The city of Ronda is fix leagues from Algodónales,
on a very high fituation, it being a continual afcent
from Xerez, which continues as far as Gibraltar: the
country about Ronda is remarkably fertile and fupplies
Cadiz with all kinds o f fruit and vegetables, the foil is
o f a reddiih colour with pebble and refills the heat of
the fire, for which reafon it is much ufed in furnaces for
fufing iron.: Amongft other curiofities with which the
country o f Ronda abounds, that little animal called the
gennet is one o f the moil extraordinary, and hot to be
found in any other part of Europe except Turkey. It
is fmaller than the civet, has a long body, lhort legs, a
fharp fnout, and a Hender head : under its tail there is-
a long bag which emits a perfume. Its fur is foft and
gloify, of an afh colour marked with black fpots, which
unite upon the back and form flripes which run longitudinally
from the neck backward, with a long tail diverfi-
fied with ringlets of black and white: the fur was formerly
in efteem, but o f late has been counterfeited by
tinging grey rabbet ikins with black fpots, and is now
out o f fafhion («). The diftrid o f Ronda alfo furniihes
(a) W c read in the hiftory of France, that Charles Martel having obtained a compleat
vi&ory over the Saracens, at the battle o f .Tours, in 762, found fo many of their helmets,
ornamented with the Ikins of gennets, that he inilituted the order o f knighthood o f the
Gennet, in memory o f that adion. T h e knights wore the figure o f that animal pendant to
a golden chain about the neck. This order fiipported itfelf till the reign o f St. Lewis, when
it fell into difrepute. Mr. .de Buffon appears tO‘ have been mifinformed in laying that
the gennet could only live in low and marfhy fpots, when the mountains o f Ronda abound
with them. See “ Journey from Gibraltar to Malaga, by Francis Carter, Efep” London, 1777.
the
the fierce bull, the ravenous wolf and other obnoxious
animals its rocks ferve as a retreat, for the eagle, the
ofprey and kite; yet notwithftanding fuch numerous enemies
its foil makes ample amends by its unbounded fertility
(a).
.About three leagues from Ronda to the fouth call, and!
four from the little ports o f Eftepona and Marvella, an
attempt has been made fome years ago to ered a manu-
iaclure of tin-plates by Don Miguel deTopete, marquis o f
Pilares, afliited by Benito Berbrungen, a fugitive Saxon,
who brought the fecret from Germany. Three hundred5
thoufand dollars (£"50,000 ilerling) have been laid out in
buildings and other acceifories relating^ to this manufacture
to very little purpofe. On the road to the manufactory,
there are iron mines where the ore is found in
little pieces like comfits, fimilar to that o f Befort in
France. Four leagues from hence to the South Eait,
nearer the fea, there is a famous mine of black lead, the
true molibdena, being a perfed mine, not divided in lumps
in the fand-ftone, like the other mentioned before, yet
even this is totally negleded. A few years ago, a foreign
conful.. had the king’s leave to extracl two hundred and
[a) See Natural hiftory o f Ronda in Mr. Carter’s journey, who fays that the diftriil of
Ronda is fo fertile that the druggifts (hops are fupplied 'with medicinal herbs from thence
both in Spain and the Indies.' An account-of thefe plants has been publiihed in Spain b y
Don Macario Farinas, who died in 1663, under the title o f “ Virtudes nuevamente defcubi-
ertas de las hierbas medicinales de la Sierra de Ronda.”
fifty