Excursions in the mountains of Ronda and Granada, with characteristic sketches of the inhabitants of southern Spain, vol. 2/2

BY CAPTAIN C. ROCHFORT SCOTT, AUTHOR OF “TRAVELS IN EGYPT AND CANDIA.”
“ Aqui hermano Sancho, podemos meter las manos hasta los codos, en esto que llaman aventuras. ” Don Quijote.
IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. — 1838. LONDON: F. SHOBERL, JUN. 51, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET.
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DEPARTURE FROM CORDOBA—POST-ROAD TO CADIZ—CARLOTA—ECIJA—CARMONA—ROAD FROM ECIJA TO GIBRALTAR—LOCUSTS—OSUNA—SAUCEJO—AN OLLA IN PERFECTION—RONDA—SPLENDID SCENERY ON THE ROAD TO GRAZALEMA—DISTANT VIEW OF ZAHARA—GRAZALEMA—EXTENSIVE PROSPECT FROM THE PASS OF BOZAL—SECLUDED ORCHARDS OF BENAMAJAMA—PAJARETE—EL BROQUE—UBRIQUE—DIFFICULT ROAD ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS TO XIMENA—OUR GUIDE IN A RAGE—FINE SCENERY—XIMENA—STRENGTH OF ITS CASTLE—ROAD TO GIBRALTAR.
ON leaving Cordoba, we turned our horses’ heads homewards, taking the arrecife , or high road, to Seville and Cadiz. This appears to follow the direct Roman military way given in detail in the Itinerary of Antoninus; the distances from station to station, on the modern road, agreeing perfectly with those specified in the Itinerary, which, as it runs very straight as far as Ecija, would not be the case if the Roman road had diverged either to the right or left, as some are disposed to make it, placing Adaras (one of the intermediate stations) on the margin of the Guadalquivír.
Several monuments, bearing inscriptions alluding to this military way, are preserved at Cordoba. They all describe it as being from the temple of Janus to the Bœtis, (meaning, it must be presumed, the mouth of the river) and to the ocean.
The parish contains 250 houses, and a population of 1500 souls. The fields round Carlota certainly appear to be better tilled than those in other parts of the country, and there is a German tidiness about its white cottages, as well as a platterfacedness about the little white-headed urchins assembled round the doors, that are quite anti-Spanish.