that the trees never lose their foliage, and I can well understand it, for I observed that they were as green and luxuriant as in Spain in the month of May.  Some were in bloom, others bearing fruit, and others otherwise, according to their nature.  The nightingale was singing, as well as other little birds of a thousand different kinds, and that in November, the month in which I was roaming amongst them.  There are palm trees of six or eight kinds, wonderful in their beautiful variety; but this is the case with all other trees and fruits and grasses.  It contains extraordinary pine groves and very extensive plains.  There is also honey and a great variety of birds, and many different kinds of fruits.  In the interior there are many mines of metals, and a population innumerable.”

CHAPTER III.

Spain’s black historical record.

Present Men of Prominence Are Types of Those Who Were Infamous Years Ago—­Roman Rule in Spain—­Weakness of Spanish Power of Resistance—­Discoveries in America—­Horrors of the Inquisition—­ Spanish Rule in Holland—­Expulsion of the Moors—­Loss of American Colonies—­Later History of Spain.

The signal fact that will present itself to the student of Spanish history is that from the earliest times the country has been in a continual state of conflict, internal, with its colonies, and with other nations; and seldom has it been a war of defense.  In almost every instance Spain has been the aggressor.  The Spaniard has ever been perfidious, avaricious, ferocious.  In his veins still flows the blood of Ferdinand, of Torquemada, and of Philip II.  Weyler is a prototype of Alva, and in Blanco we find another Antonio de Mendoza.  Spain is the China of modern Europe.  Her spirit is still the spirit of the inquisition.  Her policy is not to conciliate, but to coerce; not to treat justly, but to rob and enslave; and her dependence is the ignorance and superstition of her people.

All reforms wrung from rulers must first be baptized in blood, and it is possible that the end of the present century may see a new nation, built on the ruins of the old, which will be a credit to civilization, instead of a disgrace.

Roman rule in Spain.

Prior to the first war between Rome and Carthage, which ended 241 BC, there is little or no authentic information regarding the history of the country now known to the world as Spain.  To the ancients it was a land of mystery and enchantment, the home of the setting sun; and Iberia, as they called it, was but a name for an indefinite extent of territory in the far west, peopled by barbarous Celts and Iberians, with a few Phoenician settlements, for the purposes of trade, on its southern coasts.