regions, the cause must be attributed to their residence in a
country unsound in every branch of its civil polity, where right
has ever been in less esteem, and wrong in less disrepute, than in
any other part of the world.

However, if the moral state of Spain was not calculated to have a
favourable effect on the habits and pursuits of the Gypsies, their
manners were as little calculated to operate beneficially, in any
point of view, on the country where they had lately arrived.
Divided into numerous bodies, frequently formidable in point of
number, their presence was an evil and a curse in whatever quarter
they directed their steps. As might be expected, the labourers,
who in all countries are the most honest, most useful, and
meritorious class, were the principal sufferers; their mules and
horses were stolen, carried away to distant fairs, and there
disposed of, perhaps, to individuals destined to be deprived of
them in a similar manner; whilst their flocks of sheep and goats
were laid under requisition to assuage the hungry cravings of these
thievish cormorants.

It was not uncommon for a large band or tribe to encamp in the
vicinity of a remote village scantily peopled, and to remain there
until, like a flight of locusts, they had consumed everything which
the inhabitants possessed for their support; or until they were
scared away by the approach of justice, or by an army of rustics
assembled from the surrounding country. Then would ensue the
hurried march; the women and children, mounted on lean but spirited
asses, would scour along the plains fleeter than the wind; ragged
and savage-looking men, wielding the scourge and goad, would
scamper by their side or close behind, whilst perhaps a small party