CHAPTER 27 Compostella - Rey Romero - The Treasure-seeker - Hopeful Project - The Church of Refuge - Hidden Riches - The Canon - Spirit of Localism - The Leper - Bones of St. James. At the commencement of August, I found myself at St. James of Compostella.1 To this place I travelled from Coruna with the courier or weekly post, who was escorted by a strong party of soldiers, in consequence of the distracted state of the country, which was overrun with banditti. From Coruna to St. James, the distance is but ten leagues; the journey, however, endured for a day and a half. It was a pleasant one, through a most beautiful country, with a rich variety of hill and dale; the road was in many places shaded with various kinds of trees clad in most luxuriant foliage. Hundreds of travellers, both on foot and on horseback, availed themselves of the security which the escort afforded: the dread of banditti was strong. During the journey two or three alarms were given; we, however, reached Saint James without having been attacked.

27.1 Santiago de Compostela from the west with the Pico Sacro (Borrow’s ‘conical hill’) behind

1 The mail coach service between Coruña and Santiago was a relatively new enterprise in 1837, and its timetables changed often. In 1838 it usually ran twice weekly on Monday and Thursday, although from time to time it seems to have left Coruña on the Tuesday. The best we may say is that Borrow probably arrived in Compostela on Tuesday August 8 or Wednesday August 9. Below, he mentions that the journey took a day and a half; which leads us to think that he may have slept in the village of Sigüeiro, near the bridge over the Tambre river some 15 km from Santiago, since this was the last place where – as late as 1849 - an inn might be found [Madoz, DG, vol. 13, 822]. The young Cuban poet Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda took the same diligence in late March 1838. Her stagecoach also had an armed escort, left Coruña at 3 or 4 in the morning, and took a mere 13 hours to reach Santiago. Six years later, however, Widdrington [vol. 2, 174] described the same route as utterly boring and uneventful.

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

Saint James stands on a pleasant level amidst mountains: the most extraordinary of these is a conical hill, called the Pico Sacro, or Sacred Peak, connected with which are many wonderful legends. A beautiful old town is Saint James, containing about twenty thousand inhabitants. Time has been when, with the single exception of Rome, it was the most celebrated resort of pilgrims in the world; its cathedral being said to contain the bones of Saint James the elder, the child of the thunder, who, according to the legend of the Romish church, first preached the Gospel in Spain2. Its glory, however, as a place of pilgrimage is rapidly passing away.3

27.2 The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela 2 Predictably, the medieval founding legend of the Santiago cathedral, coming to us from 1,000 years ago, is a somewhat confused affair. It runs more or less as follows: at the division of the world among the Apostles, the Iberian Peninsula was allotted to Saint James the Elder. He travelled to Spain, preached and converted the local pagans, and then returned to Jerusalem just in time to be decapitated by king Herod Agrippa II in A.D. 42. His disciples put his corpse in a stone boat, which by its own propulsion sailed to Padron in Galicia (see next chapter). The corpse was then put into a miraculous ox-cart, which moved him to the spot of Santiago. Here he was buried, the tomb soon to be forgotten, until - 100 years after the Arab conquest of Spain in 711 A.D. - a hermit or shepherd saw a miraculous light hovering above it, and notified the local bishop. The corpse was duly discovered, the miracle recognized, and a small basilica erected. This was soon replaced by a noble cathedral, consecrated in 899 and destroyed by the Arabs under Almanzur in 997. In the 11th and 12th centuries, Santiago was the greatest Christian pilgrimage place after Rome and Jerusalem. 3 At the time of Borrow’s visit the number of pilgrims was at its lowest ebb ever. Foreign pilgrims were stopped from proceeding because the famous Camino de Santiago led through Navarra and the Basque countries, where the worst of the Carlist Civil War was raging. Local pilgrims, meanwhile, were discouraged by the Carlist guerrilleros who infested the whole Galician countryside. The books of the Great Hospital of Santiago, which lodged such pilgrims as there were, record only a few dozen pilgrims a year at this time, all of whom came from the neighbourhood. [Missler, Treasure Hunter, chapter 12.]

Chapter 27

The cathedral, though a work of various periods, and exhibiting various styles of architecture, is a majestic venerable pile, in every respect calculated to excite awe and admiration; indeed, it is almost impossible to walk its long dusky aisles, and hear the solemn music and the noble chanting, and inhale the incense of the mighty censers, which are at times swung so high by machinery as to smite the vaulted roof4, whilst gigantic tapers glitter here and there amongst the gloom, from the shrine of many a saint, before which the worshippers are kneeling, breathing forth their prayers and petitions for help, love, and mercy, and entertain a doubt that we are treading the floor of a house where God delighteth to dwell. Yet the Lord is distant from that house; he hears not, he sees not, or if he do, it is with anger. What availeth that solemn music, that noble chanting, that incense of sweet savour? What availeth kneeling before that grand altar of silver, surmounted by that figure with its silver hat and breast-plate, the emblem of one who, though an apostle and confessor, was at best an unprofitable servant? What availeth hoping for remission of sin by trusting in the merits of one who possessed none, or by paying homage to others who were born and nurtured in sin, and who alone, by the exercise of a lively faith granted from above, could hope to preserve themselves from the wrath of the Almighty?

