[83] The first Lusitanians of whom we have any record or tradition were almost certainly Celts.
[85] May you go with God; i.e. God be with you; good-bye.
[89] The modern Portuguese vossem or vossé has degenerated into a mode of address to inferiors, and not having any such vocable as the Spanish Vd nor using the second person plural in ordinary address, as in French and English, the Portuguese is forced to turn every sentence, “Is the gentleman’s health good?” “Will Mr. Continho pass the mustard?” “If Mr. Borrow smokes, will he accept this cigar?” In familiar speech the second person singular is universally used.
[90] Castellano afrancesado Diablo condenado. The proverb is of very general application.
[96] During the Peninsular war, Badajoz was besieged by the French in 1808 and in 1809, and again in 1811, when it surrendered, March 11, to Soult. It was thrice besieged by Wellington; first on April 20, 1811; next in May and June of the same year; and thirdly, in the spring of 1812, when he captured the city by storm, on the night of April 6, after a murderous contest, and a loss, during the twenty days’ siege, of 72 officers and 963 men killed, and 306 officers and 3483 men wounded. The province of Badajoz has an area of 8687 square miles, and a population of (1884) 457,365.
[98] See note on p. 11. It is uncertain where the missionary Joao Ferreira d’Almeida made this translation; probably in Ceylon. The place and date of his death are equally uncertain. His translation, revised by more than one Dutch scholar, was finally printed in 1712 at Amsterdam, at the cost of the Dutch East India Company. When the British and Foreign Bible Society first undertook the publication of the Bible in Portuguese in the years 1809–1810, this version of Almeida was selected; but the objections made to its accuracy were so numerous that in 1818, and again in 1821, a reprint of Pereira’s translation was adopted in its place.
[99] This was indeed treason, when the “1811’s” were in their prime, and the “1834’s” were already maturing. But ordinary port wine, as made up for the English market, was rather filthy, and as remade up by the grocer or small wine merchant in England, resembled blacking rather than the juice of the grape.
[100] This is certainly not true now. Perhaps, if Borrow’s explanation is the true one, in that we have not of late “roughly handled” our jealous neighbours, Sebastopol and Pekin and excuses for being in Egypt have dulled the friendly feelings generated by Vitoria and Waterloo!
[102a] “Charity, Sir Cavalier, for the love of God, bestow an alms upon me, that I may purchase a mouthful of red wine.”
[102b] “St. James and close Spain!” The battle-cry of Castilian chivalry for a thousand years.