to perfume a handkerchief; and so it ought to be, for it is very dear.




LETTER XIII.

CETTE.


I was very impatient till I had drove my horse from the British to the
Mediterranean coast, and looked upon a sea from _that land_ which I had
often, with longing eyes, viewed _from the sea_, in the year 1745, when
I was on board the Russel, with Admiral Medley. I have now compleatly
crossed this mighty kingdom and great continent, and it was for that
reason I visited _Cette_. This pretty little sea-port, though it is out
of my way to _Barcelona_, yet it proves to be in _the way_ for my poor
horse; as I found here a Spanish bark, upon which I put part of my
baggage. I was obliged to have it, however, opened and examined at the
Custom-house; and as the officer found in it a bass viol, two guittars,
a fiddle, and some other musical instruments, he very naturally
concluded I was a musician, and very kindly intimated to me his
apprehensions, that I should meet with but very little _encouragement in
Spain_: as I had not any better reason to assign for going there, but to
fiddle, I did not undeceive this good-natured man till the next morning,
when I owned, I was not sufficiently _cunning_ in the art of music to
get my bread by it; and that I had unfortunately been bred to a worse
profession, that of arms; and if I got time enough to _Barcelona_ to
enter a volunteer in the _Walloon_ guards, and go to _Algiers_, perhaps
I might get from his Catholic Majesty, by my services, more than I could