[From: letter to Brandram from Santiago of 19 August 1837, in: Darlow, 246f] Yet such acts and formalities constitute what is termed religion at Compostella, where, perhaps, God and His will are less known and respected than at Pekin or amid the wildernesses where graze the coursers of the Mongol and the Mandchou. Perhaps there is no part of Spain where the Romish religion is so cherished as throughout Galicia. In no part of Spain are the precepts and ordinances of that Church, especially fasting and confession, so strictly observed, and its ministers regarded with so much respect and deference. The natural conclusion therefore would be that, if the religion of Rome be the same as that founded by Christ, the example of the Saviour is more closely followed, and the savage and furious passions more bridled, bloodshed and rapine less frequent, unchastity and intemperance less apparent, and the minds of the people more enlightened and free from the mists of superstition in Galicia than in other provinces. What is the fact? Almost every road is teeming with banditti, who under the name of Carlists plunder friend and foe, and to robbery join cruelty so atrociously horrible that indignation at the crime is frequently lost in wonder; for the Galician robbers are seldom satisfied with booty, and unlike their brethren in other parts generally mutilate or assassinate those who are so unfortunate as to fall in their hands; prostitution is carried on to an enormous extent, and although loathsome concustant [sic] diseases stare the stranger in the face in the street, in the market-place, in the church, and at the fountain; 'Drunken as a Galician' is a proverb; and superstitions forgotten, abandoned in the rest of Spain, are clung to here with surprising pertinacity, the clergy exerting themselves to uphold them by carrying on a very extensive sale in charms, verifying the old saying, 'Witches are found where friars abound.'

4 The so-called Botafumeiro. This spectacular swinging of a man-sized silver censor still constitutes the most dramatic part of every solemn mass said in the Santiago Cathedral.

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

An unhappy man, whilst collecting vipers amongst the hills, which he was in the practice of selling to the apothecaries, was lately met near Orense by some of these monsters. Having plundered and stripped him, they tied his hands behind him and thrust his head into the sack, which contained several of these horrible reptiles alive! They then fastened the sack at the mouth round his neck, and having feasted their ears for a time with his cries, they abandoned him to his fate. The poor wretch, stung by the vipers in the face and eyes, presently became mad and ran through several villages, till he fell dead.5 I am now in the heart of this strange country and people. It has pleased the Lord to bless my humble endeavours more than I had reason to expect; since my arrival Santiago between thirty and forty copies of the New Testament have been despatched.

[Chapter 27 continued] Rise from your knees, ye children of Compostella, or if ye bend, let it be to the Almighty alone, and no longer on the eve of your patron's day address him in the following strain, however sublime it may sound:

"Thou shield of that faith which in Spain we revere, Thou scourge of each foeman who dares to draw near; Whom the Son of that God who the elements tames, Called child of the thunder, immortal Saint James! "From the blessed asylum of glory intense, Upon us thy sovereign influence dispense; And list to the praises our gratitude aims To offer up worthily, mighty Saint James. "To thee fervent thanks Spain shall ever outpour; In thy name though she glory, she glories yet more In thy thrice-hallowed corse, which the sanctuary claims Of high Compostella, O, blessed Saint James. "When heathen impiety, loathsome and dread, With a chaos of darkness our Spain overspread, Thou wast the first light which dispell'd with its flames The hell-born obscurity, glorious Saint James! "And when terrible wars had nigh wasted our force, All bright `midst the battle we saw thee on horse, Fierce scattering the hosts, whom their fury proclaims To be warriors of Islam, victorious Saint James.

5 Strangely, this impressive story, which Borrow must have picked up in the liberal press or heard in the Santiago streets, was left out of the final text of The Bible in Spain; this despite the fact that Richard Ford referred to it explicitly in his favourable report to Murray (its publisher) on the manuscript of the work [Jenkins, 203, footnote 1].

Chapter 27

"Beneath thy direction, stretch'd prone at thy feet, With hearts low and humble, this day we intreat Thou wilt strengthen the hope which enlivens our frames, The hope of thy favour and presence, Saint James. "Then praise to the Son and the Father above, And to that Holy Spirit which springs from their love; To that bright emanation whose vividness shames The sun's burst of splendour, and praise to Saint James."

