The Bible in Spain: Or the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an Englishman in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula (Classic Reprint)

Towards the end of the veiled seven years of his life, in which he gathered his forces for his splendid rising with newspangled ore, George Borrow was recommended to the British and Foreign Bible Society on account of his genius for languages ;and in December 1832 he set out oa foot from Norfolk to see the secretaries of the Society in London. The distance is a hundred and twelve miles: he is said to have covered it in twenty-seven hoars at a cost of fivepence halfpenny, which he spent on a pint of ale, half-a-pint of milk, a roll of bread, and two apples. The Society examined his knowledge of Oriental languages, and asked whether he was willing to learn the Manchu-T artar, because they needed a man who would go to Russia and see through the press a translation of the New Testament into that tongue, which was lying ready at St. Petersburg. Borrow agreed: in six months, time he was to come again for examination, and in the meantime he was to be provided for by the Society. The examination was competitive and Borrow succeeded. There was a short delay. The Society, having asked for a servant and being given George Borrow, was uncomfortable about a letter of his in which he spoke of becoming usefid to the Deity, to man, and to yourself ;perhaps it was in a similar mood that Borrow himself beheld his somersaulting Gallegan guide, a fellow who rides upon the clouds and is occasionally whisked away by a gust of wind. Nevertheless, he was directed to set out on July 30, 1833. He was then still under thirty years of age. His Russian task satisfi Eurtorily fulfilled, he was in England again in 1835, eager for another mission from the Bible Society, since from them alone could he hope for the gift of another tract of active life, and an inactive life he could not away with. It had already been suggested that he might go to China through Russia and Tartary, and it was s
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)