caijde, and so after the same manner of the Syndect and other officers.

Notwithstanding this fair way of chusing their magistrates, there is faction and interest made to get in their friends into the magistracy. They are generally very poor, despising industry and arts; and when they come to govern, or to be Alcaijde, have opportunities of exacting even upon their own people as well as strangers, and which they make no scruple of doing in the face of the world. I could relate several particulars to my knowledge, but that I should expose them too much; and, indeed, it would hardly be believed that such tricks and little things were practised in Spain, where every one, from the highest to the lowest, value themselves on their families, nobility, and punctilio's of honour.

In order to be thus qualified to get into the government (as I said before)

They must be noble.

Their nobility is thus, not to have had any of their kindred a Jew, Moor, Turk, or Heretick.

And, to prove this, the person, that would be of the government, presents a request to the province of Guiposcoa, in which is explained his intention, and asks to be a Cavallero Dillegenzero*, viz. that his birth and estate may be enquired into, in order to his being made a nobleman.

The province or town orders their Syndect, whose business it is to enquire into his family (and for which he has a pistole a day) to go to the place of his birth along with him, and there take both private as well as publick informations of his family, which afterwards he reports to the province or magistrates of the place, where such a one would be of the government. If the report is allowed, the Cavallero Dillegenzero is declared noble.

Besides these qualifications already mentioned,

There is one yet very remarkable, and without it, if they were descended from Cæsar's or Achilles's race, they cannot be noble, viz.

If they live, or are to live in town, they must have a house of their own, or else they must have land enough in the province whereon they have two thousand apple-trees, or whereon they may raise two thousand apple trees, and then the Cavallero Dilligenzero is admitted, or made capable of being admitted into the government. No man can be noble by his wife, or by her estate.

The town of St. Sebastians is seated on the south side, and at the bottom of a high hill of free-stone, in a square form; the town is hid by the hill, as you make towards the land, and is not to be seen, till you are in the road.

There are two gates, that of the Peer, and the other that is called the Passage-Gate, from which, goes a road to Passage, a

• A candidate for an honourable employment.

uoble harbour. There is a horn-work with a ravelin before it, that covers the Passage-Gate, and but very ordinary, and in ill repair, and out of all due proportion.

The castle upon the top of the hill stands prettily, a noble prospect from it all along that part of the Bay of Biscay, from Cape Martinchauco to Arkason and Cape Britton in France. The going up, or access to this castle, is difficult, which adds to the strength of it, and, I think, all that can be said justly of this castle is this. Although the Spaniards are extreme proud of it, and quote you Charlequin, who said in praise of it (if you will believe them) that, if he should lose all Spain, and had only the castle of St. Sebastians, he would recover it.

The castle was blown up by the magazine's taking fire, but is now rebuilt, and in good repair. All the water in the castle is rainwater, which is conveighed into a well by leaden pipes from the roof of the guard-room, and barracks, which are indeed very fine, and capable of lodging two thousand men conveniently.

The garison at present consists of a serjeant and six men, which by detachment from the main guard (which does not consist of above twelve, besides a governor, captain, lieutenant, and ensign) is relieved every day by the like number, and by sometimes a lesser. The soldiers are all beggars, and, if a stranger refuses to give them something, they contrive to do him mischief.

There are two platforms mounted with guns, I suppose designed to secure the harbour, and play on ships that would force themselves into the road. They are too high to be of any use to them, as well as the castle for this purpose.

In the mouth of the harbour there is a hill called St. Claire, where there was, three months ago, a hermit of the order of St. Francis, who tells twenty legends and stories, and helps to fill the casks with wine. As he must live by begging, so the poor old fellow will be every day as drunk as a beggar; for this reason, they say, they turned him out of his cell, but it is rather believed it was to make room for one that is now there, a gentleman of a considerable estate in the kingdom of Castile. For reasons, he has his estate taken from him, and is confined to this island as a hermit, to beg his bread for fourteen years, and then returns to his estate again: the church and clergy enjoy his estate in the mean time.

