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HISTORY
OF THE
REVOLUTIONS OF PORTUGAL.
THE kingdom of Portugal makes part of the great extent of country called Spain;[4] most of its provinces bear the names of the different kingdoms into which it is divided: that of Portugal lies to the West of Castille, and on the most western coast of Europe; it is only a hundred and ten leagues in length, and its greatest breadth does not exceed fifty. The soil is fertile, the air wholesome, and the heat of the climate is tempered by refreshing breezes and fruitful showers. The crown is hereditary, and the monarch absolute. The formidable tribunal of the Inquisition is regarded by this prince as the safest and most useful means of forwarding his political views, and as such, employed by him with the greatest success. The Portugueze are naturally fiery, proud, and arrogant, greatly attached to their religion, though more superstitious than truly devout; they regard almost every event as a prodigy, and not only persuade themselves, but endeavour to persuade others, that they are the peculiar favourites of Providence, which never fails to protect them in the most extraordinary manner.
The original inhabitants of this country have never been justly ascertained. Some historians make them the descendants of Tubal, and it would be scarcely possible for the most fabulous accounts to trace their origin farther back; every nation, indeed, has some chimerical notions on this head; there is not, however, the smallest doubt, that these provinces belonged successively to the Carthaginians and the Romans; but towards the beginning of the fifth century the whole of Spain became the prey of the Alains, the Sueves, the Vandals, and the rest of the barbarous nations generally termed Goths, when Portugal was sometimes governed by its own appropriate kings, and sometimes subjected to the Castilian monarchs.
During the reign of Roderick, last king of the Goths, in the beginning of the eighth century, the Moors, or more properly speaking the Arabs, subjects of the calif Valid-Almanzar, crossed from Africa into Spain, and conquered a great part of that country, to which they were invited by count Julien, a Spanish nobleman, whose resentment towards Roderick, for the violation of his daughter, induced him to forward by every possible means the designs of the enemy, who extended their dominions from the straits of Gibraltar to the Pyreneans; they could not, however, pierce into the Asturian mountains, where the Christians flew for refuge, and were governed by prince Pelagio, who founded the kingdom of Leon or Oviedo in that spot.
Portugal shared the fate of the other Spanish provinces, and became subject to the Moors, who established a variety of different governments, which on the death of the Great Almanzar became independant, and were transformed into small principalities; these, however, did not long exist, they were disunited by emulation and clashing interests, whilst luxury and indolence completed their ruin.