II.1.1 Packing the horses

Ever ambitious, Borrow originally planned to distribute no less than a quarter of the edition in the Northern provinces. ‘I will take with me 1200 copies,’ he wrote in his letter of 14 January 1837, ‘which I will engage to dispose of’ to the booksellers and individual clients of the north. This plan turned out to be too optimistic. At the end of the ride he only ‘moved’ 900 copies of the New Testament to the north, and only ‘disposed’ of some 700, either through direct sale to clients or by giving them in franchise to booksellers. The missing 200 copies had been dispatched from Madrid to Santander too late to reach him, and were ultimately returned to him (see II.2.2.x below).

Naturally Borrow did not transport all these 900 copies himself. His means of travelling did not allow this. The whole expedition consisted of only two riders (Borrow and his bizarre but extremely useful Greek man-servant Antonio Buchino19) and their two horses; and this constellation considerably limited the cargo which could be taken along. Although we may assume that Borrow and his companion packed only a bare minimum of personal belongings since they were planning to sleep and eat in the inns and taverns on the road, their mounts could barely be expected to carry much more than the riders themselves, the saddles, and the saddle-bags containing those personal belongings. Copies of the Scio New Testaments, at 472 grams apiece, were a heavy load to add.

Both considerations of travelling speed and of animal health compelled a 19th century horseman to keep cargoes as light as possible. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, an animal team is only as fast as the slowest horse, and any overloaded animal inevitably holds up the advance of the group. We see the problem illustrated on several occasions in The Bible in Spain, when Borrow, growing impatient, somewhat callously rides ahead of Antonio, whose horse apparently was slower [e.g. BiS ch 24 and 26].

Even more importantly, however, a badly packed horse would soon fall sick and become an encumbrance. Especially when travelling over the sort of broken ground and bridle paths that made up Spain’s transport network in the 1830s, it was of supreme importance not to overcharge the beasts, because – as Long Rider Jean-Louis Gouraud once put it – ‘it is not the kilometres that hurt the horse, but the kilograms.’ A horse made to carry more than its share, or one whose load was packed unbalanced, would soon become exhausted or develop a saddle sore which injured the withers. This implied visits to the vet (if there was one) and lengthy periods of recuperation, spent in places where one did not wish to stay at all.

Today’s modern horse-travellers out on a long or difficult journey tend to limit the load of the ‘road horse’ (as the rider’s own mount used to be called in the 19th century) to the absolute minimum, one rule of thumb saying that a horse should never be made to carry more than 1/5 of its own weight, the rider included. When more weight must be transported, or in cases of doubt, they prefer to use an additional pack-animal which gets to carry up to some 45 kilos, although for short weekend trips the cargo may be increased to double that weight. Travelling at a speed of 7 or 8 km per hour, a team will then travel some 35 to 40 km a day over normal ground, and between 15 and 25 km over rough or mountainous country.

In former days, however, when times were less sentimental, horses a little sturdier, and worn-down pack-animals easier to replace, the limits seem to have been pushed a bit higher. Professional Spanish transporters of the early 19th century typically loaded the ‘caballeria menor’ (probably donkeys and ponies) with some 60 to 75 kilos to negotiate between 40 or 45 kilometres daily; while what was called ‘caballeria mayor’ (horses and mules) might get to carry from 90 to 115 kilograms to cover the same daily distance. Perhaps more illustrative for the present context, however, are the Asturian arrieros, who transported commodities the whole 450 kilometres from the north coast of the Peninsula to Madrid, over the often steep Cantabrian mountain range, very much comparable ground to that which Borrow and Antonio had to cover. In order to perform this journey successfully in some 12 to 20 days (between 37.5 and 22.5 km daily), these men would load a male pack-horse with only 70 to 80 kilos, or some two-thirds of the above weights20.

Borrow, who was an expert horseman, planned his Northern Journey with great care and much in advance. Originally, he had wanted to purchase mules for the journey, but he had a change of heart due to their high price in these times of war and the logistical trouble they caused. As he wrote to his employers at an early date: ‘I confess I would sooner provide myself with mules, but they are very expensive creatures. In the first place, the original cost of a tolerable one amounts to 30 pounds [about 3,000 reales – PM]; and they, moreover, consume a vast quantity of fodder, at least two pecks of barley in the twenty-four hours with straw in proportion, and if they are stinted in their food they are of no manner of service; the attendance which they require is likewise very irksome, as they must be fed once every four hours night and day’ [L 14.1.1837]. A month later he still reported that ‘I wished to purchase a mule, according to my instructions, but though I offered 30 pounds for a sorry one, I could not obtain her’ [L 27.2.1837]. So in the end he decided to make do without pack-animals, and instead to purchase for a mere 3,000 reales in total, two well-picked, sturdy road horses, which might be able to make the trip despite the difficult going and the heavy load they’d have to carry.

The first of these, which cost him only 900 reales [Acc 5; L 14.1.1837] was the sturdy bay horse of an Andalusian smuggler with whom he had travelled from Córdoba to Madrid in December 1836 [BiS ch 18]. It must have been quite an animal, for Borrow boasted of it – with perhaps just a touch of hyperbole – that it was ‘an exceedingly strong, useful animal,’ able to go ‘twelve leagues a day with ease, and carry three hundred-weight on its back’ [L 14.1.1837], i.e. cover 65 km daily while carrying 150 kilos. Outdoing himself still a little more, he wrote a month later to his Danish friend Hasfeld, that the animal ‘will go 12 leagues a day and carry 200 pounds weight besides its rider’ [Fraser, Hasfeld, 22]! We can only assume this was a horse the like of which has not been seen since!

