ken off the old superstition and to
feel no inclination to bend their necks to another yoke. Many of them
have told me that the priests are the veriest knaves in the world, and
that they have for many years subsisted by imposing upon them, and that
they wished the whole body was destroyed from the face of the earth. I
have enquired of many of the lower orders whether they ever confessed
themselves, whereupon they laughed in my face and said that they had not
done so for years, demanding what good would result to them for so doing,
and whether I was fool enough to suppose that a priest could forgive sins
for a sum of money. One day whilst speaking to a muleteer I pointed to a
cross over the gate of a chapel opposite to us, and asked him if he
reverenced it; he instantly flew into a rage, stamped violently, and
spitting on the ground said it was a piece of stone, and that he should
have no more objection to spit upon it than the stones on which he trod:
'I believe that there is a God,' he added, 'but as for the nonsense which
the priests tell us I believe no part of it.' It has not yet been my
fortune during my researches in Lisbon to meet one individual of the
populace amongst the many I have addressed who had read the Scripture or
knew anything of its contents; though many of them have assured me that
they could read, which in many instances I have found to be the fact,
having repeatedly taken from my pocket the New Testament in Portuguese
which I constantly carry with me, and requested them to read a few
verses, which they were able to do. Some of these individuals had read
much in their own language, which indeed contains a store of amusing and
instructive literature--for example, the chronicles of the various kings
of Portugal and of the heroes who distinguished themselves in the various
wars of India, after Vasco da Gama had opened the way into the vast
regions of the East by doubling the Cape.

Amongst the many public places which I have visited at Lisbon is the
Convent of San Geronymo, the church of which is the most beautiful
specimen of Gothic architecture in the Peninsula, and is furnished with
the richest shrines. Since the expulsion of the monks from the various
religious houses in Portugal, this edifice has served as an asylum for
orphans, and at present enjoys the particular patronage of the young
[Queen]. In this establishment upwards of five hundred children, some of
them female, are educated upon t