At Saint James I met with a kind and cordial coadjutor in my biblical labours in the bookseller of the place, Rey Romero, a man of about sixty.6 This excellent individual, who was both wealthy and respected, took up the matter with an enthusiasm which doubtless emanated from on high, losing no opportunity of recommending my book to those who entered his shop, which was in the Azabacheria, and was a very splendid and commodious establishment. In many instances, when the peasants of the neighbourhood came with an intention of purchasing some of the foolish popular story-books of Spain, he persuaded them to carry home Testaments instead, assuring them that the sacred volume was a better, more instructive, and even far more entertaining book than those they came in quest of.7 He speedily conceived a great fancy for me, and regularly came

6 Francisco Jorge Angel Rey Romero, 23 April 1775 – 5 May 1848, second son of Cayetano Rey do Couto and Maria Romero Reira, and father of the well-known printer Juan Nepomuceno Rey Romero Alcocer. The business was set up early in the century by Francisco’s younger brother Pedro (who also started one of the first Galician newspapers, the Diario de Santiago, at the outbreak of the Peninsular War, in the summer of 1808.) Pedro died in 1813, which inspired Francisco, who had recently become a widower, to return to Santiago from Madrid, where he had settled some time in the 1790s. The bookshop opened in November 1813 in the Calle de Azabacheria 16 and 17 (today’s 17 and 19), one of the most fashionable mercantile streets of Santiago [Madoz, DG, vol. 13, 816]. Despite Borrow’s praise and enthusiasm, Rey Romero was not a good enough businessman to survive several civil wars and economic slumps. When he died in May 1848, the business was bankrupt and had to be sold off in order to pay the creditors. It survived for a short while as the Libreria Minerva, but disappeared before 1850. [Missler, ‘The most considerable of them all: Rey Romero, Borrow’s bookseller in Santiago’, in: GBB 16, 32-45; Missler, ‘Rey Romero’s Testaments’, in: GBB 28, 22-37.] 7 This remark of Borrow’s has often been dismissed as fiction and propaganda, since so few peasants could read at this time. Rates of literacy for the whole of the Spanish population stood at a dismal 5.6 % in 1803, and 15 % in 1860s. It should however be kept in mind that only those who could both read and write were considered ‘literate’ by such inquests, and that the rate of passive literacy was considerably higher. Furthermore there was an old and widespread tradition of ‘collective reading’, in which the most literate person of a group would read out loud from a printed text for the benefit of the whole community. (See for instance the Spanish smuggler in chapter 3 above.) Hence it is not unthinkable that Rey Romero did indeed sell some copies of Borrow’s New Testament to the local peasantry. Between Borrow’s visit to Santiago in August 1837 and the final prohibition of the work in May 1838, some 100 copies of the book were sold in Santiago and its surroundings. [Missler, Daring Game, 75-81 on popular literacy, and 48-51 for sales of the New Testament in Compostela.]

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

to visit me every evening at my posada,8 and accompanied me in my walks about the town and the environs. He was a man of considerable information, and though of much simplicity, possessed a kind of good-natured humour which was frequently highly diverting.

27.3 The spot of Rey Romero’s bookshop, today a pair of wine and cheese boutiques

[From: ‘Account of the Proceedings in the Peninsula’ of October 1838: Darlow 364] I twice sallied forth one morning alone and on horseback, and proceeded to a distant village, bearing behind me a satchel of books. On my arrival, which took place just after the SIESTA or afternoon's sleep had concluded, I proceeded in both instances to the market-place, where I spread a horse-cloth on the ground, on which I deposited my books. I then commenced crying with a loud voice: 'Peasants, peasants, I bring you the Word of God at a cheap price. I know you have but little money, but I bring it to you at whatever you can command, at four or three REALS according to your means.' I thus went on till a crowd gathered round me, who examined the book with attention, many of them reading it aloud. But I had not long to tarry; in both instances I disposed of my cargo almost instantaneously, and then mounted my horse without a question having been asked me, and returned to my temporary residence lighter than I left it. This occurred in Castile and Galicia, near the towns of Santiago and Valladolid.9

8 We do not know where Borrow boarded while in Santiago. There was not, in 1837, a true first class hotel of the kind he favoured. His best bet would have been the Parador de Carruejas at the Puerta de San Roque, where the mail coach from Coruña arrived; the Posada de Martin Moreno in the Casas Reales; the Estrella Inn mentioned by Carnarvon in 1827; and La Viscaina, either in the Rua Nova, or in the Calle de San Miguel. However, not all of these may have been in business in the war-torn summer of 1837. 9 For the significance of this episode, see Missler, Daring Game, 31-36.

