nafque, a city in the Pyrenees, gives 600 livres, French (the livre is 1odh. English) a year, for the pafturage of this ftock of 2000 sheep. In the winter he fends them into the lower parts of Catalonia, a journey of 12 or 13 days, and when the fnow is melted enough in the fpring, they are conducted back again. They are the whole year kept in motion, and moving from fpot to spot, which is owing to the great range they every where have of pafture. They are always in the open air, never houfed or under cover, and never tafte of any food, but what they can find on the hills.

Four fhepherds, and from four to fix large Spanish dogs have the care of this flock: the latter are in France called of the Pyrenees breed; they are black and white, of the fize of a large wolf, a large head and neck, armed with collars fluck with iron fpikes. No wolf can ftand against them; but bears are more potent adverfaries If a bear can reach a tree he is fafe; he rifes on his hind legs, with his back to the tree, and fets the dogs at defiance. In the night the fhepherds rely entirely on their dogs, but on hearing them bark are ready with fire-arms, as the dogs rarely bark if a bear is not near. I was furprised to find that they are fed only with bread and milk. The head fhepherd is paid 120 livres a year wages and bread; the others 30 livres and bread. But they are allowed to keep goats, of which they have many, which they milk every day; their food is milk and bread, except the flesh of fuch fheep or lamb, as accidents give them. The head fhepherd keeps on the mountain top, or an elevated spot, from whence he can the better fee around while the flock traverfes the declivities. In doing this the fheep are expofed to great danger in places that are ftoney for by walking among the rocks, and efpecially the goats, they move the ftones, which rolling down the hills, acquire an ac celerated force enough to knock a man down, and fheep are often killed by them: yet we faw how alert they were to avoid fuch ftones, and cautiously on their guard against them. Examine the facep attentively. They are in general polled, but fame have horns; which in the rams turn backwards behind the ears, and project half a circle forward; the ewes' horns turn allo behind the ears, but do not project: the legs white or reddifh; fpeckled faces, fome white, fome reddifh; they would weigh fat, I reckon, on an average, from 15lb. to 18lb. a quarter. Some tails fhort, fome left long. A few black faccp among them: fome with a very little tuft of wool on their foreheads. On the whole, they refemble thofe on the South Downs: their legs are as fhort as thofe of that breed; a point which merits obfervation, as they travel fo much and fo well.

Their fhape is very good; round ribs, and flat ftrait backs; and would with us be reckoned handfome freep; all in good order and flesh. In order to be ftill better acquainted with them, I defired one of the thepherds to catch a ram for me to feel, and examine the wool, which I found very thick and good of the carding fort, as may be fuppofed. I took a fpecimen of it, and also a hoggit, or lamb of laft year. In regard to the mellow foftnefs under the fkin, which, in Mr. Blakewell's opinion, is a ftrong indication of a good breed, with a difpofition to fátten, he had it in a much fuperior degrée to many of our English breeds, to the full as much fo as to the South Downs, which are, for that point, the best short-woolled sheep which I know in England. The fleece was on his back, and weighed, as I gueffed about 8lb. English, but the average they fay of the flock is from four to five, as I calculated by reducing the Catalonian pound of 12 oz. to ours of 16, and is all fold to the French at 30s. the lb. French. This ram had the wool of the back part of his neck tied clofe, and the upper tuft tied a fecond knot by way of ornament, nor do they ever fhear this part of the fleece for that reafon: we faw feveral in the flock with this fpecies of decoration. They faid that this ram would fell in Catalonia for 20 livres. A circumftance which cannot be too much commended, and deferves univerfal imitation, is the extreme docility they ac cuftom them to. When I defired the thepherd to catch one of his rams, I fuppofed he would do it with his crook; or not be able to do it at all; but he walked into the flock, and fingling out a ram and a goat bid them follow him, which they did immediately, and he talked to them while they were obeying him, holding out his hand as if to give them fomething. By this method he brought ine the ram, which I caught, and held without difficulty.