All that die hereticks are buried here; when the corpse is carried out of town to be wafted over to this island to be buried, the mob of men and women follow, insulting over the corpse, crying aloud, He goes to Hell.' The hermit has the benefit of the ground on his island, and sells it as he thinks fit.

To give the clergy their due, they are not so troublesome to strangers when they are sick and dying, although hereticks, with their extreme unction and wafers, as in France.

The coming into the road, and over the Bar of St. Sebastians, is difficult, unless with a leading wind, a great rock lying under water in the middle of the Bar.

But, to run no hazard, the pilots will force themselves on board of you; which is commendable enough, if it was not on design to impose upon you, and make one pay what they please, and no help for it, nor no justice done, if you complain. The consul and merchant strangers, residing at St. Sebastians, have brought them to some better reason, and to composition, but, for all that, it is still as they please. Every fisherman looks upon himself as good as Signior Alcaijde himself: so that a man must sit down under all affronts and hardships, and be quiet.

Their way of living at St. Sebastians.

People that are of the better sort, and distinguishable, after having enjoyed the musick of serenading a little before day, they get up and drink chocolate, without which they will not stir abroad if their house was on fire; then they take, both men and women, a great deal of pains with their hair, dress themselves, and go to church; they and their priests understand what they pray to God for much alike, for not one in twenty of their clergy understands Latin.

After mass the men go to the Peer, where they tarry till eleven of the clock; then they go to the middle of the town, called the Four Corners, where they stay till twelve; after it has struck, if it was to save the town, they would not stay a minute longer, and oftentimes break off in the middle of a story or sentence, to go home to their Olio. The first thing presented at their tables is a chocolate cup of soop, or the gravy of meat boiled, and bread crumbled into it, served upon earthen platters; then comes the roast meat, then the boiled, and at last the desert.

They give this reason for bringing the roast meat before the boiled (which seems plausible enough). The best of the boiled meat, say they, is in the broth, and there is more substance and nourishment in the roast than the boiled; for that reason, this would pass, if they did not spoil their roast meat and fowl, by over-doing of them, and roasting them dry as they do their boiled meat, by boiling it to pieces.

But most people think it is rather in opposition to the rest of the world, for they shew it almost in every little thing else. Cyder they have cheap, and abundance of sweet apples, very large, all round the country. The corn of the country is Indian corn, and no other. With wheat they are supplied from the Sound, and sometimes from Barbary, and often from England. They have been so hard put to it this last year, that they have been forced to make bread of chesnuts, which is the reason they are prohibited to be exported. They have extraordinary good rabbits of Navarre, and wild-fowl plenty; their pigeons are much esteemed, and their red partridges of Arragon are excellent and large.

Fish they have plenty, and of good sorts, if they will be at the pains to catch it; and if the sea (which with a north-west blowing wind flies high on the Bar, and even up almost to the top of the island St. Claire, about six hundred feet) will permit. The sea often

times in the harbour flies to the top of the walls forty feet high and

more.

When the fishermen come from sea with their boats, their wives are sitting on the Peer with their husbands clokes and long spada's, or long rapiers. The husband walks in state into the town, and his wife carries the basket of fish on her head to the market-place and sells them. Billingsgate language and noise is nothing to what the fishermen and apple-women make at St. Sebastians; they are always quarrelling, and will cuff heartily, and will not be friends under a week. Their common language is Basque, which is as much different from Spanish as Welch from English.

Their houses are lofty and stately, only covered with pan-tiles; and because of great unexpected squalls of wind, which happen here often, they lay great stones on the pan-tiles to keep them fast. Sometimes both stones and pan-tiles are fetched down by storms of wind, and, their streets being narrow, it is dangerous then to walk in them. Their rooms are large, and there is only one chimney in a house of five rooms of a floor, and four or five stories high, and that at the top of the house. They live all winter in the upper stories, to enjoy the benefit of the sun, and in the lower rooms in summer. It is very hot here; the reflexion of the sun from the castle-hill on one hand, and from the sand in the vale on the other, is the cause that it is hotter here than in many places of a more southern latitude. Their beds are finely carved and gilt, but very hard to lie on; their curtains are of linnen laced at every half-yard broad, but not wide enough to draw round the bed; they have few or no glass windows, only lattices, their beds stand all in alcoves.

