all other instances I had no reason to
complain of their want of apprehension. Indeed nothing has surprised me
more than the free and unembarrassed manner with which the Portuguese
peasantry sustain a conversation, and the purity of the language in which
they express their thoughts; and yet very few of them can write or read,
whereas the peasantry of our own country, whose education is in general
much superior, are in their conversation coarse and dull almost to
brutality, and absurdly ungrammatical in the language which they use,
though the English tongue, upon the whole, is more simple in its grammar
than the Portuguese.

On my way back from Mafra to Cintra I very nearly lost my life. As the
night was closing in fast, we left the regular road by the advice of the
guide, and descending the hill on which Mafra stands reached the bottom
of the valley, from which there is a narrow pathway winding round the
next hill, exceedingly steep, with a precipice on the left side; the
horse on which I was mounted, and which was by no means suited for such
climbing, in his violent struggles to accomplish the ascent burst the
girth of the saddle, so that I was cast violently off, with the saddle
beneath me. Fortunately, I fell on the right side, or I should have
rolled down the hill and probably have been killed; as it was, I remained
stunned and senseless for two or three minutes, when I revived, and with
the assistance of the guide and the man who waits on me, walked up the
remaining part of the hill, when, the saddle being readjusted, I mounted
again. I was very drowsy and stupid for two or three days, from the
influence of the fall, but I am happy to say at present, thanks to the
Almighty, I have long ceased to feel any inconvenience from it.

On my return to Lisbon I saw Mr. Wilby, who received me with great
kindness; the next ten days were exceedingly rainy and prevented me from
making any excursions into the country, and during this time I saw him
frequently and had a good deal of conversation with him, concerning the
best means of causing God's glorious Gospel to be read in Portugal. He
informed me that four hundred copies of the Bible and New Testament were
arrived, and he thought that we could do no better than put them into the
hands of the booksellers; but I strongly advised that at least half of
them should be entrusted to colporteurs, to hawk about, upon receiving a
certain profit on every copy they sold. He thoug