I determined, however, ere leaving Portugal, to establish depots of Bibles in one or two of the provincial towns.  I wished to visit the Alemtejo, which I had heard was a very benighted region.  The Alemtejo means the province beyond the Tagus.  This province is not beautiful and picturesque, like most other parts of Portugal:  there are few hills and mountains, the greater part consists of heaths broken by knolls, and gloomy dingles, and forests of stunted pine; these places are infested with banditti.  The principal city is Evora, one of the most ancient in Portugal, and formerly the seat of a branch of the Inquisition, yet more cruel and baneful than the terrible one of Lisbon.  Evora lies about sixty miles from Lisbon, and to Evora I determined on going with twenty Testaments and two Bibles.  How I fared there will presently be seen.

CHAPTER II

Boatmen of the Tagus—­Dangers of the Stream—­Aldea Gallega—­The Hostelry—­Robbers—­Sabocha—­Adventure of a Muleteer—­Estalagem de Ladroes—­Don Geronimo—­Vendas Novas—­Royal Residence—­Swine of the Alemtejo—­Monto Moro—­Swayne Vonved—­Singular Goatherd—­Children of the Fields—­Infidels and Sadducees.

On the afternoon of the sixth of December I set out for Evora, accompanied by my servant.  I had been informed that the tide would serve for the regular passage-boats, or felouks, as they are called, at about four o’clock, but on reaching the side of the Tagus opposite to Aldea Gallega, between which place and Lisbon the boats ply, I found that the tide would not permit them to start before eight o’clock.  Had I waited for them I should have probably landed at Aldea Gallega about midnight, and I felt little inclination to make my entree in the Alemtejo at that hour; therefore, as I saw small boats which can push off at any time lying near in abundance, I determined upon hiring one of them for the passage, though the expense would be thus considerably increased.  I soon agreed with a wild-looking lad, who told me that he was in part owner of one of the boats, to take me over.  I was not aware of the danger in crossing the Tagus at its broadest part, which is opposite Aldea Gallega, at any time, but especially at close of day in the winter season, or I should certainly not have ventured.  The lad and his comrade, a miserable looking object, whose only clothing, notwithstanding the season, was a tattered jerkin and trousers, rowed until we had advanced about half a mile from the land; they then set up a large sail, and the lad, who seemed to direct everything and to be the principal, took the helm and steered.  The evening was now setting in; the sun was not far from its bourne in the horizon, the air was very cold, the wind was rising, and the waves of the noble Tagus began to be crested with foam.  I told the boy that it was scarcely possible for the boat to carry so much sail without upsetting, upon which he laughed,