Chapter 27

[Chapter 27 continued] I was walking late one night alone in the Alameda of Saint James, considering in what direction I should next bend my course, for I had been already ten days in this place; the moon was shining gloriously, and illumined every object around to a considerable distance.10 The Alameda was quite deserted; everybody, with the exception of myself, having for some time retired. I sat down on a bench and continued my reflections, which were suddenly interrupted by a heavy stumping sound. Turning my eyes in the direction from which it proceeded, I perceived what at first appeared a shapeless bulk slowly advancing: nearer and nearer it drew, and I could now distinguish the outline of a man dressed in coarse brown garments, a kind of Andalusian hat, and using as a staff the long peeled branch of a tree. He had now arrived opposite the bench where I was seated, when, stopping, he took off his hat and demanded charity in uncouth tones and in a strange jargon, which had some resemblance to the Catalan. The moon shone on grey locks and on a ruddy weather-beaten countenance which I at once recognized: "Benedict Mol," said I, "is it possible that I see you at Compostella?" "Och, mein Gott, es ist der Herr!" replied Benedict. "Och, what good fortune, that the Herr is the first person I meet at Compostella."

27.4 The Alameda of Santiago

10 There was a full moon on 16/17 August 1837. Note, however, that the following meeting with Benedict Mol is probably fictitious. The sheer coincidence of the two men meeting during the few days that Borrow spent in Santiago; the dubious chronology of their first meeting in Madrid (see the footnote to chapter 13); the near certainty that Rey Romero never laid eyes on the Treasure Hunter (see the footnote to chapter 42); and the fact that many of the following events are obviously recycled from episodes published in the Eco del Comercio of September 1838, all speak against this meeting ever having taken place. [Missler, Treasure Hunter, chapters 10-13].

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

MYSELF. - I can scarcely believe my eyes. Do you mean to say that you have just arrived at this place? BENEDICT. - Ow yes, I am this moment arrived. I have walked all the long way from Madrid. MYSELF. - What motive could possibly bring you such a distance? BENEDICT. - Ow, I am come for the schatz - the treasure. I told you at Madrid that I was coming; and now I have met you here, I have no doubt that I shall find it, the schatz. MYSELF. - In what manner did you support yourself by the way? BENEDICT. - Ow, I begged, I bettled, and so contrived to pick up some cuartos; and when I reached Toro, I worked at my trade of soap-making for a time, till the people said I knew nothing about it, and drove me out of the town. So I went on and begged and bettled till I arrived at Orense11, which is in this country of Galicia. Ow, I do not like this country of Galicia at all. MYSELF. - Why not? BENEDICT. - Why! because here they all beg and bettle, and have scarce anything for themselves, much less for me whom they know to be a foreign man. O the misery of Galicia. When I arrive at night at one of their pigsties, which they call posadas, and ask for bread to eat in the name of God, and straw to lie down in, they curse me, and say there is neither bread nor straw in Galicia; and sure enough, since I have been here I have seen neither, only something that they call broa12, and a kind of reedy rubbish with which they litter the horses: all my bones are sore since I entered Galicia. MYSELF. - And yet you have come to this country, which you call so miserable, in search of treasure? BENEDICT. - Ow yaw, but the schatz is buried; it is not above ground; there is no money above ground in Galicia. I must dig it up; and when I have dug it up I will

11 The main city in southern Galicia, and the only one of note which Borrow never visited. 12 Galician maize-bread of the day. Burke [Glossary] proposes ‘barona’ as an alternative spelling in Portuguese and Galician, and ‘brona’ in Galician and Spanish. Modern Galician dictionaries prefer ‘boroa’. Most likely, however, Borrow took this spelling from one of the earliest texts printed in Gallego, the 1836 Tertulia de Picaños (see footnote 25 below), where he also found the Galician spelling Calros which he uses to refer to the pretender Don Carlos (see chapter 30 below), and several arguments advanced by the inhabitants of Santiago against their arch-foe, the Coruñese (see note 25 below). According to Burke [Glossary] broa was made from a mixture of maize, rye, millet, and panic-grass. That, however, would seem to be the luxury version. In the poorer areas, broa was famously mixed with things like tree bark during the worst scarcity of the winter months.