Having fatisfied ourfelves with this examination of the flock, we returned to the direct road for Vielle, which quits the river above defcribed about a small league from Bagnere; it enters foon after the most wooded regions of the Pyrenees, and at the fame time the most romantic. The road is fo bad that no horfe but thofe of the mountains could pafs it; but our mules trod fecurely amidst rolling stones on the edges of precipices of a tremendous depth, but furefooted as they are, they are not free from fumbling and when they happen to trip a little in thole fituations, they electrify their riders in a manner not altogether fo pleasant as Mr. Walker. Thefe mountains are chiefly rocks of micaceous fchiflus, but there are large detached fragments of granite. Pafs the frontier lands which divide France and Spain; and rifing on the mountains, fee

the Spanish valley of Aran, with the river Garonne winding through it in a beautiful manner. The town of Bolofte is at the foot of the mountains, where is the Spanish cuftomhoufe. Mules imported into Spain pay here 16 livres. A four year old horfe the fame. A fix year old one 13 ditto. An ox 5. And a theep-1-2 fol. This vale of Aron is richly cultivated, and without any fallows. Nothing fcarcely can be finer than the view of the valley from heights fo great as to render the most common objects interefting; the road's lead under trees, whose arching boughs prefent at every ten paces new landfcapes. The woods here are thick, and prefeat fine affes of fhade; the rocks large, and every outline bold; and the verdant vale that is fpread far below at our feet, has all the features of beauty in contraft with the fublimity of the furrounding mountains, Defcend into this vale, and bait at our first Spanish inn. No hay, no corn, no meat, no windows; but cheap; eggs and bread, and fome trout for 15 fous. (7dh. English.) Follow from hence the Garonne, which is really a fine river, but very rapid on it they float many trees to their faw-mills, to cut into boards; we faw many at work. The vale is narrow, but the hills to the left are cultivated high up. No fallows. They have little wheat, but a great deal of rye; and much better barley than in the French mountains: instead of fallows they have maize and millet, and many more potatoes than in the French moun tains; haricots (French beans) alfo, and a little hemp. Saw two fields of vetches and fquare peas. The fmall potatoes they give to their pigs, which do very well on them; and the leaves to their cows, but affert that they refuse the roots. Buck-wheat alfo takes the place of fallow; many crops of it were good, and fome as fine as poffible. The whole valley of Aran is well culti vated and highly peopled; it is eight hours long or about forty miles English, and has in it 32 villages. Thefe villages, or rather little towns, have a very pretty appear, ance, the walls being well built, and the houfes all well flated; but on these towns the fpectacle changes at once; we found them the abodes of poverty and wretched nefs; not one, window of glafs to be feen in a whole town; fcarcely any chimnies, both ground floor and the chambers vomiting the fmoke out of the windows.

Arrive at Vielle, the capital of this val. ley,fand the paffage from this part of Fran e to Barcelona; a circumftance which has given fome trifling refources to it. Informed here, that we could not go into Spain with out a palport; waited therefore on the governor, who prefides over the whole valley and its 32 towns: his houfe was the only one we had feen with glafs windows.

He is a lieutenant-colonel, and knight of Calatrava; in his ante-room, the king's picture with a canopy of flate over it. The governor received us with the Spanish formality, and affured us that a few months ago, there was an order to fend every foreigner, found without a passport, to the troops: fuch orders fhew pretty well the number of foreigners here: on each fide of his bed was a brace of piftols, and a crucifix in the middle: we did not afk in which he put the moft confidence.

Made enquiries concerning their agriculture. They have no farmers. Every one cultivates his own land, which is never fallowed. A journal of meadow fells in the valley for 800 livres, irrigated, but by no means fo well as in the French mountains, nearly an arpent of Paris, which is fomething more than an English acre. The lower arable lands are fold for 5 or 600 lires; the fides of the hills proportionably; and the higher lands not more than 100. Their crops of all forts vary from 2-1-2 to three quarters English the acre. Hay harveft no where begun. They have no fpecies of manufactures, but spinning and weaving for the private ufe of every family. The price of labour 10 fous a day and food; women for hoeing, &c. 2-12 fous and food.

The mountains belong, as in the French Pyrenees, to the parishes; each inhabitant has a right to cut what wood he pleases for fuel and repairs, in the woods affigned for that purpofe; others are let by leafe at public auction for the benefit of the parish, the trees to be cut being marked; and in general, the police of their woods is better than on the French fide. When woods are cut they are preferved for the next growth. Their mountain paftures are not used by themselves, they let to the owners of large flocks, who bring them from the lower part of Catalonia, as with the French mountains; thele flocks rife to 4000 fheep, the rent in general, being from 5 to 7 fous a head for the fummer food. Every inhabitant poffeffes cattle, which he keeps in the common mountains in what quantity he pleases; but others who do not belong to the parifh, pay 5 to 7 fous a head for the fheep, and 10 fous for a cow, which difproportion they explain, by faying, that heep must have a much greater range. In fummer they make cheese, which we tafted and found good. In winter their cattle are kept at home, and their cows fed on buck-wheat straw, which they affert to be good food; alfo that of maize and millet, and a little hay; moft of it being affigned to their mules. They have good theep, but all are fent to Saragofa or Barcelona. Have fearce any oxen; what few they kill, they falt for winter.

