I have nothing more to add of Malaga, excepting the price of provisions.
Beef is ten quartos the pound, of sixteen ounces; mutton the same. Pork, fourteen quartos. Eggs, two for six quartos—not much less than a penny each. A fine fowl, seven reals; a chicken, three reals; a duck, fifteen reals; a turkey, from twenty to thirty reals. The best bread, twelve quartos. Excellent wine, two reals per bottle. Potatoes, the measure of six pounds and a quarter, seven quartos, or about twopence. A barrel of anchovies, two reals. A partridge, four reals. A rabbit, ten reals. Fish, remarkably cheap and plentiful. Melons, grapes, pomegranates, figs, and prickly pears, so cheap as scarcely to form an article of expenditure.
Let it not be forgotten, that eight quartos are twopence farthing; and that, in one franc French, there are four reals.
CHAPTER XVII.
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JOURNEY FROM MALAGA TO GRANADA.—GRANADA.
Different Routes to Granada; Ascent of the Malaga Mountains; an Anecdote illustrative of Spanish Morals; Picture of a Venta and its Inmates; Night Arrangements; beautiful situation of Loxa; the Venta de Casin; first View of Granada; Reflections; the Situation of Granada and its Vega; the Alhambra; St. Michael’s Mount, and its Singularities; excavated Dwellings; View from the Mount; extraordinary Changes in Temperature; a Fire in Granada, and the curious means resorted to for extinguishing it; Superstition; the Cathedral; the Convents; the Archbishop; Husbandry in the Vega of Granada; State of Agriculture; the Duke of Wellington’s Estates; Effects of the Loss of the Colonies; the Paseos of Granada; the Population; the Market; Usages; the Italian Opera.
From Malaga to Granada, there are two roads; one by Velez Malaga, the other by Loxa. The former of these roads lies a great part of the way along the sea shore, and then turning to the left, leads through Alhama to Granada. By sleeping at Velez Malaga the first night, and at Alhama the second, tolerable accommodation may be had all the way to Granada. The other road, on leaving Malaga, strikes at once into the heart of the mountains, and leads to Granada by way of Loxa. By this road, it is necessary to sleep at ventas of the very worst description,—for Loxa does not make a convenient halting place,—and although neither of these roads are safe from robbery, the latter is by far the most celebrated for the crimes that have been committed upon it. I resolved to travel by the Loxa road; chiefly, because the scenery upon it was reported to be greatly more attractive than upon the road by Velez Malaga; and learning that a gallera was about to leave Malaga for Granada by the road which I had selected, I engaged a place in it, for which I paid two dollars and a half,—a very moderate charge for so long a journey.
I took my seat in the gallera at seven in the morning, and found my fellow travellers to consist of a middle-aged woman, the wife, as I afterwards learned, of a respectable shopkeeper in Malaga: her daughter, a sprightly, intelligent, and remarkably pretty girl of nineteen, two years married to a wine grower of the neighbourhood: a young woman of two or three and twenty, comely, and finely formed, on her way to Granada on speculation,—for she was one of those unhappy persons, whose temporary home depends upon the caprice of her temporary master; and another woman, who travelled openly as the mistress of the muleteer. Such was the company in the gallera.
Leaving Malaga, the road passes along the channel of a stream, and then enters the rich and highly cultivated country that lies between Malaga and the mountains, which we began to ascend, after travelling about three quarters of a league. This is the most extraordinary ascent I ever recollect to have seen: it is computed to be three leagues and a half, upwards of fourteen miles English, from the point at which the road enters the mountains, until it reaches the summit of the range; and in all this distance there is not one yard of level ground, still less of descent. I know of no mountain road in Switzerland more abounding in magnificent scenery, or in varied and charming prospects, than this. The formation of these mountains is singular: innumerable conical hills cover the face of the range; and the road winding upward among these, is one moment shut in among the mountains, and shut out from the world,—the next, emerging from behind one of these little hills, it traverses the front of the range, disclosing an illimitable prospect of land and sea. This peculiarity in the formation of the mountain, produces an infinite variety of views. Sometimes, when looking back towards Malaga, nothing intercepts the view—the whole bay,—Malaga in its centre,—the Moorish ruins,—the cathedral, and the cultivated plain, are all spread below. At another point, only the city and the bay are seen, the mountains shutting out all the rest; while still higher up, even the city is hidden, and the sea appears to wash the base of the mountains. The views too in the interior of the mountain are beautiful: a deep valley is from time to time revealed,—the mountain slopes that encompass it, covered with vines, and in its centre the house of the vine-grower, surrounded by a belt of charming verdure, and half embowered in a grove of orange trees.
As we ascended the mountains, we met a few travellers, and a considerable number of muleteers and their trains, every one well armed with guns, and some with swords also. Many crosses stood by the way-side; and as I walked the most part of the way up the mountain, I generally stopped to read the record; some of these were of sudden death, and some of murder,—but of the latter I saw only one of very recent date.
A curious circumstance, throwing some additional light upon the morals of Malaga, occurred in the course of the morning. When we had ascended about two-thirds of the mountain, a handsome young caballero, in the richly-ornamented Andalusian dress, and mounted upon a fine powerful horse, overtook the gallera, and accosted the middle-aged woman and her young married daughter, in the language of an acquaintance. Soon after he gave his horse in charge to the muleteer’s assistant, and took his seat in the gallera, where he kept up a half-whispered conversation with the younger lady: but the nature of the liaison now became more evident. The cortejo of this young wife, for such of course was his character, asked her aloud whether she would not like to ride his horse a little way? To which she at first replied no, and then yes; and the muleteer having opportunely discovered a lady’s saddle lying in the bottom of the gallera, and contrived too for two persons, she was soon seated upon the horse, which walked in front of the gallera, and the caballero walked by her side; but the horse gained so fast upon the gallera, that the party was soon out of sight, till, upon reaching a point from which a higher reach of the zig-zag road was visible, the lady and her cortejo were seen both mounted, and trotting forward; and we saw no more of them till night, when we reached the venta, where we found the young lady in bed, and the caballero sitting by her. Her mother seemed quite satisfied with the arrangements of the day, and offered no reproof either in word or in look. The same evening the gallant set out on his return to Malaga.