Chapter 27

purchase a coach with six mules, and ride out of Galicia to Lucerne; and if the Herr pleases to go with me, he shall be welcome to go with me and the schatz. MYSELF. - I am afraid that you have come on a desperate errand. What do you propose to do? Have you any money? BENEDICT. - Not a cuart; but I do not care now I have arrived at Saint James. The schatz is nigh; and I have, moreover, seen you, which is a good sign; it tells me that the schatz is still here. I shall go to the best posada in the place, and live like a duke till I have an opportunity of digging up the schatz, when I will pay all scores. "Do nothing of the kind," I replied; "find out some place in which to sleep, and endeavour to seek some employment. In the mean time, here is a trifle with which to support yourself; but as for the treasure which you have come to seek, I believe it only exists in your own imagination." I gave him a dollar and departed. I have never enjoyed more charming walks than in the neighbourhood of Saint James. In these I was almost invariably accompanied by my friend the good old bookseller. The streams are numerous, and along their wooded banks we were in the habit of straying and enjoying the delicious summer evenings of this part of Spain. Religion generally formed the topic of our conversation, but we not unfrequently talked of the foreign lands which I had visited, and at other times of matters which related particularly to my companion. "We booksellers of Spain," said he, "are all liberals; we are no friends to the monkish system.13 How indeed should we be friends to it? It fosters darkness, whilst we live by disseminating light. We love our profession, and have all more or less suffered for it; many of us, in the times of terror, were hanged for selling an innocent translation from the French or English. Shortly after the Constitution was put down by Angouleme and the French bayonets,14 I was obliged to flee from Saint James and take refuge in the wildest part of Galicia, near Corcuvion.15 Had I not possessed good friends, I should not have been alive now; as it was, it cost me a considerable sum of money to arrange 13 This statement is surely true. Due to the nature of their trade, booksellers landed automatically in the liberal camp, since the autocratic, conservative forces led by the Church aimed at curbing literature of nearly every kind. In priestly eyes, the reading of books – particularly those containing French philosophy, with its iconoclastic, anti-ecclesiastical ideas – was the most dangerous thing a citizen could engage in. Hence all such books must be forbidden, and those allowed should be kept firmly behind lock and key. Rotting out forbidden books in private hands was the priority and main activity of the Spanish Inquisition in the last 100 years before its abolition in 1834. 14 In the spring of 1823 the Holy Alliance (i.e. France, Prussia and Russia) sent into Spain a large French army known as the ‘100,000 sons of Saint Louis’, led by the Duke of Angoulême, to end the liberal regime which had been ushered in by the coup of General Rafael Riego in January 1820, free King Ferdinant VII from captivity and restore him to full absolute power. 15 There is no documentary evidence for Rey Romero’s exile to Corcubión in these years, but he does figure in a lynching-list of liberals, published La Estafeta newspaper of 6 May 1814, as one more left-winger who deserved punishment [reproduced in Meijide Pardo, A., Sinforiano Lopez Alia, Coruña 1995, 94f]. In later years, however, Rey Romero, grown wise, made sure to be on excellent terms with the Church and conservative politicians. Hence these ultra-liberal statements he makes so freely sound a little unlikely. He was, in any case, a devout catholic.

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

matters. Whilst I was away, my shop was in charge of the ecclesiastical officers. They frequently told my wife that I ought to be burnt for the books which I had sold. Thanks be to God, those times are past, and I hope they will never return."

27.5 The church of Santa Maria Salomé Once, as we were walking through the streets of Saint James, he stopped before a church and looked at it attentively. As there was nothing remarkable in the appearance of this edifice, I asked him what motive he had for taking such notice of it. "In the days of the friars," said he, "this church was one of refuge, to which if the worst criminals escaped, they were safe. 16 All were protected there save the negros, as they called us liberals." "Even murderers, I suppose?" said I. "Murderers!" he answered, "far worse criminals than they. By the by, I have heard that you English entertain the utmost 16 The church of Santa Maria Salomé (the mother of Saint James) in the Rua Nova. Next to the Cathedral itself, it was one of the few remaining places of refuge after the Santiago Chapter abolished most such sanctuaries in a 1773 edict. A legend painted on its facade, barely legible today, reads ‘Iglesia reservada para refugio’. Much to the annoyance of the clergy, this status was finally stripped from the building by the liberal authorities of the 1830s. Borrow’s remark that there was ‘nothing remarkable in the appearance of this edifice’ is merely literary rhetoric. The opposite is the case, for its portico not only sports some most interesting romantic gargouilles, but also a very rare example of a so-called ‘Virgen de la Leche’, i.e. a statue of the highly pregnant Virgin Mary, part of a triptych epiphany [Perez Costanti, P., Notas Viejas Compostelanas, T. III (1927), 85; J. Fernandez Sanchez & F. Freire Barreiro, Guia de Santiago y sus alrededores, Santiago 1885, 224.]

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abhorrence of murder. Do you in reality consider it a crime of very great magnitude?" "How should we not," I replied; "for every other crime some reparation can be made; but if we take away life, we take away all.17 A ray of hope with respect to this world may occasionally enliven the bosom of any other criminal, but how can the murderer hope?" "The friars were of another way of thinking," replied the old man; "they always looked upon murder as a friolera; but not so the crime of marrying your first cousin without dispensation, for which, if we believe them, there is scarcely any atonement either in this world or the next." 18

27.6 The ‘Virgen de la Leche’

17 For once, Borrow agreed almost verbally with Count Volney, whom he dispised (compare chapter 3 and chapter 53). Volney wrote in chapter 4 of his Loi Naturelle: ‘D: Le meurtre d’un homme est donc un crime dans la loi naturelle? R: Oui: et le plus grand qu’on puisse commettre; car tout autre mal peut se reparer, mais le meurtre ne se repare point.’ Another possible instance of Borrow echoing Volney may be found in chapter 33 below. 18 Friolera: a mere trifle. Of course this entire remark is nonsense, and – unless it be some weak attempt at humour - finds its origins not in anything which Rey Romero said, but in Borrow’s own Church-bashing attitudes. Even so, it is true that one disagreed with the tenets of the Church at one’s peril in Santiago. Carnarvon [chapter 6, 144] describes a young man who in 1827 openly criticized the civil authorities, yet trembled at the thought that the authorities might hear he considered priestly celibacy undesirable… ‘If [they] knew that I had assented to such a proposition, the lowest and darkest dungeon in the city would not be low and dark enough for me,’ he assured his English friend.