(To be concluded in our next.)

The

The Life and Amusements of Ifaac Bickerfaffe, Junior. An original work. With Obfervations bistorical, critical, illuftrative, &c. &.

(Continued from Page 624 of our Mag. for December laft.)

CHAP. XI.

A Removal.

R. BICKERSTAFFE had conceived

ing prejudiced by principles which his father fo much detefted, Mr. Bickerstaffe quitted London, and retired to a fmall feat which he poffeffled in a part of Derbyshire, remarkable for romantic fcenes of nature, interspersed with delightful fpots of cultivation. And here I might employ feveral pages in a charming defcription, not only of Mr. Bickerftaffe's house and gardens, but of the whole county. This I referve for a future

Ma violent prejudice againft bringing up chapter in a part of my work which may

children in the metropolis. He thought that they could never have a true relifh for the moft refined pleasures of existence, if they were accustomed in their infancy to a town life. The mind, he faid, was always contracted; the ideas never expanded. He would have children flourish in a pure air, acquire a love for nature, and know fomething of the creation" without doors," before they are transplanted into what is commonly called the world, that is, a confufed heap of knaves and fools. He lamented that it was impoffible to rear an infant in town, wit out its being witnefs to innumerable scenes highly improper for the eyes of childhood, and liable to receive impreffions which might never be effaced. He held in great abhorrence that unblushing sharpness, that premature fagacity, fo remarkable in most of thofe children who are perpetually witneffing the little deceptions, and mean artifices of fome parents who are filly enough to inftil into the infant mind fuch principles as may render them prudent rather than generous, and initiating them into the little practices of life which a wife parent would never with his child to know. This, however is the common system in all trading places, where money is reckoned the fummum bonum, the only thing necessary, except the art of obtaining it. Mr. Bickerftaffe conceived that there was fomething in the very air of a great town, inimical to all focial virtues; and that it would be wonderful for a child to become noble, generous, and humane in a place where all thofe qualities are dreaded as leading to certain ruin! But he well knew that fuch virtues could never be productive of evil effects, and that those who fuffered under the appearance of them, had, by running into extremes, converted them into vices: generofity and humanity exerted on improper objects and occafions, lofe their nature, and deferve other appellations..

:

To be wife as ferpents, and harmless as doves, he faid, comprifed the ne plus ultra of all education but he wifely differed with most people on the nature of wisdom, frequently remarking, that by the wifdom in vogue, more qualities of the ferpent were acquired than one.

To prevent the mind of young Ifaac be-
Gent. Mag. Jan. 1788.

require the reader to poffefs fome local knowledge for the better understanding what will hereafter be laid before him.

I fhall only fay, that Mr. and Mrs. Bickerftaffe left London with the best wishes of their friends, and a promise from Mr. Addifon to vifit them in the course of the enfuing fpring.-And now, gentle reader, thou who haft read romance upon romance, and novel upon novel; thou whofe curiofity is always excited at the mention of a ftage coach, which never fails in the prolific brain of a writer, to produce variety of characters, and surprising adventures, prepare to hear-that Mr. Bickerstaffe travelled in his own coach, and met with no adventures at all. It is, indeed, a fhocking truth, but being truth, I must reveal it; for let it be remembered, that I am not writing either romance or novel, but an authentic Life of Ifaac Bickerstaffe, Junior.

The family fafely arrived at their rural refidence, and Mr. Bickerstaffe began to make preparations for reducing to practice, the nursery, and other plans he had formed; and was particularly happy in his domeftic employments, 'till an event happened, which for fome time directed his attention to an object at once interesting and affecting.

But as I am now on the point of introducing a new character, and forming a small epifode, it may be necessary to adopt a new ftyle, and begin a new chapter.

CHAP. XII.

Being the laft of Book I.

IN one of thofe autumnal evenings, when the fetting fun, and the falling leaves, mutually tend to excite a pleafing melancholy, and imprefs on the mind a recollection of the final diffolution of all things, Mr. and Mrs. Bickerstaffe wandered from their houfe to the banks of the river Dove, accompanied only by Lightfoot, a favourite spaniel. The gentle murmurs of the river contributed to the tranquillity of the scene, and the whispering winds feemed to be taking their parting kiffes of the wild flowers and the bending willows which decorate the banks of the river Dove. They came at length to the spot where Mr. Bickerstaffe,

B

many.