Merchant strangers, unless married with a Spanish woman, have not the liberty to hire houses, but must get one of the town to hire them, and live in it with him, and they generally go snacks with the merchants in their profits.

From dinner they go to sleep till two or three, and then go out of town between the Horn-work and the Town-wall. There they tarry all the afternoon, either playing, or looking on those that play at tennis and ninepins: their tennis-court is in the open air, and rough paved, yet they are very expert in tossing the ball.

In the winter they pass their time till eight of the clock at night in private houses, or at an assembly, where every one, that comes in, pays sixpence. He may either pick up a party to play at cards, or sit and see others play and talk, and call for three or four glasses of wine. If they stay beyond eight, the mayor sends his algosins, and makes money of the company, as well as of him that entertains them after such an hour. Sometimes the clock strikes eight, when it is but seven, if the mayor wants a little money.

The men are very tight in their Spanish garb, their long spada's, their silk stockings and slashed shoes. The women, modestly and odly attired, all of them go vailed, their vails being very large, gathered at the bottom in such a manner, that, as they walk, their vails sit as full blown about them, as the sails of a ship, before the wind. Their petticoats are proportionable, and the ladies, who

generally all sit on the ground or floor, have such an address, when they sit down to fling their petticoats out in a round, that, modestly speaking, they take up more room than any milstone in England does in circumference, and the wind gathered under their coats, by the turn they make, is so long getting out, that, by degrees, as their coats fall, they find a cool breese that is very refreshing to them, in so hot a climate. They seldom stir abroad, the better sort, but to church, and even not then without a great deal of jealousy of an ill-natured husband; they have pretty faces, black eyes, and would look about them, as women do, in other countries, if they durst.

The priests are the only happy men that enjoy the ladies company, who are about eighty in all. Their revenue is but small; they live merry lives; eat and drink of the best, in private houses, where they are always welcome; few or none of them, but have three or four children, and no reflexion on them.

When a priest would lie with a woman, he absolves her from the great scruple, women make of whoredom's being a great sin. He tells her, he will take that sin to himself. As for the other scruple, that women have of losing their reputation and spoiling their fortunes, there is no such thing amongst them; for, if a man gets a woman with child, that does not pass for a prostitute, he is only to keep the child, and give the wench a portion (if she has nothing of her own), who marries and is not a bit the worse looked upon.

Women have another advantage in this country; for, after they are contracted and all matters settled, and the day of marriage agreed on, she has the liberty to desire her bridegroom to come and shew himself a man: and if she does not find him to her satisfaction, the contract is void, and she is a good maid still.

They bring up some of their young women to play on the Spanish harp; for which they let their nails grow so long, that it looks strangely.

They do not allow of any bawdy-houses; but every street, in à dark night, serves their turn, and he must look to himself that disturbs them, or spoils sport.

Every Sunday and holiday, the ordinary sort of them have a dance on the market-place, thus:

There are three drums and pipes; the drum-major who has the biggest drum, which is about the bigness of a child's drum, is the common hangman. There they whistle with one hand, and beat their drums with the other, till there is a ring made, when one of the nimblest of the fellows goes into the middle of the ring, shews his activity, takes out of the ring a wench, she her mate, and so it goes round; the first fellow leads the brandle, and all dance and shew their parts for an hour. The coopers, who are numerous here, on St. Andrew's-Day, their patron, go a maskquerading all day, and play twenty tricks ridiculous enough, and would not work that day for any reward, but they make it up at other times, for they are at work before day.

The country all round abounds with oak, proper for the staves,