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

Two or three days after this, as we were seated in my apartment in the posada, engaged in conversation, the door was opened by Antonio, who, with a smile on his countenance, said that there was a foreign GENTLEMAN below, who desired to speak with me. "Show him up," I replied; whereupon almost instantly appeared Benedict Mol. "This is a most extraordinary person," said I to the bookseller. "You Galicians, in general, leave your country in quest of money; he, on the contrary, is come hither to find some."19 REY ROMERO. - And he is right. Galicia is by nature the richest province in Spain, but the inhabitants are very stupid, and know not how to turn the blessings which surround them to any account; but as a proof of what may be made out of Galicia, see how rich the Catalans become who have settled down here and formed establishments20. There are riches all around us, upon the earth and in the earth. BENEDICT. - Ow yaw, in the earth, that is what I say. There is much more treasure below the earth than above it. MYSELF. - Since I last saw you, have you discovered the place in which you say the treasure is deposited? BENEDICT. - O yes, I know all about it now. It is buried `neath the sacristy in the church of San Roque.21 Myself. - How have you been able to make that discovery?

19 As we shall see below, in a letter to Borrow of June 1839 Rey Romero made it perfectly clear that he had never laid eyes on the treasure hunter (see the footnote to chapter 42). Hence the following conversation may indeed have taken place between Borrow and the bookseller; but if so the Swiss was not present. 20 Ever since the early 18th century Catalan entrepreneurs had established factories for the drying, salting and canning of fish on the Galician coast. Since they applied modern fishery techniques, cared little about local customs, and bribed their way to grand advantages, they were deeply hated by the more primitive Galician fishermen. Frequently the Catalan factories were burned down in uprisings; sometimes also the houses of Catalan businessmen, more often than not with the Catalans inside; and at least one mayor sea-battle took place in the Ria de Marin (the firth of Marin) in 1816, which involved amphibious landings from one coast to the other and fishing boats armed with canon left over from the Peninsular War. Rey Romero’s trusted brother-in-law José Pou, owner of the diligence line to Coruña and alderman of Santiago, was a descendant of such a Catalan family. 21 Whether this ‘innovation’ was Mol’s or Borrow’s is uncertain. When the Santiago treasure hunt finally took place a year later, the Swiss did not dig in the tiny San Roque chapel, but in the large, adjacent hospital. Note, however, that the first newspaper reports that reached Madrid likewise spoke of the Swiss planning to dig in the chapel. Therefore this may have been part of Mol’s own cover story, meant to throw other gold diggers off the track. [Missler, Treasure Hunter, 107 & chapter 18]

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BENEDICT. - I will tell you: the day after my arrival I walked about all the city in quest of the church, but could find none which at all answered to the signs which my comrade who died in the hospital gave me. I entered several, and looked about, but all in vain; I could not find the place which I had in my mind's eye. At last the people with whom I lodge, and to whom I told my business, advised me to send for a meiga. MYSELF. - A meiga! What is that? BENEDICT. - Ow! a haxweib, a witch; the Gallegos call them so in their jargon, of which I can scarcely understand a word. So I consented, and they sent for the meiga. Och! what a weib is that meiga! I never saw such a woman; she is as large as myself, and has a face as round and red as the sun.22 She asked me a great many questions in her Gallegan, and when I had told her all she wanted to know, she pulled out a pack of cards and laid them on the table in a particular manner, and then she said that the treasure was in the church of San Roque; and sure enough, when I went to that church, it answered in every respect to the signs of my comrade who died in the hospital. O she is a powerful hax, that meiga; she is well known in the neighbourhood, and has done much harm to the cattle. I gave her half the dollar I had from you for her trouble.23 MYSELF. - Then you acted like a simpleton; she has grossly deceived you. But even suppose that the treasure is really deposited in the church you mention, it is not probable that you will be permitted to remove the floor of the sacristy to search for it. BENEDICT. - Ow, the matter is already well advanced. Yesterday I went to one of the canons to confess myself and to receive absolution and benediction; not that I regard these things much, but I thought this would be the best means of broaching the matter, so I confessed myself, and then I spoke of my travels to the canon, and at last I told him of the treasure, and proposed that if he assisted me we should share it between us24. Ow, I wish you had seen him; he entered at once into the affair, and said that it might turn out a very profitable speculation: and he shook me by the hand, and said that I was an honest Swiss and a good Catholic. And I then proposed that he should take me into his house and keep me there till we had an opportunity of digging up the treasure together. This he refused to do.

