said I had redeemed
my credit and that of the Society; and it is with some feeling of pride
that I state that it choked and prevented the publication of a series of
terrible essays against the Bible Society, which were intended for the
official Gazette, and which were written by the Licentiate Albert Lister,
the editor of that journal, the friend of Blanco White, and the most
talented man in Spain. These essays still exist in the editorial drawer,
and were communicated to me by the head manager of the royal printing
office, my respected friend and countryman Mr. Charles Wood, whose
evidence in this matter and in many others I can command at pleasure. In
lieu of which essays came out a mild and conciliatory article by the same
writer, which, taking into consideration the country in which it was
written and its peculiar circumstances, was an encouragement to the Bible
Society to proceed, although with secrecy and caution. Yet this article,
sadly misunderstood in England, gave rise to communications from home
highly mortifying to myself and ruinous to the Bible cause.

In the meantime my depots had been seized in various parts of Spain,
depots the greatest part of which I had established with immense
difficulty and peril, some of them being in the remote and almost
inaccessible province of Galicia, at the distance of almost four hundred
miles from Madrid. I now deemed that the time was at hand to avail
myself of my resource, and to sell at all risks the Testament amongst the
peasantry of Spain, by whom I knew that it would be received with
transport and with gratitude. I determined to commence with the Sagra of
Toledo, where resided an honest labourer of my acquaintance; my foot was
in the stirrup when I received a letter from home, which I can only
consider as having originated with the Enemy of mankind for the purpose
of perplexing my already harassed and agitated mind. In this letter I
was told, amongst other matter which I need not repeat, to prepare to
quit Spain. But by the shaft I knew the quiver from which it came, and,
merely exclaiming, 'Satan, I defy thee,' I hurried to Sagra, and disposed
of amongst the peasantry in one fortnight four hundred copies of the New
Testament. But it is hard to wrestle with the great Enemy; another shaft
arrived in the shape of a letter, which compelled me to return to Madrid,
whilst the cause of God was beckoning me to Aranjuez and La Mancha, to
which places I indeed hurried