can't do? If there was a mountain ever so high, he would gallop over
it. If there was a river ever so deep, he would swim through it If he
could but speak, I might send him to market alone with the fish, and not a
_chavo_ of the money would he spend on the way home. Who says he can't go
as far as that limping horse? Arrrre, burrico! punate--ar-r-r-r-r-e-e!"

We reached Malaga, at last, our horses sorely fagged. At the Fonda de la
Alameda, a new and very elegant hotel, I found a bath and a good dinner,
both welcome things to a tired traveller. The winter of Malaga is like
spring in other lands and on that account it is much visited by invalids,
especially English. It is a lively commercial town of about 80,000
inhabitants, and, if the present scheme of railroad communication with
Madrid is carried out, must continue to increase in size and importance. A
number of manufacturing establishments have lately been started, and in
this department it bids fair to rival Barcelona. The harbor is small, but
good, and the country around rich in all the productions of temperate and
even tropical climates. The city contains little to interest the tourist.
I visited the Cathedral, an immense unfinished mass, without a particle of
architectural taste outwardly, though the interior has a fine effect from
its large dimensions.

At noon to-day we were again in the saddle, and took the road to the Baths
of Caratraca. The tall factory chimneys of Malaga, vomiting forth streams
of black smoke, marred the serenity of the sky; but the distant view of
the city is very fine. The broad Vega, watered by the Guadaljorce, is rich
and well cultivated, and now rejoices in the verdure of spring. The
meadows are clothed with fresh grass, butter-cups and daisies are in
blossom, and larks sing in the olive-trees. Now and then, we passed a
_casa del campo_, with its front half buried in orange-trees, over which
towered two or three sentinel palms. After two leagues of this delightful
travel, the country became more hilly, and the groups of mountains which
inclosed us assumed the most picturesque and enchanting forms. The soft
haze in which the distant peaks were bathed, the lovely violet shadows
filling up their chasms and gorges, and the fresh meadows, vineyards, and
olive groves below, made the landscape one of the most beautiful I have
seen in Spain.

As we were trotting along through the palmetto thickets, Jose asked me if
I should not like to hear an