been lately prohibited, by which a total Hop has been
put to the labour and induftry o f the inhabitants in
that valuable branch. Were we to believe the boafted
accounts of the green jafper found in a gully called E l
barranco de San Juan, in that part o f the Sierra Nevada
through which the river Genii paifes to Granada, it is
an univerfal remedy for all manner of complaints, and
has lingular effects if wore over the ftomach, or applied
to any part of the body where its efficacy is required.
There are two forts of it, fome having black veins and
very hard, others with white veins, lefs fo, but reputed
equally efficacious (a).
■ [a) A ll its fuppófed virtues áre let forth In a paper primed at Granada, -without any-date,
entitled,. “ Maravilofas virtudes de la Piedra Jafpe verde lacadas de muchos autores y confirmadas
con muchas experiencias.” It is not ohly ufed in the applications abovementioned,
But' pulverized,- and when mixed with- milk cures old wounds, the bites o f ferpents, the
piles, and is good for the fights, but what is belt o f all, an excellent remedy againft enchantments
and witchcraft! John Fragofo, in his Cirugía univerfal, fpeaks of it in his index of limpie
remedies under the word jafpi on the authoiity of St. Epiphanies; 'Morales alfo in his
“ hiftoria medecinal de lo que fe trabe de Indias" fob 18; as alfoGakn, ub.. 9, de facuU
tatibus fimplicium. Piiny, lib. 36, cáp. 7, and lib. 37, cap. 9. Difoondes, lib. 5, c. 117,
and his commentator LagiiM. According to the paper abovementi'onéd, it has been in great
demand fincé the year 177a.
l e t t e r
l e t t e r xrir.
Excurfwn from the city o f Granada to Cordova and Anduxar,
in Andalufia.
T N going from Granada to Andalufia, the firft ftage is
at Loxa, a journey o f ten hours, through that beautiful
plain called La Vega de Granada, and then afcend-
ing a mountain, through another cultivated vale, with
wheat, flax, hemp, and pulfe. Loxa is a middling town,
pleafantly fituated on a high hill o f conglutinated ftone,-
which forms a kind o f breehia or pudding-flone, in the
centre o f olive grounds having plenty o f fruit, notwithstanding
its elevated, cold and dry fituation.
From Loxa to the weft ward, thé country is fertile, producing
wheat and barley, in a limy foil well furnifhed'
with oak. The foil of thefe hills feems to proceed from
the decompofition o f former rocks, many o f which appear
in broken lumps, intermixed with the arable land;-
Alameda is the firft town'in-the kingdom of Seville:
fwallows make their appearance there in February, a few
cornfields are feen in the low lands, but in general the
weftern