It might appear at the first glance that Portugal ought to be a member of a state including the whole of the Iberian peninsula; but it is neither to chance nor to events purely historical that Portugal owes its separate existence. The country is one by its climate, fauna, and vegetation, and the inhabitants dwelling within it naturally adopted the same sort of life, nourished the same ideas, and joined in the same body politic. It was by advancing along the coast, from river to river, from the Douro to the Minho and Tejo, from the Tejo to the Guadiana, that Portugal constituted itself an independent state.

Soil and climate mark off Portugal very distinctly from the rest of the Iberian peninsula. Speaking generally, that country embraces the Atlantic slopes of the plateau of Spain, and the limit of the heavy rains brought by westerly winds coincides very nearly with the political boundary between the two countries. On one side of the line we have a humid atmosphere, frequent rains, and luxuriant forests; on the other a brazen sky, a parched soil, naked rocks, and treeless plains. These abundant rains convert the feeble streams flowing from the plateau into great rivers. The natural obstacles, such as rapids, which obstruct the principal amongst them, are met with near the political frontier of the country. The harbour of Lisbon was the kernel, as it were, around which the rest of the country has become crystallized. Its power of attraction proved equal to that which caused the rest of the peninsula to gravitate towards Madrid and Toledo.

As frequently happens where neighbouring nations obey different laws and are made to fight each other at the caprice of their sovereigns, there is no love lost between Spaniards and Portuguese. The former, being the stronger, sneer at “Portugueses pocos y locos” (small and crack-brained). The Portuguese are far more demonstrative in giving expression to their aversion. Formerly “Murderer {470} of the Castilians” was a favourite sign-board of houses of entertainment, and the national poetry breathes passionate hatred of the Spaniard. This animosity must interfere with the Iberian union, advocated only by a handful of people.

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Fig. 191.—RAINFALL OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA.

According to Jelinek and Hann. Scale 1 : 10,300,000.

Ancient Lusitania was inhabited by Celtic and Iberian tribes, who resisted for a considerable time the conquering arms of Rome. Those dwelling near the coast had been subjected to the influence of Greek, Phœnician, and Carthaginian colonists; but the influence exercised by the Romans, who forced their language and form of government upon the people, was far more durable. Suevi and Visigoths have left but few traces of their presence. The Mo­ham­me­dans of various races have largely modified the blood and manners of the inhabitants, especially in Algarve, where they maintained themselves to the middle of the thirteenth century. The numerous ruins of fortresses existing throughout the country bear witness to the severe struggles which took place between these races before uniformity of government and religion was established.

The Kings of Portugal, taking the advice of the Inquisition, expelled all heretics. The persecution of the Moors was pitiless, but the Jews were occasionally granted a respite. The Spanish Jews settled near the frontier, having outwardly embraced {471} the Christian religion, were permitted to remain; but the more conscientious Jews kept true to their faith, and carried the knowledge they possessed to other countries of Europe and to the East. At the time of their exile they were engaged in literature, medicine, and law, as well as in commerce; at Lisbon they had founded an academy of high repute; it was a Jew who introduced the art of printing into Portugal; and Spinoza, that noble and powerful thinker, was a Jew of Portuguese extraction.

But the Portuguese have not only the blood of Arabs, Berbers, and Jews in their veins, they are likewise much mixed with negroes, more particularly in the south and along the coast. The slave trade existed long before the negroes of Guinea were exported to the plantations of America. Damianus a Goes estimated the number of blacks imported into Lisbon alone during the sixteenth century at 10,000 or 12,000 per annum. If contemporary eye-witnesses can be trusted, the number of blacks met with in the streets of Lisbon equalled that of the whites. Not a house but had its negro servants, and the wealthy owned entire gangs of them. The immunity of Portuguese immigrants who face the deadly climates of the tropics is sometimes ascribed to this infusion of negro blood, but erroneously as we think. Most of these immigrants come from the mountains of the north, where the race is almost pure; and if the Portuguese become acclimatized more rapidly than individuals of other nations, they owe it to their sobriety.