After crossing the Pyrenees, a very short time elapsed before the
Gypsy hordes had bivouacked in the principal provinces of Spain.
There can indeed be little doubt, that shortly after their arrival
they made themselves perfectly acquainted with all the secrets of
the land, and that there was scarcely a nook or retired corner
within Spain, from which the smoke of their fires had not arisen,
or where their cattle had not grazed. People, however, so acute as
they have always proverbially been, would scarcely be slow in
distinguishing the provinces most adapted to their manner of life,
and most calculated to afford them opportunities of practising
those arts to which they were mainly indebted for their
subsistence; the savage hills of Biscay, of Galicia, and the
Asturias, whose inhabitants were almost as poor as themselves,
which possessed no superior breed of horses or mules from amongst
which they might pick and purloin many a gallant beast, and having
transformed by their dexterous scissors, impose him again upon his
rightful master for a high price, - such provinces, where,
moreover, provisions were hard to be obtained, even by pilfering
hands, could scarcely be supposed to offer strong temptations to
these roving visitors to settle down in, or to vex and harass by a
long sojourn.

Valencia and Murcia found far more favour in their eyes; a far more
fertile soil, and wealthier inhabitants, were better calculated to
entice them; there was a prospect of plunder, and likewise a
prospect of safety and refuge, should the dogs of justice be roused
against them. If there were the populous town and village in those
lands, there was likewise the lone waste, and uncultivated spot, to
which they could retire when danger threatened them. Still more
suitable to them must have been La Mancha, a land of tillage, of