22 The description of this ‘meiga’ suggests that Borrow never saw one. Galician meixas, as Galician women in general, rarely stood higher than five feet until the 1990s, and one of six feet would have made the national news as a supernatural marvel. 23 Like most of Mol’s adventures in the present chapter, this meiga is most probably fictitious, an embellishment of Borrow’s based on a single remark, published in the Eco del Comercio nº 1,589 of 6 September 1838, in which the Swiss treasure hunter is said to have protested that everything he had done wrong was the fault of ‘the woman who laid the cards for him in Paris and misled him’. [Missler, Treasure Hunter, 106, 144 & 192] 24 The Canon in charge of San Roque was Don Ramón Boán. There is no reason to suppose any involvement of this ecclesiastical worthy in the scandal of Mol’s treasure hunt. The greediness – and treachery – of this canon is merely a typical part of Borrow’s fictitious anti-Papist universe. [Missler, Treasure Hunter, 107 & 211]

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

REY ROMERO. - Of that I have no doubt: trust one of our canons for not committing himself so far until he sees very good reason. These tales of treasure are at present rather too stale: we have heard of them ever since the time of the Moors. BENEDICT. - He advised me to go to the Captain General and obtain permission to make excavations, in which case he promised to assist me to the utmost of his power. Thereupon the Swiss departed, and I neither saw nor heard anything farther of him during the time that I continued at Saint James.

27.7 The chapel of San Roque The bookseller was never weary of showing me about his native town, of which he was enthusiastically fond. Indeed, I have never seen the spirit of localism, which is so prevalent throughout Spain, more strong than at Saint James25. If their town did but flourish, the Santiagians seemed to care but little if all others in Galicia perished. Their antipathy to the town of Coruna was unbounded, and this feeling had of late been not a little increased from the circumstance that the seat of the provincial government had been removed from Saint James to Coruna. Whether this change was advisable or not, it is not for me, who am a foreigner, to say; my private opinion, however, is by no means favourable to the alteration. Saint James is one of the most central towns in Galicia, with large and populous communities on every side of it, whereas Coruna stands in a

25 Seeing the extreme closeness in argument and choice of words, Borrow almost certainly took the material for the following paragraphs (up to ‘what good can come from Coruña?’) from one of the first (anonymous) texts ever published in Gallego: ‘La Tertulia de Picaños’, Imprenta de Campaña y Aguayo, Santiago, 31 October 1836. Rey Romero – who ran the only bookshop in town at this time – may have showed it to him as an example of what the local tongue looked like when written. [Missler, ‘A Gallegan Source to The Bible in Spain’, in: GBB 25, 64-71.]

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corner, at a considerable distance from the rest.26 "It is a pity that the vecinos of Coruna cannot contrive to steal away from us our cathedral, even as they have done our government," said a Santiagian; "then, indeed, they would be able to cut some figure. As it is, they have not a church fit to say mass in." "A great pity, too, that they cannot remove our hospital," would another exclaim; "as it is, they are obliged to send us their sick, poor wretches. I always think that the sick of Coruna have more ill-favoured countenances than those from other places; but what good can come from Coruna?"

27.8 The Hospital Real of Santiago Accompanied by the bookseller, I visited this hospital27, in which, however, I did not remain long; the wretchedness and uncleanliness which I observed speedily driving me away. Saint James, indeed, is the grand lazar-house for all the rest of Galicia, which accounts for the prodigious number of horrible objects to be seen in its streets, who have for the most part arrived in the hope of procuring medical assistance, which, from what I could learn, is very scantily and inefficiently administered.28 Amongst these

26 The argument is shaky, since here in Galicia, the shortest route between two points was not a straight line. As Borrow himself showed: the fastest way to get from Madrid to the heart of the province was by taking the Camino Real, which first ran to Coruña, before doubling back southward towards Santiago. Hence Coruña, which also communicated with the rest of the world by sea, was, de facto, more central to the purposes of administration. In any case geography was immaterial to the choice of capital. The liberal leadership moved the provincial seat government to Coruña because it was a liberal town, not a hotbed of Carlism like Santiago. Only ten years earlier, the central administration had been moved from Coruña to Santiago for the exact opposite reason by the arch-conservative Captain-General Nazario Eguia. 27 The Hospital de los Reyes Catolicos, on the Plaza de Obradoiro, nowadays the most luxurious 5-star Parador in town. 28 Indeed, traditionally, the poor and sick, and in times of famine the whole of the countryside peasantry, flocked to Santiago to throw themselves on the charity of the Church, which was the only provider of any sort of social safety-net. When Borrow visited the town, this charity had indeed dwindled; but not because of inefficient administration or priestly avarice, but because of the anti-ecclesiastical policies of the new liberal regime. See note 30 below.

