still before the door of my solitary house in the little silent square of
the Pila Seca.

* * * * *

It was not without reason that the Latins gave the name of Finis terrae
to this district. We had arrived exactly at such a place as in my
boyhood I had pictured to myself as the termination of the world, beyond
which there was a wild sea, or abyss, or chaos. I now saw far before me
an immense ocean, and below me a long and irregular line of lofty and
precipitous coast. Certainly in the whole world there is no bolder coast
than the Gallegan shore, from the debouchment of the Minho to Cape
Finisterre. It consists of a granite wall of savage mountains for the
most part serrated at the top, and occasionally broken, where bays and
firths like those of Vigo and Pontevedra intervene, running deep into the
land. These bays and firths are invariably of an immense depth, and
sufficiently capacious to shelter the navies of the proudest maritime
nations.

There is an air of stern and savage grandeur in everything around, which
strongly captivates the imagination. This savage coast is the first
glimpse of Spain which the voyager from the north catches, or he who has
ploughed his way across the wide Atlantic: and well does it seem to
realize all his visions of this strange land. 'Yes,' he exclaims, 'this
is indeed Spain--stern, flinty Spain--land emblematic of those spirits to
which she has given birth. From what land but that before me could have
proceeded those portentous beings who astounded the Old World and filled
the New with horror and blood? Alva and Philip, Cortez and Pizzaro--stern
colossal spectres looming through the gloom of bygone years, like yonder
granite mountains through the haze, upon the eye of the mariner. Yes,