1

and where his lovely partner firft gave him hopes that his affiduities were not beflowed in vain. Every pleafing and every melancholy fcene recurred to their memory, and the village bells which were then ringing, reminded them of that day which they recollected with equal fatisfaction; the day when the village witneffed the union of faith the moft perfect, and of love the most fin

many years ago, firft declared his paffion, gold. Mrs. Bickerstaffe happened to have lavender drops with her, applied them fo effectually, that the lady, fighing, opened her eyes, and faid, "The purfuit is vain!". -It was with great difficulty that they recovered her fo as to bear her, leaning on their arms, to the next farm-house ; he talked wildly and diftractedly all the way; but from her difcourfe no trace could be formed of her connexions. She was carefully put to bed. Mr. Bickerfaffe fent the farmer's fervant to Wirksworth, the nex: market town, for a phyfician; and Arabella could not be prevailed upon to quit the chamber of her fair charge during the whole night.

cere.

"This fcene, my dear Arabella," said Mr. Bickerstaffe, "this fcene I review with fenfations inexpreffible; and I fee, with pleafure, the tears of delightful recollection ftand in the eye of my Arabella. How excellent is it, to vifit this fpot' with hearts unaltered, with affections unabated; to have efcaped the giddy vortex of fashion, and to wander on the banks of the Dove with the fimplicity, and the fincerity of our younger years!" -The heart of Arabella was full: fhe could not speak, but the tenderly embraced her husband, when they were fuddenly alarmed by a horfe leaping over an adjoining hedge, having thrown his rider, who it appeared by his comparifon, muft have been a lady: the animal fprung forward, leaving Mr. and Mrs. Bickerftaffe in fear and amazement. They proceeded to a ftile, and went in fearch of the lady, but could trace no footsteps of the horfe, for the fun had fet and the moon had not yet risen over the hills. They wandered to a confiderable diftance, and were lamenting the misfortune of the ftranger, when Lightfoot came bark ing with unufual violence, and, feizing the coat of his mafler, attempted as it were, to draw him along. Arabella was terrified, and endeavoured to beat him away; but Mr. Bickerstaffe faid, "The dog had feen fomething and wants to conduct us to fome particular spot. Go feek!" added he; and Lightfoot ran before them, looking back every few yards to note whether they followed him, Mr. Bickerstaffe in the mean time, difcourfing on the many ftrange difcoveries that had been made by the agency of dogs, under uncommon circumftances. Mrs. Bickerstaffe now began to grow tired and to think that it would be ufelefs to follow Lightfoot any further. They, there fore, ftopped, when the dog immediately renewed his folicitations by a mournful cry, and by jumping on his mafter. The moon now appeared above the fummit of the mountains, and they agreed to follow Light foot a little further, when they prefently beheld him ftop, and heard him renew his barking. They approached the fpot, and found a lady lying infenfible, and, they were afraid breathlefs on the ground. She appeared to be about eighteen; delicate in her perfon, and elegant in her drefs, which was a green riding-habit embroidered with

And now, courteous reader, thou muft fufpend thy curiofity till the fecond book of this ingenious production fhall inform thee of further particulars; for I muft here clofe the firft; my twelve chapters conclude with the concluding number of the first volume of the elegant work in which I am permitted to give thefe biographical annals. I truft, however, that we fhall renew our acquaintance with the new year, and laugh over many a prank of young Ifaac-but first prepare to hear a tale of tender woe! (To be continued.)

Portuguese Voyages to the Eaf-Indies. Various Voyages and Transactions of Pecheco Alburquerque, and other various Adventu

rers.

(Continued from Page 648 of our Mag. for December laft.)

HE

Tit buildings werethen ftately, the inha bitants Pagans and Moors; it belonged to Sabay, king of Decan, in whofe borders it ftood; and was provided with a good garrison, being in fear of the Portuguele power, upon notice of whofe approach, fix thousand men were fent to reinforce them, and new works raised planted with cannon. However, the inhabitants, on the viceroy's approach, began to fend away their goods, which the governor forbade on pain of death; and the more to encourage them, brought his own wife into the town, which example was followed by many of the principal men whofe wives were alfo at their country-houfes. On the 30th of December the fleet entered the port, and every one ftrove who fhould land firft. The works being high, the hot flew over the Portuguese, who having gained the fhore, divided themselves in order to attack the three gates at once; which the Moors perceiving, made fo brave a resistance at each place, that the dead bo dies caufed a greater ftop than the defendants or their works.

Nunno Vas Pereyra being fent to force an entrance another way, after a hot difpute,

put