George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition)

unhappy wretches I occasionally observed the terrible leper, and instantly fled from him with a "God help thee," as if I had been a Jew of old. Galicia is the only province of Spain where cases of leprosy are still frequent; a convincing proof this, that the disease is the result of foul feeding, and an inattention to cleanliness, as the Gallegans, with regard to the comforts of life and civilized habits, are confessedly far behind all the other natives of Spain. "Besides a general hospital we have likewise a leper-house," said the bookseller. "Shall I show it you? We have everything at Saint James. There is nothing lacking; the very leper finds an inn here." "I have no objection to your showing me the house," I replied, "but it must be at a distance, for enter it I will not." Thereupon he conducted me down the road which leads towards Padron and Vigo, and pointing to two or three huts, exclaimed "That is our leper-house."29 "It appears a miserable place," I replied: "what accommodation may there be for the patients, and who attends to their wants?" "They are left to themselves," answered the bookseller, "and probably sometimes perish from neglect: the place at one time was endowed and had rents which were appropriated to its support, but even these have been sequestered during the late troubles.30 At present, the least unclean of the lepers generally takes his station by the road side, and begs for the rest. See there he is now." And sure enough the leper in his shining scales, and half naked, was seated beneath a ruined wall. We dropped money into the hat of the unhappy being, and passed on. "A bad disorder that," said my friend. "I confess that I, who have seen so many of them, am by no means fond of the company of lepers. Indeed, I wish that they would never enter my shop, as they occasionally do to beg. Nothing is more infectious, as I have heard, than leprosy: there is one very virulent species, however, which is particularly dreaded here, the elephantine: those who die of it should, according to law, be burnt, and their ashes scattered to the winds: for if the body of such a leper be interred in the field of the dead, the disorder is forthwith communicated to all the corses31 even below 29 The leper house of Santa Martha on the road towards Padron. Today nothing is left of the institution except a small chapel. Borrow would probably have been astonished to learn that there was still another leper hospital in Santiago, specialised in cases of elephantiasis, at San Lazaro, on the road to Lugo. This institution functioned at least until 1885 [J. Fernandez Sanchez & F. Freire Barreiro, Guia de Santiago y sus alrededores, Santiago 1885, 412]. But note that these were not – as Borrow here pretends – the only leper houses left in Spain. Ford [HB, 412] describes the great leper house of Seville, of which Borrow must also have known. 30 In the wanton act of the so-called Desamortizacion the new liberal regime stripped the Church of all its landed income, and left it little to dispense to the poor. Next, the Madrid politicians sold the confiscated church lands off to political cronies for a shoestring, and – after solemnly promising state subsidies for the hospitals - left the sick to rot for themselves. A year earlier, one of the town aldermen, Doctor Varela de Montes, already reported to the city council that both leper institutions were in a bad shape due to the lack of funds. To remedy this the town hall decided to solicit charitable alms from the public [Archivo Historico de la Universidad de Santiago, ‘Libros Consistorios 1836’, folio 128, session of 25 August 1836]. Seeing Borrow’s description here, this initiative does not seem to have helped much.

31 Archaic for ‘corpse’. The precise meaning of this somewhat silly remark begs explanation.

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the earth. Such, at least, is our idea in these parts. Lawsuits are at present pending from the circumstance of elephantides having been buried with the other dead. Sad is leprosy in all its forms, but most so when elephantine." "Talking of corpses," said I, "do you believe that the bones of St. James are veritably interred at Compostella?" "What can I say," replied the old man; "you know as much of the matter as myself. Beneath the high altar is a large stone slab or lid, which is said to cover the mouth of a profound well, at the bottom of which it is believed that the bones of the saint are interred; though why they should be placed at the bottom of a well, is a mystery which I cannot fathom. One of the officers of the church told me that at one time he and another kept watch in the church during the night, one of the chapels having shortly before been broken open and a sacrilege committed. At the dead of night, finding the time hang heavy on their hands, they took a crowbar and removed the slab and looked down into the abyss below; it was dark as the grave; whereupon they affixed a weight to the end of a long rope and lowered it down. At a very great depth it seemed to strike against something dull and solid like lead: they supposed it might be a coffin; perhaps it was, but whose is the question."32

27.9 The bookplate of the Rey Romero bookshop

32 Nowadays the silver coffin containing the remains of the Apostle and his disciples San Atanasio and San Teofilio are exposed to view in the crypt of the Cathedral. But at the time of Borrow´s visit, the tomb, which according to Madoz [DG, vol. 13, 817] could ‘be seen by the devout until Archbishop Gelmirez ordered [it] to be closed’ shortly after the year 1100, had not yet been rediscovered. This sensational event only occurred on 31 January 1879 when during repair works a large tombstone was discovered bearing the inscription that the three Holy Men were buried here [Ilustracion Gallega y Asturiana, nº 4 of 10 February 1879, 46f]. Non-religious speculation as to the question whose remains may be buried in the tomb has yielded all sorts of reasonable and fantastic candidates, one of them being the prosecuted Christian dissenter Priscillus.