Insignificant Are The Results Of Man's
Labours Compared With The Swelling Ideas Of His Presumption;
Something, However, Had Been Effected By The Journey, Which I Had
Just Concluded.
The New Testament of Christ was now enjoying a
quiet sale in the principal towns of the north, and I had secured
the friendly interest and co-operation of the booksellers of those
parts, particularly of him the most considerable of them all, old
Rey of Compostella.
I had, moreover, disposed of a considerable
number of Testaments with my own hands, to private individuals,
entirely of the lower class, namely, muleteers, carmen,
contrabandistas, etc., so that upon the whole I had abundant cause
for gratitude and thanksgiving.
I did not find our affairs in a very prosperous state at Madrid,
few copies having been sold in the booksellers' shops, yet what
could be rationally expected during these latter times? Don
Carlos, with a large army, had been at the gates; plunder and
massacre had been expected; so that people were too much occupied
in forming plans to secure their lives and property, to give much
attention to reading of any description.
The enemy, however, had now retired to his strongholds in Alava and
Guipuscoa. I hoped that brighter days were dawning, and that the
work, under my own superintendence, would, with God's blessing,
prosper in the capital of Spain. How far the result corresponded
with my expectations will be seen in the sequel. During my absence
in the north, a total change of ministers had occurred.
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