Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/170

 not improved since the days of the immortal, Santillana—they were all more or less filled with the lowest of the rabble, and a set of bravos whose calling was robbery, and who cared little if murder were its accompaniment. The cookery was execrable. Garlic and oil were its principal ingredients. The olla podrida, and its constant attendant, the tomato sauce, were intolerable, but the wine was very well for a midshipman. Whenever we had a repast in any of these houses, the bravos endeavoured to pick a quarrel with us; and these fellows being always armed with stilettos, we found it necessary to be equally well prepared; and whenever we seated ourselves at a table we never failed to display the butts of our pistols, which kept them in decent order, for they are as cowardly as they are thievish. Our seamen not being so cautious, or so well provided with arms, were frequently robbed and assassinated by these rascals.

I was, on one occasion, near falling a victim to them. Walking in the evening with the