Iowa capitol reporter. [volume] (Iowa City, Iowa) 1841-1855, 1853-04-13
Correspondence Of the n. Y. Tribune.
PoTtugai.-The Country and pc0-
pie.

Lisbon, MarcT, 20, 1879.
Portugal is about the size of Maine, and has
hundred Inhabitants to . lch square mile.
Massachusetts, the most densely peoplcd of
the States, has eighty four inhabitants to the
square mile.
The surface is unlike anything the traveller
observes i'll our country. 1t is neither noun.
famous nor level. The only portion of it which
have personally seen-the central part of
the Atlantic side, from the Tagus north about
hundred miles to the Mondego-has some
lofty and bod mountains but generally wears
the appearance of an originally undulating
surface, deeply cut and torn by floods. The
principal roads lie along the higher ridges, and
the native forests are nearly removed, SO that
you have league after league, and almost bound.
less landscape before and behind you, and Oh
either hand. From this aeriel, free, and often
wild and grand passage along the high.road,
where, for hours, you meet no fellow traveller.
and hardly.any living thing June s it be hawk
sailing far above you, or a lizard summing him.
self in your path, you suddenly descend, many
hundred feet, to a cluster of bright white hou-
ses, with an ancient church and ruinous con-
vent among them, upon the side of an unfalI.
ing stream. Here, even in midsummer. when
all the upper country is parched and cracking
with drouth that literally burns up every
green thing, you are delighted with fresh
verdure, with the grape orange and fig in their
perfection, and with fields of Indian corn in all
the stages of its growth. from the first bright
blade to the rpened ear, and with the glad
laugh and the gag song Of careless and hap
'py peasantry On the summit of a nighborng
hill, overlooking and commanding the village,
are probably the ruins of fort, it may be of
Moorish OF even of Roman origin. Though so
thickly peopled, the general aspect of the
country is solitary; you pass leagues without
seeing house or sign of human habitation-
The population is concentrated in villages
The valleys along the rivers are cultivated to
their utmost capacity, and the rest Of the land
is fed by goats and sheep, or cropped of its
ferns, for manure for the river bottoms.
One Of the first things that strikes an Amer.
lean here is the stationary character of the peo-
pie. The inhabitants of Lisbon rarely leave
it;multitudes of them have never been to Cintra,
only five leagues off, and one Of the most beau
tiful scenes in the world or even across the
Tagus, to the heights of Armada, celebrated
for its magnificent water prospect. Very few
have been fifty miles IN any direction, and to
the coun,ryman, Lisbon is far off wonder,
which he no more thinks of visiting than We
think of going TO Jerusalem. There is, in fact,
little communication in the country.
Another feature in the social state here, en-,
tirely unlike our own, is that the soil is owned
mainly by the nobility, who reside for the
most of the year, or entirely, in the city, and
cultivate their estates by agents. To these
estates attached vast numbers of servants
and dependents, who, in their health and
strength. perform the labor of the country,
and in sickness and old age, live upon their
masters bounty. In such climate their wants
are few. Very little shelter and clothing are