ANECDOTE BY MR. SHAW.

43

However, he consulted a lawyer, who advised him to be content if he could get his £1 back, as with the general's powerful influence he could not possibly obtain justice.

Mr. Markham asked Mr. Shaw whether we might publish the transaction; he replied-we were perfectly at liberty to do so, and mention his name as our authority, in any newspaper, any club, or in any way we wished.

in

Mr. Shaw said that sometimes British consuls were imposed upon, and he gave us the following anecdote:

Some years ago a gentleman, or rather a man who by his personal appearance generally, appeared to be one, called upon him, and said he was on his way to America but had run short of money, and that it would be the greatest kindness if he would help him to get to Cadiz, as, once there, he could get on to America. He worked so much on Mr. Shaw's feelings that, besides entertaining him at his house he paid his hotel bill, and then told his clerk to go to the railway station, and buy a second-class ticket to Cadiz, and present it to him. The clerk accordingly did so, and presented the ticket to the gentleman on the railway platform. Upon his doing so the gentleman drew himself up, and taking out his eye-glass looked scrutinizingly at the ticket, and then from the ticket at the clerk-when he proceeded to address him as follows: "What do you mean? You bad man! you know this is not the ticket your master told you to get. Your master sent you to present me with a first-class ticket; you scoundrel! you villain! you thief! You have bought a second-class ticket, and have put the difference between that and a first into your own pocket.' The clerk was so perfectly astonished that he did not know what to say, but thinking he must have made a mistake took the ticket and changed it for a first-class, paying the difference out of his own pocket. He then presented it to the stranger, who, as he put it in his pocket, said "Yes! I told you how it was, trying to make me ride second-class, and to keep the petty difference for yourself! you despicable,

44

OBER-AMMERGAU PLAY.

you mean man!" The clerk felt perfectly bewildered, and went back, and told Mr. Shaw all that had taken place, whose feelings may, perhaps, be better imagined than expressed. As might be expected from such a disreputable character Mr. Shaw never afterwards received any thanks or any recognition of any kind of the assistance he had rendered.

Mr. Shaw mentioned that at one village in Andalusia they had a custom of having a sort of Ober-Ammergau play, when a Scriptural scene was represented, one of the company representing the devil, who was generally so roughly dealt with that at last no one was willing to act the part. To prevent the play falling through the peasants urged a young priest, to whom they owed a grudge for his immoral conduct, to represent this personage. At first he declined, but, with persuasion, consented. Mr. Shaw was invited by a friend to be present. They were looking on from a window, when they saw the company rush upon the priest with sticks and beat him most unmercifully. Mr. Shaw said, "This must be something more than play: they will kill the devil." They ran down and drove off the assailants. He was for the moment insensible, but by administering cordials they soon brought him round to conclude he would not act the devil any more.

Our visit both here and at Seville, happens to be on the anniversary of the Prince of Wales' visit to these places, four years ago. He went from here to Madrid, and we are pleased to find, that although all the preparations for a bullfight on a grand scale had been made for him there, he declined to be present, on the ground that he was President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Amongst other things, Mr. Shaw gave us information respecting these bull-fights. Last Sunday, in one of them, a bull had killed fifteen horses, and was about to be taken away, when the audience shouted for him to go on, that they might see how many he would kill, when he actually destroyed as

many as thirty. He thought that the bull-fights were now kept up by the parties making money out of them, more than by any other class. Mr. Robert Lancaster observed, that it would be a good thing for the brute creation in Spain, when they were done away with; as witnessing them evidently tended to make people callous to animal suffering, which was especially noticeable in the way in which horses were sometimes driven. Mr. Shaw said, some cab horses in England, had no doubt, also cause to complain.

Monday, April 26th. We left Cordoba at eleven a.m., for Granada, and for the first four hours travelled in the train for Malaga, until we arrived at a junction called the Bobadilla junction, where we changed trains and proceeded by the railway to Granada, almost at right angles to the one we have left. There is no town, and scarcely a house to be seen anywhere near the junction, and the one Spaniard of note, of this name, is only notorious for the shameful way in which he treated Columbus. He was an officer in the household of Ferdinand and Isabella, and was sent out by them at the instigation of Bishop Fonseca, to investigate the conduct of Columbus and his brothers, and, if necessary, to supersede them in the government of Hispaniola. He arrived at St. Domingo, in August, 1500, and deprived Columbus of his authority, his property and money, and all his private letters and papers, without even going through the form of an investigation into his conduct. He then sent Columbus and his three brothers, in irons, to a fortress for three months; when he sent them home, with instructions that they were to be delivered on arrival at Cadiz, into the hands of Bishop Fonseca. This prelate was one of Queen Isabella's confidential advisers, and was one of the commission appointed to examine into the schemes of Columbus, and had reported them to be visionary and impracticable, and was known to be "his implacable foe." It was into his hands, therefore, as far as possible, Bobadilla consigned Columbus, who had done nothing to merit such treatment.

F

46

CORDOBA TO GRANADA.

His arrival, in chains, from the world he had discovered, excited such strong and general indignation throughout Spain, that Ferdinand and Isabella ordered his immediate liberation, and provided for his dignified progress to court, where he was received with honour. Bobadilla was immediately superseded in his command, and set out to return, when the vessel was overtaken by a tempest and sank with him, and the ill-gotten gains he had wrung from Columbus and the Indians.

The district through which we passed after leaving Bobadilla Junction, became more mountainous, and the railway rose into a higher range of country. We passed large tracts of olive trees, planted in parallel rows, and often intersected with different crops. There seemed more evidences of a successful and thriving population here, than in any district we had yet seen.

Upon arriving at Granada it was quite dark, and the railway station not being lighted, the confusion amongst the crowd of passengers looking for their luggage, for conveyances, and for one another, was considerable; from the annoyances of which we did not escape, as part of our luggage was nowhere to be found, and the Senor Don of our party was also missing. After telegraphing for the luggage, we proceeded through the town of Granada to our hotel, quite two miles distant, near the Alhambra Palace.

The road after leaving the town, was so exceedingly steep, that it was with the greatest difficulty the powerful mules harnessed to our carriage could draw us up, the driver whipping and calling to them in the loudest tones, when we noticed that not only the Senor Don, but also our fine old English gentleman was missing.

We found them both waiting for us at the door of the hotel, and soon were inside appreciating the excellent supper the landlord had provided.

On waking the next morning, almost before it was light, some of us heard the sweet song of nightingales in the trees