a falsehood,
for he supped, as I afterwards ascertained, on a miserable _sopa_, but
his pride would not permit him to touch what was given in a way that
indicated inferiority." In his rambles through Alemtejo, a province
little visited and not often described by Englishmen, Mr. Hughes exposes
some of the blunders of Friend Borrow, of Bible and gipsy celebrity,
whose singularly attractive style has procured for his writings a
popularity of which their mistatements and inaccuracies render them
scarcely worthy. He refers especially to the absurd notion of the
English _caloro_, that the Portuguese will probably some day adopt the
Spanish language; a most preposterous idea, when we remember the
shyness, not to say the antipathy, existing between the two nations, and
the immense opinion each entertains of itself and all belonging to it.
He regrets "that one who has so stirring a style should take refuge in
bounce and exaggeration from the honourable task of candid and searching
observation, and prefer the fame of a Fernao Mendez Pinto to that of an
honest and truthful writer." With respect to exaggeration, Mr. Borrow
might, if so disposed, retaliate on his censor, who, whilst wandering in
the olive groves of Venda do Duque, encounters "black ants as large
almost as _figs_, unmolested in the vivid sun-beam." Before such
monsters as these, the terrible _termes fatalis_ of the Indies, which
undermines houses and breakfasts upon quarto volumes, must hide its
diminished head. A misprint can scarcely be supposed, unless indeed an
_f_ has been substituted for a _p_, which would not mend the matter.
Apropos of Mr. Borrow: it appears that the ill success of his tract and
Testament crusade did not entirely check missionary zeal for the
spiritual amelioration of the Peninsula. His followers, however, met
with small encouragement. One of their clever ideas was to bottle
tracts, throw them into the sea, and allow them to be washed ashore!
This ingenious plan, adopted before Cadiz, did not answer, "first," says
Mr. Hughes, who, we must do him the justice to say, is a stanch foe to
humbug, "because the bottling gave a ludicrous colour to the
transaction; and, secondly, for the conclusive reason, that Cadiz, being
surrounded by fortified sea walls, mounted with frowning guns and
sentries, the bottles never reached the inhabitants."

Whilst touching on Portuguese literature, Mr. Hughes refers to what he
considers the depreciating spirit of E