L E T T E R XVIII.
Defcription o f the town o f Bilbao, and, the manners o f its inhabitants.
* I ’HE town o f Bilbao, on the banks of the river Ybai-
zabal, is about two leagues from the fea, and contains
about eight hundred houfes, with a large fquare by
the water fide, well ihaded with pleafant walks, which
extend to the. outlets, on the banks o f the river, with
numbers of. houfes and gardens, which form a moil
pleafing profpeil, particularly as you fail up the river;
for, befides the beautiful verdure, numerous obje&s open
gradually to the eye, and the town appearing as. an amphitheatre,
enlivens 'the landfcape, and completes the
fcenery.
The houfes are folid and lofty, the ilreets well paved
and le v e l; water is conveyed into the ilreets, and they
may be waihed at pleafure, which renders Bilbao one of
the neateil towns in Europe. Coaches are not in ufe,
by which means, inequality of wealth is not fo perceptible,
exterior oilentation is avoided, and the poor
man
man walks by the fide o f the rich, with equal eafe and
content.
The air is generally damp, covers iron with ruil, de-
itroys furniture in the upper apartments, extrails the
fait out o f dried fiih, and multiplies flies beyond mea-
fure, yet the town is remarkably healthy, and its inhabitants
enjoy, to a great degree, the three principal
bleflings o f life, perfeil health, ftrength o f body, and
a chearful dilpofition, attended with longevity ; in proof
of which, though the town is very populous, the hof-
pital is frequently empty, and in the nine months, that
Mr. Bqwles refided there, only nine perfons were buried,
four o f which were above eighty. Every day one may
fee men above that age walking upright, in chearful
converfe with youth. Burning fevers, which the Spaniards
dread fo much and call tabardillos, are not known
here, and they are feldom troubled with agues. What
is then the reafon that Bilbao, on the fide of a river,
in fo damp a fituation, and chiefly built on piles,
like the cities in Holland, fhould be fo remarkably
healthy, with every indication againil it ? I fhal] endea-
deavour to account for it.
The adjacent mountains flop the clouds that arife from
the faline vapours o f the ocean, rains are frequent, but
they are feldom without a fea breeze, or a land wind;
the