excitement of attending a Bible
meeting at Oulton with the Reverend Francis Cunningham in the chair,
when 'Mr. George Borrow from Russia'[111] made one of the usual
conventional missionary speeches, Mary Clarke's brother, Breame Skepper,
being also among the orators. Borrow begged for more work from the
Society. He urged the desirability of carrying out its own idea of an
investigation in Portugal and perhaps also in Spain, and hinted that he
could write a small volume concerning what he saw and heard which might
cover the expense of the expedition.[112] So much persistency conquered.
Borrow sailed from London on 6th November 1835, and reached Lisbon on
12th November, this his first official visit to the Peninsula lasting
exactly eleven months. The next four years and six months were to be
spent mainly in Spain.[113] Broadly the time divides itself in the
following fashion:

1st Tour (_via_ Lisbon),
Nov. 1835 to Oct. 1836.

Lisbon.
Mafia.
Evora.
Badajoz.
Madrid.

2nd Tour (_via_ Cadiz),
Nov. 1836 to Sept. 1838.

Cadiz.
Lisbon.
Seville.
Madrid.
Salamanca.
Coruna.
Oviedo.
Toledo.

3rd Tour (_via_ Cadiz),
Dec. 1838 to March 1840.

Cadiz.
Seville.
Madrid.
Gibraltar.
Tangier.

What a world of adventure do the mere names of these places call up.
Borrow entered the Peninsula at an exciting period of its history.
Traces of the Great War in which Napoleon's legions faced those of
Wellington still abounded. Here and there a bridge had disappeared, and
some of Borrow's strange experiences on ferry-boats were indirectly due
to the results of Napoleon's ambition.[114] Everywhere there was still
war in the land. Portugal indeed had just passed through a revolution.
The partisans of the infant Queen Maria II. had been fighting with her
uncle Dom Miguel for eight years, and it was only a few short months
before Borrow landed at Lisbon that Maria had become undisputed queen.
Spain, to which Borrow speedily betook himself, was even in a worse
state. She was in the throes of a six years' war. Queen Isabel II., a
child of three, reigned over a chaotic country with her mother Dona
Christina as regent; her uncle Don Carlos was a formidable claimant to
the throne and had the support of the absolutist and clerical parties.
Borrow's political sympathies were always in the direction of
absolutism; but in religion, although a s