After dinner, two village musicians introduced themselves: one played the violin, the other the guitar; and thinking it a pity that no use should be made of the music, I invited all the inmates of the posada to my sala to have a dance; and excellently well they danced their fandango—snapping their fingers as a substitute for the castanet, and displaying a grace in their movements and limbs, that would surprise the audience in any of our minor theatres.
Next morning, I left this place with the intention of dining in Murcia. We travelled along an execrable road, but through a country susceptible of the finest cultivation, though totally uncultivated, to the little village of Pedrilla; where at an enormously large posada we stopped to refresh the mule and take chocolate; and immediately after leaving Pedrilla, I descried at a distance the tower of the cathedral of Murcia. Yet for three leagues the country continued wild, and but very partially under cultivation; and then, at about a league from Murcia, we entered its celebrated vale. I was delighted and surprised with the prospect before me: a wide avenue, bordered by trees, stretched four miles, terminating in the two lofty towers of one of the churches. On both sides of this avenue, as far as the eye could reach, it rested upon a carpet of that perfect green that is produced by irrigation,—but there was variety too,—for the shades of the green were different; there was the green of the young wheat, that in a thick crop had reached the height of eight or ten inches; and the still brighter green of the flax; and the green of the many beds of the various vegetables for the market of Murcia; and over all the vale, fig-trees and mulberries were thickly strewn; luxuriant groves of blood-coloured oranges speckled the fields; and stately palms here and there lifted up their broad canopy. It was altogether a most captivating prospect, and realized more than any thing I had ever yet seen,—the idea of a continued garden and eternal summer. The scene was animated too; for many country people, with their short white trowsers, crimson girdles, and Montera caps, were crossing the fields, returning from labour. Many carts, waggons, carriages, and horsemen, filled the road; and every hundred yards, or less, we passed a neat cottage, half hid in its own little orangery. All this was very different from what I had been led to believe. I expected to have found nothing but silence and poverty in the neighbourhood of Murcia; and in place of these, the approach to it more resembled the neighbourhood of a large and flourishing city, than any thing that I had yet seen in Spain.
At the entrance to the city the custom-house officers, of course stopped the tartana, and I was prepared with the usual bribe of a peceta to save myself from the inconvenience of a search: but here the officers were more ambitious, they would take nothing less than half a dollar; and rather than submit to this imposition, I allowed my portmanteau to be tumbled inside out, and thus saved my peceta. I arrived at the Fonda de las Diligencias at five o’clock, much pleased that my purse of twenty dollars might now be applied to some better purpose than to fill the pockets of banditti.
The interior of Murcia surprised me as much as the approach to it. I found clean pleasant streets, like those of Seville, and a population not remarkable for poverty and rags. The best commentary upon this assertion, is the fact, that I was not accosted by a beggar during the three days I spent in Murcia. Like Seville too, the convent gardens often skirt the streets, and the walls are over-topped by the heavily laden orange trees, and by the branchy palm. In walking towards the cathedral, I chanced to follow a friar carrying an image of St. Anthony, which the children crowded to kiss; and some of the lower orders to whom he held it, also bestowed upon it this mark of attention.
The cathedral is not equal to many in Spain, but it is fine nevertheless:—the architecture is mixed,—there is much fine marble, and several of the Gothic chapels are worthy of a visit, from the excellence of the workmanship found in them. There are no pictures in the cathedral; and the riches in which it formerly abounded were almost all carried off by the French. But the chief object of attraction is the tower, which is ten feet higher than that of Seville; and like it, is ascended by inclined planes. The prospect from the summit at once lays open the character and extent of the celebrated vale. It is about sixteen miles long, and eight wide, and is bounded on both sides by mountain ranges. The whole of this expanse is one sheet of variegated green, thickly dotted with mulberry trees, and sprinkled with clumps of palms, and copses of orange trees. The whole of the vale is divided into fields, separated from each other by small embankments about eighteen inches high, to assist the process of irrigation, and by rows of mulberry trees or shrubs of some sort, which give to the landscape a lighter effect than that which is produced by the dark thorn hedges of England. Towards the east, four leagues distant, where the vale contracts into the narrow opening through which Alicant lies, I could distinguish the spires of Orihuela. An isolated rock, crowned by a Moorish castle, and a village beneath it, called Monte Agudo, and another village charmingly situated under the mountains, called Algesarez, were agreeable features in the landscape; while the cottages and houses thickly strewing the plain, gave life and animation to it.
Walking towards the paseo by the river side, I observed a fine marble column erected in the Plaza Real; and upon inquiring its history, I learned that it was to be surmounted by a statue of King Ferdinand. Farther on, I passed an hospital begun seven years ago, but still unfinished; and still farther, I reached a fine aqueduct for conveying a stream across the deep bed of the river Segura, to water the vale. This promenade would be very delightful, were it not that in order to reach it, it is necessary to pass through the lowest quarter of the city, where the poorest and worst population are congregated. I was told that the corregidor executes well the duties of his office, and that crime is rare in Murcia. In returning from the paseo, I visited the Dominican Convent, without finding in it much to attract my notice; excepting an indulgence of two hundred and eighty days, granted to all who assist in the ceremony attending the procession of St. Rosario.
In another walk, I visited a chapel where are presented in wood, many passages in the life of Christ,—among others, the last supper; the figures are well executed, and the attitudes natural. Seeing the table covered with a cloth, I asked the reason of this; and was told,—that a magnificent supper is always served on Holy Thursday, and that after standing on the table forty-eight hours, it is removed, and given to the poor; so that at times, even the most absurd superstitions may be productive of good. Returning from the posada, I passed through the market, where I helped myself to a handful of fresh dates, and astonished the vendor with the princely recompense of a halfpenny! The following are the prices of provisions in Murcia. Beef, per pound of 16 ounces, twelve quartos; mutton, eleven quartos; veal, ten; pork, fourteen. Were it not for a heavy duty upon the provisions entering the city, these prices would be at least one-half lower. A fowl costs 1s. 8d.; a chicken, five reals; a turkey, a dollar; a duck, 10d.; a hare, 10d. or 1s.; a rabbit, three reals. Bread of the finest quality is ten quartos per pound, and of an inferior quality, eight quartos. Good wine is about nine quartos per bottle. The price of labour is from four to five reals. A female servant receives a dollar per month; a man, a dollar and a half, or two dollars.
While at Murcia, I visited the manufactory of saltpetre, this, and all other manufactories of the same article, are farmed by government to a company. The company is bound to furnish the article at six dollars the arroba, (25 lbs.). At present, they make but 1200 arrobas yearly; but formerly, they manufactured as much as 10,000. There were 70,000 arrobas in the magazine when I visited it. The trade has lately been thrown open; but I was informed that few have availed themselves of the permission to enter it. I did not visit the gunpowder manufactory, which is about a league distant from Murcia. It is bound to furnish government with 10,000 arrobas every two months, but there is at present so large a stock on hand, that it only produces 32,000 arrobas yearly.
The silk manufactories of Murcia, were once so extensive, as to employ 16,000 hands; at present, scarcely 400 are required. In Murcia, all the silk is prepared by hand labour, and cannot, therefore, enter the market with the Valencia silk, which is for the most part, produced by machinery. The only other manufacture of Murcia, is a coarse cloth, which, to a certain extent, is sure of a market. The city lives almost entirely by agriculture; but the prosperity of the agriculturist, here as in Granada, has greatly decreased since the loss of the colonies has created a necessity for the imposition of new burthens upon land. The land in the vale of Murcia produces two crops yearly: wheat and lentils, wheat and maize, or wheat and beans; and may be computed to return about five per cent.