The other animal, a splendid black Andalusian steed which he planned to ride himself, he got by chance for a most reasonable 2,100 reales [Acc 5]. As he explained to his employers in late February: ‘about a fortnight since I purchased another horse, for these animals are at present exceedingly cheap. A royal requisition is about to be issued for 5,000, and the consequence is that an immense number are for sale; for by virtue of this requisition the horses of any person not a foreigner can be seized for the benefit of the service. (…) He is a black Andalusian stallion of great size and strength, and capable of performing a journey of 100 leagues in a week’s time [i.e. 560 km or 80 km daily! – PM], but he is unbroke, savage and furious. However, a cargo of Bibles which I hope shortly to put on his back will, I have no doubt, thoroughly tame him, especially when labouring up the flinty hills of the north of Spain’ [L 27.2.1837].

Since we do not know how much either Antonio or Borrow weighed we cannot determine exactly what additional cargo these two animals could be expected to carry. Antonio, who was ‘somewhat above the middle stature’ [BiS ch 19] may have come to 65 or 70 kilos; while Borrow himself, with his 1 m 85 and his (later) tendency to obesity, must have weighed well over 8021. Supposing that Borrow’s boasts about the two horses did indeed come near the truth, Antonio’s grey bay horse might have carried another 70 kilos, while Borrow’s Andalusian could perhaps have been loaded with an extra 60. This estimate would, in principle, open the possibility that the two men transported the whole necessary cargo of New Testaments themselves; for it can be calculated that Borrow, when riding forth from Madrid, took along 200 copies of the book, i.e. some 95 kilos in total, or 47.5 kilos per horse.

This number of 200 copies is a conjecture; but it squares up well with what we know of Borrow’s private sales during the first leg of the trip (see II.1.2.a below); and is in perfect keeping with his later, well-documented habit of taking along, or sending before him, batches of 200 Testaments when setting out on Bible-peddling expeditions. Thus, when going to the Sagra region in July 1838 (see III.2.1), he sent before him 200 copies, and when these were all sold off, ordered a new batch of 200 to be brought to him from Madrid. On the next excursion to Ocaña in early August 1838 (see III.2.2), he sent a servant ahead of him with slightly more than 250 New Testaments. To distribute in the regions north-west of Madrid in September 1839 (see III.2.4) he had a chest with 200 Testaments delivered to him in Segovia, which he then moved into the countryside on the backs of three donkeys. Likewise he sold ‘nearly 200 testaments’ to the east of Madrid in early 1839 (see III.3.3). And finally, when, towards the end of his mission, circumstances forced him to smuggle an illegal stock of Testaments into Seville so as to be able to distribute at all, it consisted, once again, of slightly over 200 copies (see III.4.1)22.

The total weight of rider, personal luggage and books, put on the horses’ backs, would then amount to some 120 to 130 kilos, a load which a truly good road horse might perhaps just be able to carry for a few days at the outset of the journey, even over the difficult Sierra de Guadarrama mountains which they had to negotiate to reach Salamanca, the first important city on their route. However, to put this strain on any horse is so very devoid of wisdom that it becomes nearly unthinkable that a fine horseman like Borrow would have chosen to do so. Not only the sheer weight would exhaust the animals within a few days; but the bulk of the cargo of books, lifted on top of the saddlebags, would make it extremely difficult for the rider to swing his leg over the burden, and would trap him dangerously in the saddle. Furthermore, there was a vast chance that such a load would become unbalanced, which quickly would inflict injury on the very sensitive loins and kidneys of the animal23.

Consequently, it makes sense to consider alternative ways in which the cargo of books may have been transported; and as it happens there is one vague indication that on Borrow’s Northern Journey the books were transported in a chest and sent before him from town to town by courier. This indication is a chat which Borrow had with a sullen Maragato, or inhabitant of Astorga [BiS ch 23], where the muleteer is made to say: ‘Tomorrow I set out for Lugo, whither I am told yourself are going. If you wish to send your chest, I have no objection to take it at so much (naming an extravagant price).’ One may of course doubt the relevance of this remark; but Borrow had no real reason to put an unrealistic or nonsensical word into the mouth of one of his characters, and as already observed above: he often sent larger batches of books ahead of him on his later expeditions, so that he would not have to transport them himself. At the same time, he may have carried a small number of New Testaments along with him on horseback, so as to be able to sell them in the villages which he passed, something which then explains his assurance that ‘a cargo of Bibles which I hope shortly to put on his back’ would ‘thoroughly tame’ his wild Andalusian steed [L 27.2.1837].

Although we cannot tell how many books the horses were then called upon to carry next to the rider and his personal luggage, there is no doubt that the effort did ‘tame’ the Andalusian, for he was dead before the year was out. The poor animal fell sick after only two months of travelling, so that Borrow decided to sell him in Coruña, where soon after he ‘glandered and died’ [BiS ch 26 and 31]. Antonio’s bay horse, by the looks of it, made it all the way to Galicia and back, but suffered terribly as well [BiS ch 31; L 29.9.1837]. Most tellingly, Borrow commented with his final expense account on the Northern Journey that ‘I have been subjected to many expenses which I have not specified in the account (…) particularly farriers’ bills, as the poor horses were continually ailing from over-work, bad provender and falls received amongst the mountains’ [L 20.11.1837]. As I have argued elsewhere24, Borrow cared deeply for his animals and treated them well; but even he could not avoid the terrible wear and tear of travel in Spain in the 1830s.