other places, for example, Burgos, Valladolid, and Saint James of
Galicia, to the great mortification of the Popish clergy, would have
arisen but for the appearance of the New Testament which awaked in
people's minds the desire of possessing the entire Scripture. With great
humility, however, I feel disposed to advise that provided at any future
time the Society should think itself called upon to recommence its